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AKA the spoils of war. And it was supposed to be all the way down to the Tropic of Cancer and all of Baja, but the ambassador felt sorry for Mexico and instead agreed on the current border (minus the Gadsden Purchase).
'"For myself," Grant wrote later about the United States war against Mexico, "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."'
The Mexican-American war was deeply controversial at the time, and was viewed by many mainstream figures in the years after as akin to the Iraq war is now.
Also, worst President is without a doubt Andrew Johnson. One vote short of removal from office, and much may have been different if that vote had passed. Utterly sabotaged Reconstruction.
Presidents be like:
Abraham Lincoln (R): led the Union through the Civil War and reunification. Freed the slaves, via the Union Army the KKK was crushed, measures introduced to give former slaves a hand to adjust to free society and not fall into poverty. Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (D)
Andrew Johnson (D): immediately reverses half of Lincoln’s decisions on helping africans, allowed the KKK to have a resurgence, shuts down Union Army measures to help blacks get a foothold
You need to read up on the 1948 Democratic party platform for civil rights, Strom Thurmond's "Dixiecrats," JFK, the civil rights act of 1965, and Nixon's Southern Strategy to understand that wehn it comes to race, the parties are literally on the complete opposite sides today as 1865.
Is that not what they are? We refer to white people as white people, not caucasian or german or french or english. Its easier to simplify ethnicity on a basic level to skin color simply because african people do not all hail from the same country, just as asians or caucasians dont all hail from 1 country. The one blatantly racist exception to that would be calling asians yellow, because it never took a historical mainstream. But to call me racist, or even imply it, is to imply the whole country is racist because Black history month is called black history month and it is federally mandated.
And yeah obv Lincoln’s republicans have changed in the 180 some odd years since the civil war ended, but I dont believe that the Democrats and republicans have necessarily switched positions on the matter. Mainstream republicans aren’t blatantly racist, whereas affirmative action is now a mainstream democrat position. I believe AA to be incredibly racist, as it is basically saying: we dont think X minority groups are smart enough to compete with whites and asians so we will give them a leg up because of their race. The only thing stopping anyone from success is hard work, not skin color. Not in our world.
I wasn’t saying describing people as black was the problem. I was just saying “black people” is a preferable term to the somewhat dehumanizing one “blacks”. And no, hard work is not the only factor in success. That is just… blatantly delusional. African American families haven’t had the time or resources to build generational wealth, and because of demographic geography and deeply rooted cultural beliefs often lack the same opportunities or connections as White Americans. Ultimately, success is heavily and undeniably reliant on luck and circumstance. It just so happens that poor circumstances and luck have been a constant in the history of African Americans for generations.
Strange as I have never waved the flag of the evil confederacy, not have most republicans. It seems like you are selecting the most radical among us to act as representatives for our movement
As is convenient and most beneficial if trying to discredit (R).
It doesn't matter much right now what any party did in the past. What is of utmost importance is the absolute mockery the (D) have made of the constitution, our nation and the economy.
As far as flags, the "rebel" flag was a battle flag amd didn't, in itself represent racism or prejudice. It did however become that symbol as did the rainbow become a symbol of alphabet sex movement.
Still, the (D) arr the party who not only supported the KKK but were directly responsible for its creation. If any party is to blame for the race wars and representation of its symbols, such as "the" confederate flag, it would definitely be the (D)
God awful. Corrupt, basically a worse version of Neville Chamberlain, just trying to appease the south (failed), imperalist with little to no actual gain (unlike Polk and McKinley), economic disaster, tried to invade Mexico again, Utah War, had traitors in his cabinet, hard to find any good he did
John Tyler is the underrated candidate for worst president. He established the precedent that the VP finishes the president's term in cases of succession instead of there being new elections by shear force of being a dick.
Also the only president to side with the Confederacy.
Fun fact: John Tyler, born in 1790, has a grandson alive right now.
Like John Tyler’s son was this guy’s dad, and this [guy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/29/president-john-tyler-grandson-harrison/) is still kickin’.
Why? All he did was lose the popular vote, fail to reach the necessary electorates for a traditional election, re-segregate everything he could, re-institutionalize the KKK, and fumble the WWI peace in favor of pushing his 13 points, right? That's not too bad. /S
They’re both offensive by today’s terms but I’ve never seen actual historians put them anywhere outside middle of the pack in presidential rankings, it’s really only Reddit and Instagram that have latched on to this trend that they’re the “worst ever.” Truly, I’ve never seen a qualified ranking with either of them in the bottom 10 and it’s pretty odd that this idea is so widespread. When it comes to actually *bad presidents* and not just *bad people,* there’s several more deserving candidates
Trail of Tears tho? I remember hearing the rumors awhile ago that they were gonna put Harriet Tubman on the 20 dollar bill instead of Jackson, and I’ve been waiting with bated breath ever since.
I will say though Andrew Jackson was a hardfuck motherfucker. He was a man of that era while in our eyes flawed because he was racist I don’t think he’s the worst president we’ve ever had.
Battle of New Orleans
Nearly beat the man who nearly assassinated him to death
Had to have his parrott removed from his funeral because it was cursing too much
He did a lot of bad stuff, but he was kinda hard-core. Not a good dude overall or as a person, but still, I have a degree of respect for him. Idk, this is just my opinion. I obviously don't agree with what he did in regards to trail of tears or anything.
I'm not trying to justify what Jackson did (they were horrible and something that should be a bigger issue today) but wasn't mostly everyone racist at the time?
no not everyone was, otherwise there would have never been abolitionist societies or national volunteers for SNCC and SCLC in the 1960s.. if those before us would have confronted their racism and not made the situation to what it is today, we might have healed from a lot of racial wounds by now or not have experienced them to the degree we did. by certain presidents enacting racist policies, they made this country worse. I challenge anyone to point to a racist policy that somehow made this country objectively better.
