Ryan and I got into a little discussion about this in #music, so I figured I might as well let it spill over here. The question is obvious: who are your favorite US presidents? I'd prefer you pick at least your top three and elaborate on why you like them so much.
I picked my top 3 based on who I believe did some of the best good for America as a whole. As I am not familiar with much of American history before 1900, my view is slightly narrowed, since many of the first few presidents did the most for America blah blah, but I thought it would be tacky of me to pick GEORGE WASHINGTON or something.
1.
Woodrow Wilson (1913-1921)
Reasons I think he is awesome:
- Fourteen Points - An amazing set of guidelines that would have prevented the current conflict in the Middle East had France and Britain not totally ignored them.
- Advocation of US military force to aid other nations in struggles for liberty, stability, democracy, and the dissolution of formal imperialism.
- Free trade and anti-trust laws.
- Winning World War 1
Reasons I don't think he is so awesome:
- Racist, but it was 1913 and he was from the South, so keep it in perspective.
- Socialist. Granted this is a perfectly fine position to hold, it just doesn't agree with my views on economics.
2.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
Things I like:
- New Deal. Not much out there is more awesome than pulling a country out of the worst depression in history.
- World War 2
- Four fucking terms. I criticize some of his stuff heavily, but I can't deny the man was amazing and the major things he did far outweigh the things I don't like about him.
Things I don't:
- New Deal. lol it is here twice. Same thing with Wilson; I am obviously not a socialist. I do, however, recognize how beneficial it was, which is why I counted it up top.
- Isolationism. I'll grant you that once we got bombed he jumped on the gun but Jesus man, EVIL DICTATORS RUNNING AMOK IN EUROPE. EUROPE.
- Japanese Internment. That was just mean and abusive of power.
3.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Like:
- Interstate system. I don't think we would be in as good of shape as we are today, all things considered, if we did not have this amazing system to move us (and our consumer goods) from one place to another.
- Cooperation with the left. No one party has a monopoly on good ideas. Seems to me like after Eisenhower the republicans and democrats began to drift further and further apart and stopped listening to one another.
- His work against racism.
Don't:
- Ignored the ridiculousness of McCarthyism.
- Intervention in the Middle East. It seems to me that overall his actions in the Middle East made things worse, backing this side and that in civil conflicts and throwing around American weight with no beneficial gains to either other countries or America.
Runners up would probably be
Nixon and
Truman. Yes, I already got into a discussion with Ryan about Nixon, so if you want to know why I picked him, talk to me on IRC.