U.S.History
Presidents’ Day Reflections
My Oval Office Rankings
On Presidents’ Day 2017 I reviewed all 44 past and sitting presidents and was rewarded with an interesting perspective. My top-rated presidents at the time (5/5 stars) included: John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Barack Obama.
Originally, 4 stars went to George Washington, James Madison, Ulysses S. Grant, Herbert Hoover, John F. Kennedy, and James Carter. Recent events and a deeper knowledge of history have downgraded certain figures. I had subtracted a star for slave ownership by Washington and Madison and gave Jefferson a full pass due to his other achievements. I am correcting this to remove all points from any slaveholder. The ownership of another human being is not something that can hold a valuation. To say minus one star for slaveholding is wrong, it excuses a crime against humanity in exchange for other actions. Those actions will invariably be in service to a specific population (nationalists, landowners, etc.) and not humanity as a whole.
Those I deemed to be at the bottom of the barrel, and remain there with no stars were Andrew Jackson (Indian killer/hater), Martin Van Buren (trail of Tears), James K. Polk (waged Mexican War), Zachary Taylor (passed Fugitive-Slave Law of 1850), Rutherford B. Hayes (ordered federal troops to quell Railroad Strike of 1877), Grover Cleveland (waged Apache Wars against Geronimo, intervened in the Pullman Strike), and George W. Bush. The first 4 in this list were also slave owners.
A rotten tomato award went to George W. Bush: Started wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Passed PATRIOT act, promoted amending the Constitution to disallow same-sex marriage, passed Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act, refused to sign Kyoto Protocol, approved “enhanced interrogation techniques”, oversaw the failure of FEMA, called North Korea and Iran an “axis of evil”, and allowed the NSA to monitor U.S. citizens without a warrant. Although he increased funding of NSF and NIH, the swath of his destruction placed him as the worst U.S. President of modern times. And then Trump happened (insert your personal list of traumas here).
Let’s look at what we can celebrate about leaders from the past that deserve remembrance on this day.
Grant enforced civil rights following the civil war dealing a crushing blow to the Ku Klux Klan and working for ratification of the 15th Amendment which might be the key to saving our democracy today.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
I disagree with Grant’s Native American policy of assimilation but it was a step away from genocide.
Though Hoover is often blamed for the crash of ’29 and the ensuing homelessness he cannot be entirely to blame. He increased taxes on the wealthy from 25% to 63%, increased corporate taxes, canceled private oil leases on government lands, and lay the groundwork for the New Deal. Benjamin Harrison tops my list of good presidents before 1900. His thinking about capitalism, conservation, and equality led to the Sherman Antitrust Act, National Forests, and the prosecution of voting rights violators in the South.
Looking back, this democracy has endured and flourished under a variety of presidents ranging from good to bad and from smart to incompetent. The resilience comes from the structure of representation, the involvement of the electorate, and freedom of the press.
If you are fortunate to have a holiday today, take a moment to reflect on where we have been and what is on the table today.