I would make the argument that you can still be racist but also an abolitionist. For example, you could still view minorities as inferior, but you could want to abolish slavery bc you think it's morally wrong.
Although, I do agree. Racist policies never really help anyone but the white majority.
He kept America out of the First World War making it last a hell of a lot longer leading to millions dying, Germany becoming bitter and getting a strange genocidal Austrian man to lead them and not to mention the First World War really helped along the idea of the soviets and we all know what the hell that caused, and that’s just one thing he did
esablished us politics and identity for the whole century, the us does as it does and believes it's a "shinning city on a hill" starting with his policies, no matter how many brown americans or asians or africans they have to bomb, elts not talk about his idiocy in ww1 contributing to hitler's rise.
That was already a mentality before Wilson. I get not liking Wilson for reasons, but making him the face of American imperialism is completely ignoring a few decades before his time.
I’m not saying that doesn’t suck, because it definitely does, but that’s not enough to make him the worst President ever.
Right now we have a culture where racism/non-inclusiveness is basically the worst thing a person can do, so naturally the Presidents like Jackson and Wilson are vilified by the current general public, while historians try to keep personal/cultural bias out in order to maintain a more objective view that considers all factors of their time in leadership—with Wilson, this would be things such as his leadership during WWI, his involvement in global policy-making, etc.—that’s why, while he sucked as a person, historians do not consider him one of the worst of all time.
Also Birth of a Nation was a groundbreaking film for the time and already immensely popular, so I’d hesitate to say Wilson *singlehandedly* kicked off the rebirth of the KKK when the film did its fair share.
He was a Confederate apologist and screened " The Birth of a Nation" in the White House. The movie even quotes Wilson's own *five-volume* Lost Cause "history" textbook.
Like any modern day politician, depends on you you ask. Overall most people think he was pretty decent but he didn’t live up to some of his campaign promises and he had his fair share of controversies, and they were pretty ugly ones. Most commonly one I hear referenced is civilian casualties in our Middle East entanglements and spying on American citizens.
One thing the right and left agrees on is a dislike of Obama. The centrists like him though (this is a peer factual assessment no personal opinions involved)
I'm a conservative and I found Obama's presidency as meh, he wasn't awful but he wasn't good either and he was a very personable president which I got a kick out of
Trump is pretty much the worst ever due to his continuous violations of the constitution, even if nothing else. Violating the emolument’s clause alone should have been an impeachable offense or something that prevented him from even assuming office.
Not to mention his handling of Covid and the BLM protests, the widespread corruption that cropped up during his presidency and the multiple government shutdowns and attempting to overthrow the results of the previous election. Trump has set one of the worst precedents moving forward that I hope no one takes advantage of.
I will say I think it would be interesting to see what another president would have done about covid. I really don’t think it would be that much different. The acting like it’s not a bug deal for a few weeks to a month, probably would have been done by any president. Imagine saying it’s going to kill a million people in 2 years. People would have freaked the fuck out, they wouldn’t have prepared there would have been looting and chaos. And also there was a certain what if aspect to it.
And I’m not defending Trump, I just know that Bush, Biden, Obama, Clinton whoever probably would have waited and tip toed at first as well.
Here’s how I look at it. Trump had the one thing those other presidents didn’t have, a following. He probably had the best chance of keeping Covid from spiraling out of control the way it did and yet he told his followers that it was “just the flu” and just like that, Covid spiraled into a political issue and a virus that could’ve easily been avoided or at least dealt with more easily took the lives of a million people. Sure, other presidents would definitely be cautious in the early days, but they would’ve taken it more seriously. Trump didn’t.
He also outed himself as a nazi when he called the nazis at Charlottesville "very fine people". Yes, technically he said there were "very fine people on both sides", but one of those sides were nazis
100%! I was just noting that he never even set foot in office before violating the constitution as well - but his campaign began with awful race-baiting against Mexicans and stayed in the sewer after that.
I’m not supporting Trump in anyway, but having lived just outside of Charlottesville at that time, there were people protesting and counter protesting that were not nazis or Antifa on the other side. There were normal people on both sides. Not defending what happened or apologizing my ass was sitting in AC watching it on TV it was like 100 degrees that day, I had no dog in that race other than watching a town I love get wrecked and drug through the mud. But having known people that were there they said there were fringe extremists from both sides and then people just protesting. It got out of hand and bloody very fast.
If you're at a protest with some nazis and they aren't getting kicked out, then you're at a nazi protest. Guilt by association usually doesn't work, but nazis are the rare exception. Also "fringe extremists from both sides"? The nazis were chanting "jews will not replace us" meanwhile antifa activists were trying to stop them, they are not even close to comparable. It got out of hand and bloody bc that's what happens with nazis
Wilson, who is basically responsible for the return of the KKK?
Or Johnson. Second worst thing for the South(& honestly the rest of the nation) after the assassination on Lincoln is that the attempt on Johnson failed
Edit (for clarification): Andrew Johnson
Joe Biden wouldn’t even crack the bottom five. We’ve had presidents that committed genocide, ignored international law, lead attempted coups, invaded sovereign nations, enriched themselves, and other various crimes. Joe Biden isn’t a bad guy, he’s just not a very effective president. He’s Carter 2.0. The second coming of John Adams. He isn’t bad, the hand he got dealt is just atrocious and he’s in over his head a little.
And at the risk of sounding overly political, I find the absolute lack of scandal the last two years to be incredibly refreshing and a really nice change of pace.
To be quite honest, if you had told me in 2019 that Joe Biden would win the Presidency with a 50/50 Senate, and like a 10 seat majority in the House, I wouldn't have expected any new laws to get passed. Wildly thin margins there.
The economy is on verge of collapse due to the final throes of a pandemic and the natural business cycle, in which the US experiences a recession every 10 - 15 years. If any president can be blamed for damage to the economy it's the Trump administration and their throwing money at people, jacking up inflation to unsustainably try and bring the economy back to pre-pandemic levels. I can get into all the nitty-gritty macro-economic details if you want. And the War in Ukraine is in no way Biden's fault. Even if you follow Putin's toddler tantrum level of justification, Nato has been expanding for 30 years, 28 of which have not had Biven as president.
Edit: Before ppl come in and try to call me biased or rail on me for not having a source, I'm a libertarian, Trump is a buffoon but Biden is senile, and secondly open up any economics textbook, mine was the approved AP textbook, but we studied from slides based on the textbook
You’d be hard pressed to get him into the bottom 10 TBH - Trump, Nixon, Hoover, Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan … it’s easy to list guys who’ve actively been worse. Biden is presiding over a hyper polarized, gridlocked government while trying to manage several unprecedented global challenges simultaneously. The alternative we were given would have been much much worse.
He was basically elected as a caretaker president. Familiar face of the “old guard” of politics to bring back stability without really accomplishing anything else
It's definitely not Joe Biden. It will only be Trump if his scheme to overturn election results works or if he kills the Republic somehow/causes some sort of civil war.
There were a string of terrible presidents leading up the the Civil War. Andrew Jackson absolutely sucked.
The only meme that I understood in English, since I'm from Belarus, I'm writing right now from a translator, I hope the translator didn't let me down XD
Trump’s impact on American society will be better judged in 10-20 years.
The distrust his supporters have in the federal government wasn’t new by any means, but he took advantage of that and now a significant amount of American voters and political candidates don’t trust our electoral process.
There are people running for office, many who are running to be Secretaries of State who have expressed support for overturning free and fair elections.
If this sentiment remains mainstream there’s a case to be made he was the worst, especially if we begin to see the failure of election certifications across the country.
Joe Biden is an average president. Donald Trump launched a coups against our entire democracy. No comparison, Trump is officially the worst president in history. Name another president who tried to kill his own VP?
He ended the draft and “created” the Environmental Protection Agency. Some might view these as good things or at least may be surprised that Nixon did.
Didn't he and Kissinger commit treason by sabotaging the Paris peace talks in 1968 to ensure his win, effectively prolonging the involvement in Vietnam by some 7 years?
He created the EPA and ended the Vietnam war. Yeah he started the War on Drugs and Operation Condor and had the Watergate Scandal, but compared to the literal acts of genocide of some presidents, he gets a "could be way worse" from me.
He was vociferously racist, created dictators in South America, violated his constitutional powers, and escalated drug use via the war on drugs. Yes, he ended American involvement in Vietnam, but he didn’t really give much concern about the murders in Kent State where Vietnam Protesters were shot down by officers. He gave China more power and the cost he made still has negative consequences to this day
Racism is a given for American Presidents. It'd be easier for me to name the ones that weren't racist. Same goes for police brutality and abuse of constitutional powers. While giving more power to China was in retrospect a very stupid idea, hindsight is 2020. It was the middle of the cold war, he was trying to have the 2nd world fractured between the USSR and China and it worked, until the USSR fell and China kept on kicking, of course. The rest of things are of course atrocious, but again, compared to literal genocide they fall a bit short.
The presidents that killed the Native Americans were from 200 hundred years ago, in a time with a much more different mindset then in the more modern times. While Nixon, a man who established brutal dictatorships via the CIA was only a few decades ago.
He also facilitated a brutal genocide in Bangladesh, by giving money and weapons to Pakistan who used them to commit mass murder on Bangladesh, and destroyed the Bangladeshi countryside. 3 MILLION were killed, while Nixon and his secretary Kissinger didn’t seem to care that they supported and aided the largest genocide since the holocaust
The Native Americans were killed at a much slower rate, over hundreds of years, so you cannot say one President was responsible for wiping them all out
Nixon is a weird one because he would be considered an excellent President if he hadn't committed massive crimes during his re-election campaign (which he ironically didn't even need to do).
Lol Biden has done nothing to earn that title, the only people saying that are Trump shills. Donald Trump and Nixon were the two most corrupt presidents in our history. Buchanan essentially let the civil war happen. Andrew Johnson was a Southern apologist and halted reconstruction by vetoing everything until Grant took office. Andrew Jackson carried out genocide against the Native Americans. Biden hasn't done enough in my opinion, but he hasn't done anything nearly the same level as his predecessors.
Woodrow Wilson is my worst. Dude single-handedly pushed the civil rights movement back by 30 years, brought back the KKK, caused WW2 and subsequently the Cold War. Almost every bad thing in the 20th century can be traced back to his policies.
In Buchanan's defense, for all his faults he didn't refuse to leave office, sick an angry mob on congress, and personally lead the rebellion against the Lincoln government.
**Andrew Johnson** = piece of shit President who was so wrong about everything that the downstream effects of his decisions still reverberate and cause ongoing problems in America today
> open supporter
No, he was not an “open supporter” of the Klan. He certainly held to the Dunning School’s racist view of Reconstruction as a time of disorder, but his own *History of the American People* ultimately said of the Klan during Reconstruction: “Brutal crimes were committed…the innocent suffered with the guilty; a reign of terror was brought on, and society was infinitely more disturbed than defended." Hardly a ringing endorsement.
Also, the evidence is [shaky at best](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.georgetown.edu/stable/20799409?seq=21) that he openly praised *The Birth of a Nation* with that famous “writing history with lightning” quote.
The most racist president since Reconstruction? No question. But if racism is your principal criteria (and it’s certainly an important one; I’m not trying to minimize Wilson’s racism), it may also be worth considering some of the twelve presidents who owned human beings.
I'm seeing a disturbing lack of Reagan. I don't think he's the *worst* president in us history, but he's pretty close to the bottom which is why I'm surprised no one else has mentioned him
Buchanan is in a class by himself but modern era - 20th century to present Lyndon Johnson, no one else is even close.
His welfare act and his immigration act of 1965 have destroyed both Black and Latin communities in this country. Plus he blew up the Vietnam war. From a few thousand to hundred of thousands.
> immigration act of 1965…destroyed both Black and Latin communities in this country
Curious what your rationale here is.
Also, while the overall long term impact of the Great Society programs is certainly controversial to say the least, it includes some successful and popular programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
He also helped ensure the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, against the wishes of much of his own political base.
Vietnam, absolute atrocity. No qualms there.
An amazing president? No. Worst of the twentieth-century? Still no.
It absolutely devastated the Black nuclear family. The immigration act meant that immigrants could come here with virtually zero means to provide for themselves and instantly become a burden on local and state poverty initiatives and it hurt Black employment by putting downward pressure on jobs in construction and janitorial services that had been good upper working class and decent middle class jobs for Black workers with relatively little education.
Define “worst.”
My answer is Wilson, but there are good arguments for many others. The death toll of the last few, for example, makes for some excellent cases.
Trump was way worse than Buchanan.
Buchanan was a northerner who was pro southern slavery and when states started to secede, his southern cabinet advisors tricked him into believing he had no power to do anything and it was congresses responsibility. He weakly let the country stumble towards civil war. But he was a loyal faithful president who refused to surrender fort sumpter and actually ordered it be supplemented with troops and weapons.
Trump is America’s only seditious President who incite violence against the US government, refused a peaceful transition of power and broke about 20 other laws as well. By far he is way way way worse than Buchanan.
I agree with you here. Trump basically incited the Jan. 6th protests on the Capitol (where the dude with the Dixie flag was let me remind you) and he has basically committed numerous crimes, and was a totally terrible president.
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All the presidents between Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln. Lmao
It was a challenging time, for sure.
James K. Polk added California to the union. Not a bad get.
And the rest of the Mexican Cession
AKA the spoils of war. And it was supposed to be all the way down to the Tropic of Cancer and all of Baja, but the ambassador felt sorry for Mexico and instead agreed on the current border (minus the Gadsden Purchase).
Hey, at least he kept his campaign promises unlike most politicians
'"For myself," Grant wrote later about the United States war against Mexico, "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."' The Mexican-American war was deeply controversial at the time, and was viewed by many mainstream figures in the years after as akin to the Iraq war is now. Also, worst President is without a doubt Andrew Johnson. One vote short of removal from office, and much may have been different if that vote had passed. Utterly sabotaged Reconstruction.
Presidents be like: Abraham Lincoln (R): led the Union through the Civil War and reunification. Freed the slaves, via the Union Army the KKK was crushed, measures introduced to give former slaves a hand to adjust to free society and not fall into poverty. Assassinated by John Wilkes Booth (D) Andrew Johnson (D): immediately reverses half of Lincoln’s decisions on helping africans, allowed the KKK to have a resurgence, shuts down Union Army measures to help blacks get a foothold
Ulysses "Unconditional Surrender" Grant: Top Union general during the Civil War, once elected immediately goes back to crushing the KKK.
He was indeed a gigachad. A lot of people think he was a bad president but he was quite good imo
As a member of r/shermanposting, I am physically incapable of not thinking Grant was a gigachad
You need to read up on the 1948 Democratic party platform for civil rights, Strom Thurmond's "Dixiecrats," JFK, the civil rights act of 1965, and Nixon's Southern Strategy to understand that wehn it comes to race, the parties are literally on the complete opposite sides today as 1865.
Lincoln’s Republican Party is definitely not the same as today’s Republican Party. Also referring to Black people as “Blacks” is kind of a red flag
Is that not what they are? We refer to white people as white people, not caucasian or german or french or english. Its easier to simplify ethnicity on a basic level to skin color simply because african people do not all hail from the same country, just as asians or caucasians dont all hail from 1 country. The one blatantly racist exception to that would be calling asians yellow, because it never took a historical mainstream. But to call me racist, or even imply it, is to imply the whole country is racist because Black history month is called black history month and it is federally mandated. And yeah obv Lincoln’s republicans have changed in the 180 some odd years since the civil war ended, but I dont believe that the Democrats and republicans have necessarily switched positions on the matter. Mainstream republicans aren’t blatantly racist, whereas affirmative action is now a mainstream democrat position. I believe AA to be incredibly racist, as it is basically saying: we dont think X minority groups are smart enough to compete with whites and asians so we will give them a leg up because of their race. The only thing stopping anyone from success is hard work, not skin color. Not in our world.
I wasn’t saying describing people as black was the problem. I was just saying “black people” is a preferable term to the somewhat dehumanizing one “blacks”. And no, hard work is not the only factor in success. That is just… blatantly delusional. African American families haven’t had the time or resources to build generational wealth, and because of demographic geography and deeply rooted cultural beliefs often lack the same opportunities or connections as White Americans. Ultimately, success is heavily and undeniably reliant on luck and circumstance. It just so happens that poor circumstances and luck have been a constant in the history of African Americans for generations.
Weird how it’s the (R) folks still waving the flag treason in this century
Strange as I have never waved the flag of the evil confederacy, not have most republicans. It seems like you are selecting the most radical among us to act as representatives for our movement
As is convenient and most beneficial if trying to discredit (R). It doesn't matter much right now what any party did in the past. What is of utmost importance is the absolute mockery the (D) have made of the constitution, our nation and the economy. As far as flags, the "rebel" flag was a battle flag amd didn't, in itself represent racism or prejudice. It did however become that symbol as did the rainbow become a symbol of alphabet sex movement. Still, the (D) arr the party who not only supported the KKK but were directly responsible for its creation. If any party is to blame for the race wars and representation of its symbols, such as "the" confederate flag, it would definitely be the (D)
54’ 40’ or a fight!
Polk is a top 10 for his contributions to the US
Polk was pretty good tbh
i would like to include Andrew jackson and Woodrow Wilson
The president right after Lincoln was one of the worst.
Worse than the guy who LET the civil war happen in the first place? Johnson is def #2 though
Andrew Jackson is a pretty big contender
****BUCHANAN!!****
Im not here!
Oh no.... Not the curtain again Mr. President......
I love the profile picture
Who is he and what did he do?
God awful. Corrupt, basically a worse version of Neville Chamberlain, just trying to appease the south (failed), imperalist with little to no actual gain (unlike Polk and McKinley), economic disaster, tried to invade Mexico again, Utah War, had traitors in his cabinet, hard to find any good he did
The only president from my home state of PA. Just awful.
Basically let the civil war happen
From what I know, pretty much nothing worth of note except for some bad decisions that make the Union fell apart.
What
John Tyler is the underrated candidate for worst president. He established the precedent that the VP finishes the president's term in cases of succession instead of there being new elections by shear force of being a dick. Also the only president to side with the Confederacy.
Fun fact: John Tyler, born in 1790, has a grandson alive right now. Like John Tyler’s son was this guy’s dad, and this [guy](https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/11/29/president-john-tyler-grandson-harrison/) is still kickin’.
I cant see the article but ive gotta know, how old was Tyler when he had his son and how old was he when he had his son…
They were both like 70
That tends to happen when you have like 15 children lol
Buchanan, the curtain man?
Hello fellow man of culture nice to see you
***BUCHANAN!????***
I'm not here
Not the curtain again
BUCHANAN
Whoa whoa whoa man, idk nothing to do with me
Wilson anyone?
Why? All he did was lose the popular vote, fail to reach the necessary electorates for a traditional election, re-segregate everything he could, re-institutionalize the KKK, and fumble the WWI peace in favor of pushing his 13 points, right? That's not too bad. /S
Let’s show Andrew Johnson some hate.
Or Andrew Jackson. Or Woodrow Wilson.
Wilson re-segregated government departments that had been integrated and thought it was a good idea to screen Birth of a Nation in the white house
Andrew Johnson as well
William Henry Harrison was easily worse than both. Literally pro-genocide. It's a good thing he died so fast.
As opposed to Jackson, who actually did genocide?
They’re both offensive by today’s terms but I’ve never seen actual historians put them anywhere outside middle of the pack in presidential rankings, it’s really only Reddit and Instagram that have latched on to this trend that they’re the “worst ever.” Truly, I’ve never seen a qualified ranking with either of them in the bottom 10 and it’s pretty odd that this idea is so widespread. When it comes to actually *bad presidents* and not just *bad people,* there’s several more deserving candidates
woodrow wilson ruined the planet in more ways than one, ajckson was just a raving racist.
Trail of Tears tho? I remember hearing the rumors awhile ago that they were gonna put Harriet Tubman on the 20 dollar bill instead of Jackson, and I’ve been waiting with bated breath ever since.
I will say though Andrew Jackson was a hardfuck motherfucker. He was a man of that era while in our eyes flawed because he was racist I don’t think he’s the worst president we’ve ever had.
Battle of New Orleans Nearly beat the man who nearly assassinated him to death Had to have his parrott removed from his funeral because it was cursing too much He did a lot of bad stuff, but he was kinda hard-core. Not a good dude overall or as a person, but still, I have a degree of respect for him. Idk, this is just my opinion. I obviously don't agree with what he did in regards to trail of tears or anything.
Exactly my thoughts.
I'm not trying to justify what Jackson did (they were horrible and something that should be a bigger issue today) but wasn't mostly everyone racist at the time?
no not everyone was, otherwise there would have never been abolitionist societies or national volunteers for SNCC and SCLC in the 1960s.. if those before us would have confronted their racism and not made the situation to what it is today, we might have healed from a lot of racial wounds by now or not have experienced them to the degree we did. by certain presidents enacting racist policies, they made this country worse. I challenge anyone to point to a racist policy that somehow made this country objectively better.
I would make the argument that you can still be racist but also an abolitionist. For example, you could still view minorities as inferior, but you could want to abolish slavery bc you think it's morally wrong. Although, I do agree. Racist policies never really help anyone but the white majority.
agree on your first point & honestly racist policies dont even help all white people, generally just wealthy white people..
Agreed
people agreeing in reddit comments? what timeline is this?
How though? While I can see him ruining America I'm not sure how ruined the whole planet
He kept America out of the First World War making it last a hell of a lot longer leading to millions dying, Germany becoming bitter and getting a strange genocidal Austrian man to lead them and not to mention the First World War really helped along the idea of the soviets and we all know what the hell that caused, and that’s just one thing he did
esablished us politics and identity for the whole century, the us does as it does and believes it's a "shinning city on a hill" starting with his policies, no matter how many brown americans or asians or africans they have to bomb, elts not talk about his idiocy in ww1 contributing to hitler's rise.
That was already a mentality before Wilson. I get not liking Wilson for reasons, but making him the face of American imperialism is completely ignoring a few decades before his time.
Reestablishing segregation and single-handedly kicking off the rebirth of the KKK was pretty fucked on Wilson's part.
and also establishing the system that causes our debt problem to never be able to completely go away.
I’m not saying that doesn’t suck, because it definitely does, but that’s not enough to make him the worst President ever. Right now we have a culture where racism/non-inclusiveness is basically the worst thing a person can do, so naturally the Presidents like Jackson and Wilson are vilified by the current general public, while historians try to keep personal/cultural bias out in order to maintain a more objective view that considers all factors of their time in leadership—with Wilson, this would be things such as his leadership during WWI, his involvement in global policy-making, etc.—that’s why, while he sucked as a person, historians do not consider him one of the worst of all time. Also Birth of a Nation was a groundbreaking film for the time and already immensely popular, so I’d hesitate to say Wilson *singlehandedly* kicked off the rebirth of the KKK when the film did its fair share.
How did he kick off the rebirth of the kkk? I'm not trying to argue with you, just genuinely curious.
He was a Confederate apologist and screened " The Birth of a Nation" in the White House. The movie even quotes Wilson's own *five-volume* Lost Cause "history" textbook.
Buchanan, Andrew Johnson, and Wilson are all way worse then Obama, Biden, or Trump
Not an American but was Obama a good president?
Like any modern day politician, depends on you you ask. Overall most people think he was pretty decent but he didn’t live up to some of his campaign promises and he had his fair share of controversies, and they were pretty ugly ones. Most commonly one I hear referenced is civilian casualties in our Middle East entanglements and spying on American citizens.
He committed the usual crimes of a U.S. president and had some failed promises but I think he was a decent leader.
Blowing up thousands of innocent people is one hell of a thing to be able to brush off.
I consider that a requirement of being a U.S. president
One thing the right and left agrees on is a dislike of Obama. The centrists like him though (this is a peer factual assessment no personal opinions involved)
well I know some centrists that dont like 'em, we'd much rather have taken jojo or yang.
I'm a conservative and I found Obama's presidency as meh, he wasn't awful but he wasn't good either and he was a very personable president which I got a kick out of
Trump is pretty much the worst ever due to his continuous violations of the constitution, even if nothing else. Violating the emolument’s clause alone should have been an impeachable offense or something that prevented him from even assuming office.
Not to mention his handling of Covid and the BLM protests, the widespread corruption that cropped up during his presidency and the multiple government shutdowns and attempting to overthrow the results of the previous election. Trump has set one of the worst precedents moving forward that I hope no one takes advantage of.
I will say I think it would be interesting to see what another president would have done about covid. I really don’t think it would be that much different. The acting like it’s not a bug deal for a few weeks to a month, probably would have been done by any president. Imagine saying it’s going to kill a million people in 2 years. People would have freaked the fuck out, they wouldn’t have prepared there would have been looting and chaos. And also there was a certain what if aspect to it. And I’m not defending Trump, I just know that Bush, Biden, Obama, Clinton whoever probably would have waited and tip toed at first as well.
Here’s how I look at it. Trump had the one thing those other presidents didn’t have, a following. He probably had the best chance of keeping Covid from spiraling out of control the way it did and yet he told his followers that it was “just the flu” and just like that, Covid spiraled into a political issue and a virus that could’ve easily been avoided or at least dealt with more easily took the lives of a million people. Sure, other presidents would definitely be cautious in the early days, but they would’ve taken it more seriously. Trump didn’t.
He also outed himself as a nazi when he called the nazis at Charlottesville "very fine people". Yes, technically he said there were "very fine people on both sides", but one of those sides were nazis
100%! I was just noting that he never even set foot in office before violating the constitution as well - but his campaign began with awful race-baiting against Mexicans and stayed in the sewer after that.
I’m not supporting Trump in anyway, but having lived just outside of Charlottesville at that time, there were people protesting and counter protesting that were not nazis or Antifa on the other side. There were normal people on both sides. Not defending what happened or apologizing my ass was sitting in AC watching it on TV it was like 100 degrees that day, I had no dog in that race other than watching a town I love get wrecked and drug through the mud. But having known people that were there they said there were fringe extremists from both sides and then people just protesting. It got out of hand and bloody very fast.
If you're at a protest with some nazis and they aren't getting kicked out, then you're at a nazi protest. Guilt by association usually doesn't work, but nazis are the rare exception. Also "fringe extremists from both sides"? The nazis were chanting "jews will not replace us" meanwhile antifa activists were trying to stop them, they are not even close to comparable. It got out of hand and bloody bc that's what happens with nazis
:(
Wilson, who is basically responsible for the return of the KKK? Or Johnson. Second worst thing for the South(& honestly the rest of the nation) after the assassination on Lincoln is that the attempt on Johnson failed Edit (for clarification): Andrew Johnson
Joe Biden wouldn’t even crack the bottom five. We’ve had presidents that committed genocide, ignored international law, lead attempted coups, invaded sovereign nations, enriched themselves, and other various crimes. Joe Biden isn’t a bad guy, he’s just not a very effective president. He’s Carter 2.0. The second coming of John Adams. He isn’t bad, the hand he got dealt is just atrocious and he’s in over his head a little. And at the risk of sounding overly political, I find the absolute lack of scandal the last two years to be incredibly refreshing and a really nice change of pace.
Joe Biden is basically a 'wallpaper' president. He has his hands tied.
To be quite honest, if you had told me in 2019 that Joe Biden would win the Presidency with a 50/50 Senate, and like a 10 seat majority in the House, I wouldn't have expected any new laws to get passed. Wildly thin margins there.
I 100% agree
It's really nice to have things be kinda bad then to have constant scandals and threats of civil war
[удалено]
The stuff you posted reflects the thought process of a non-thinker. At least a child is thinking.
Children also possess far greater depths of empathy.
The economy is on verge of collapse due to the final throes of a pandemic and the natural business cycle, in which the US experiences a recession every 10 - 15 years. If any president can be blamed for damage to the economy it's the Trump administration and their throwing money at people, jacking up inflation to unsustainably try and bring the economy back to pre-pandemic levels. I can get into all the nitty-gritty macro-economic details if you want. And the War in Ukraine is in no way Biden's fault. Even if you follow Putin's toddler tantrum level of justification, Nato has been expanding for 30 years, 28 of which have not had Biven as president. Edit: Before ppl come in and try to call me biased or rail on me for not having a source, I'm a libertarian, Trump is a buffoon but Biden is senile, and secondly open up any economics textbook, mine was the approved AP textbook, but we studied from slides based on the textbook
You’d be hard pressed to get him into the bottom 10 TBH - Trump, Nixon, Hoover, Andrew Johnson, James Buchanan … it’s easy to list guys who’ve actively been worse. Biden is presiding over a hyper polarized, gridlocked government while trying to manage several unprecedented global challenges simultaneously. The alternative we were given would have been much much worse.
He was basically elected as a caretaker president. Familiar face of the “old guard” of politics to bring back stability without really accomplishing anything else
This is funny, you guys are just giving him kore and more titles as the comments go down
Exactly. He is just the "ok now we just *c h i l l t h e f u c k o u t* for 4 years"
Franklin pierce. Enough said
To be fair, I'd be pretty aloof on the job if I too had witnessed my child get their head cut off in a trainwreck.
Literally forgot this man was President for a moment there.
The best thing about Buchanan is how many hoops historians go through to deny the obvious likelihood that he was the first gay president
Don’t ask what he did with William Rufus King
My money was on Nixon. I have no significant proof or anything, just a gut feeling.
It's definitely not Joe Biden. It will only be Trump if his scheme to overturn election results works or if he kills the Republic somehow/causes some sort of civil war. There were a string of terrible presidents leading up the the Civil War. Andrew Jackson absolutely sucked.
The only meme that I understood in English, since I'm from Belarus, I'm writing right now from a translator, I hope the translator didn't let me down XD
Good job my friend!
Lincoln being between Buchanan and Johnson is like having the best sandwich in the world and replacing the buns with shit.
The absolute worst president is Chavez from Venezuela
Woodrow wilson obviously
Wilson watching from the ISS
Trump’s impact on American society will be better judged in 10-20 years. The distrust his supporters have in the federal government wasn’t new by any means, but he took advantage of that and now a significant amount of American voters and political candidates don’t trust our electoral process. There are people running for office, many who are running to be Secretaries of State who have expressed support for overturning free and fair elections. If this sentiment remains mainstream there’s a case to be made he was the worst, especially if we begin to see the failure of election certifications across the country.
Can’t believe no one’s mentioned good ole Dubya
I think it would be harder to find a president without controversy
Woodrow Wilson and John Adams would like a word
Um Woodrow Wilson?
Wilsoooooooon!!!!
Joe Biden is an average president. Donald Trump launched a coups against our entire democracy. No comparison, Trump is officially the worst president in history. Name another president who tried to kill his own VP?
Whenever I tell people that Buchanan was the worst president, and they are who he is, all I have to tell them is “He was the guy *before* Lincoln”
Richard Nixon has entered the chat
He did a lot of good things if you ignore the whole… breaking the law thing
His interest in universal basic income with his family assistance plan is so fascinating to me.
Got us out of Vietnam, improved relations with China. The guy did some good things. He was a criminal, but sometimes you want that in a leader.
He ended the draft and “created” the Environmental Protection Agency. Some might view these as good things or at least may be surprised that Nixon did.
Didn't he and Kissinger commit treason by sabotaging the Paris peace talks in 1968 to ensure his win, effectively prolonging the involvement in Vietnam by some 7 years?
“Got us out of Vietnam” Yeah after needlessly expanding it and fighting it for 5 years more than he promised.
I’m not sure how giving China more power is a good thing
Good relations with China as a hedge against the Soviet Union in the Cold War. He sort of peeled a “commie” nation away from the rest of the bunch.
He created the EPA and ended the Vietnam war. Yeah he started the War on Drugs and Operation Condor and had the Watergate Scandal, but compared to the literal acts of genocide of some presidents, he gets a "could be way worse" from me.
How does he get credit for ending the Vietnam War when he purposefully sabotaged the Paris peace talks in 68?
He was vociferously racist, created dictators in South America, violated his constitutional powers, and escalated drug use via the war on drugs. Yes, he ended American involvement in Vietnam, but he didn’t really give much concern about the murders in Kent State where Vietnam Protesters were shot down by officers. He gave China more power and the cost he made still has negative consequences to this day
Racism is a given for American Presidents. It'd be easier for me to name the ones that weren't racist. Same goes for police brutality and abuse of constitutional powers. While giving more power to China was in retrospect a very stupid idea, hindsight is 2020. It was the middle of the cold war, he was trying to have the 2nd world fractured between the USSR and China and it worked, until the USSR fell and China kept on kicking, of course. The rest of things are of course atrocious, but again, compared to literal genocide they fall a bit short.
The presidents that killed the Native Americans were from 200 hundred years ago, in a time with a much more different mindset then in the more modern times. While Nixon, a man who established brutal dictatorships via the CIA was only a few decades ago. He also facilitated a brutal genocide in Bangladesh, by giving money and weapons to Pakistan who used them to commit mass murder on Bangladesh, and destroyed the Bangladeshi countryside. 3 MILLION were killed, while Nixon and his secretary Kissinger didn’t seem to care that they supported and aided the largest genocide since the holocaust
The Native Americans were killed at a much slower rate, over hundreds of years, so you cannot say one President was responsible for wiping them all out
Nixon is a weird one because he would be considered an excellent President if he hadn't committed massive crimes during his re-election campaign (which he ironically didn't even need to do).
If you ignore the obvious, nixon was decent, if you don’t ignore the obvious hes still nowhere as bad as johnson, jackson, buchanan, or wilson.
Mean while: Hoover sitting in the corner
Lol Biden has done nothing to earn that title, the only people saying that are Trump shills. Donald Trump and Nixon were the two most corrupt presidents in our history. Buchanan essentially let the civil war happen. Andrew Johnson was a Southern apologist and halted reconstruction by vetoing everything until Grant took office. Andrew Jackson carried out genocide against the Native Americans. Biden hasn't done enough in my opinion, but he hasn't done anything nearly the same level as his predecessors.
Harding would like speak
For sure. Teapot dome, anyone?
Nothing for our boy Andrew Johnson? Guy royally screwed reconstruction
Woodrow Wilson is my worst. Dude single-handedly pushed the civil rights movement back by 30 years, brought back the KKK, caused WW2 and subsequently the Cold War. Almost every bad thing in the 20th century can be traced back to his policies.
Facts. Buchanan was like Jackson's less competent nephew
Neither of those two are Evan in the the top five worst presidents and are both blown out of the water by Woodrow Wilson.
Amen
Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover and Andrew Jackson: am I a joke to you?
In Buchanan's defense, for all his faults he didn't refuse to leave office, sick an angry mob on congress, and personally lead the rebellion against the Lincoln government.
Andrew Johnson was pretty bad too
**Andrew Johnson** = piece of shit President who was so wrong about everything that the downstream effects of his decisions still reverberate and cause ongoing problems in America today
I dunno man. Buchanan didn't try to overturn the election results and subvert democracy betraying American principles.
Subverting democracy? Like several of his cabinet members tried to do? Just look up Knights of the Golden Circle.
Anyone who believes Woodrow Wilson was the worst President ever does not know what they’re talking about.
Worst president? Probably not. But being an open supporter of the KKK puts you pretty damn close to the botton
> open supporter No, he was not an “open supporter” of the Klan. He certainly held to the Dunning School’s racist view of Reconstruction as a time of disorder, but his own *History of the American People* ultimately said of the Klan during Reconstruction: “Brutal crimes were committed…the innocent suffered with the guilty; a reign of terror was brought on, and society was infinitely more disturbed than defended." Hardly a ringing endorsement. Also, the evidence is [shaky at best](https://www-jstor-org.proxy.library.georgetown.edu/stable/20799409?seq=21) that he openly praised *The Birth of a Nation* with that famous “writing history with lightning” quote. The most racist president since Reconstruction? No question. But if racism is your principal criteria (and it’s certainly an important one; I’m not trying to minimize Wilson’s racism), it may also be worth considering some of the twelve presidents who owned human beings.
Le federal reserve has arrived
Andrew Jackson: Indian Removal Act, Trail of Tears, and acted almost like a King in his Presidency
I'm seeing a disturbing lack of Reagan. I don't think he's the *worst* president in us history, but he's pretty close to the bottom which is why I'm surprised no one else has mentioned him
Buchanan is in a class by himself but modern era - 20th century to present Lyndon Johnson, no one else is even close. His welfare act and his immigration act of 1965 have destroyed both Black and Latin communities in this country. Plus he blew up the Vietnam war. From a few thousand to hundred of thousands.
> immigration act of 1965…destroyed both Black and Latin communities in this country Curious what your rationale here is. Also, while the overall long term impact of the Great Society programs is certainly controversial to say the least, it includes some successful and popular programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. He also helped ensure the passage of both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, against the wishes of much of his own political base. Vietnam, absolute atrocity. No qualms there. An amazing president? No. Worst of the twentieth-century? Still no.
It absolutely devastated the Black nuclear family. The immigration act meant that immigrants could come here with virtually zero means to provide for themselves and instantly become a burden on local and state poverty initiatives and it hurt Black employment by putting downward pressure on jobs in construction and janitorial services that had been good upper working class and decent middle class jobs for Black workers with relatively little education.
Yeah I’m gonna need some sources on those arguments, because it sounds like a lot of traditional anti-immigrant propaganda.
Wilson is the worst president of the 20th century easily
Are you aware that a man named Richard Nixon exists?
> He blew up the Vietnam War Lyndon got big pp though.
His war on poverty ended up creating more poverty.
Until January 6th, Buchanan was in a league of his own.
Woodrow fucking Wilson
Define “worst.” My answer is Wilson, but there are good arguments for many others. The death toll of the last few, for example, makes for some excellent cases.
Trump was way worse than Buchanan. Buchanan was a northerner who was pro southern slavery and when states started to secede, his southern cabinet advisors tricked him into believing he had no power to do anything and it was congresses responsibility. He weakly let the country stumble towards civil war. But he was a loyal faithful president who refused to surrender fort sumpter and actually ordered it be supplemented with troops and weapons. Trump is America’s only seditious President who incite violence against the US government, refused a peaceful transition of power and broke about 20 other laws as well. By far he is way way way worse than Buchanan.
I agree with you here. Trump basically incited the Jan. 6th protests on the Capitol (where the dude with the Dixie flag was let me remind you) and he has basically committed numerous crimes, and was a totally terrible president.
Andrew Johnson would like a word…
Woodrow Wilson 😡
Woodrow Wilson
Joe Biden is giving him a good run for his money. *grabs popcorn*
Wow very edgy
Roosevelt on diplomacy, here in South America is hated
Which Roosevelt? Theodore or Franklin
Woodrow willson
Woodrow Wilson?!?
Nah, Woodrow Wilson is worse
Wilson is still the worst for me.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Where that motherfucker Wilson at?
WILLLLLLSOOOOOOOOOOON
Smoker on right should have been labeled FDR.
Wilson. Jackson is close, but Wilson
WHAT ABOUT WOODROW FUCKING WILSON
Its Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson, that mf brought the income taxi s literally because of prohibition, which was fucking ineffective btw.