Who Were the Best and Worst Presidents?

This question has long been on my mind since I first was asked it back in high school by one of my government teachers. This article is mainly my own personal opinion based on my political philosophy but I will try to offer small explanations after each president that I list as either good or bad. I will try to cover the top 5 worst and 5 best presidents. I will also give a few honorable mentions of presidents if I can't quite place them in those two categories. I may alter this list as I learn more about each president but I will do a different entry, leaving this one here as a "my opinion at this time of my life" kind of bullshit. Well lets get started.

5 Worst Presidents (in so specific order yet)

-Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D)
Many revere FDR as one of our nations best presidents. I however have the exact opposite opinion of this man. He was a manipulative, power hungry and corrupt individual. The stock market crash of 1929 would have been a short term recession if not for FDR's policies. Not to mention his executive order that placed Japanese Americans in internment camps, stole their property and robbed them of their freedoms and livelihoods during WWII. For the sole reason that their parents and grandparents just happened to come from the wrong country. There was no trial, investigation or hearing. No lawyers or anything for these innocent victims. He simply believed they "might be a threat." Absolutley disgusting. Now for his economic problems. Let me be abundantly clear about this The New Deal DID NOT alleviate the depression of the 1930's; it in fact made it worse. That is why the economy completely hit a low AFTER FDR started his programs in the 1930's. There was a second huge market hit in 1932 and it only got worse in 1934 and 1935 , which was FDR's fault. Just one of his many crimes was paying farmers not to grow food. He wanted to make sure farmers were still paid; people did not have money to pay them and the prices of goods were going down. So FDR actually paid farmers not to grow crops and had them destroyed. He destroyed millions of acres of food while Americans were starving. Then he confiscated every American citizens gold. He actually made it illegal to own gold! He forced millions of Americans to turn in their gold or be jailed; all for their own good of course. He then blamed the depression on gold hoarders! He also started the move to remove us from the gold standard. Yet he was the one that stole American's gold from them. His public works program did nothing but move people from the soup lines in the north east, to soup lines in the west. He gave people in cities like New York a false sense of hope because they saw less and less people in the soup lines; they thought things were getting better. In reality they were just as bad as ever, only now their neighbors were starving out west instead of in New York. His policies were a prime example of Frederick Bastiat's broken window fallacy. Simply moving money around does not create jobs. Many claim he gave people "hope." But I ask you reader what would you rather have, a false sense of hope and duty; or food in your stomach? Two books I recommend about FDR are "FDR's Folly: How Roosevelt and His New Deal Prolonged the Depression" By Jim Powell. As well as "America's Great Depression" by Murray Rothbard.

-Teddy Roosevelt (R)
I think its safe to assume that if the presidents last name is Roosevelt then I do not like him. Teddy was a scientific progressive, and his foreign policy mishaps were absolutely terrible during the Spanish American War. His "trust-busting" practices paved the way for the anti-business sentiment that now seems to permeate through this country. He was one of the first major influential presidents to declare war on American free enterprise.The government is the ultimate monopoly because it has the use of force on its side. He also paved the way for the president as this ultra leadership figure who was the ultimate voice of the people and that any dissent from any member of congress was some sort of un-American country hating traitor. He started to push for the president taking more and more power in the name of "the people" even when the people did not agree. He basically, if not started the movement he sure as hell advanced the idea, that the president could solve all problems and had to take care of people. His ultra-progressive ideas such as universal health care, national health insurance are also a point of contention with me; as I do not believe health care, education, insurance etc. to be a "right" at all. All in all he was another radical progressive whose policies at home and abroad made America's government bigger and more active. I did move Teddy into the top 5. Originally he was not here but after reading more about this man I had no choice but to place him into the top 5 worst ever. His foreign policy has basically paved the way for many of our current foreign policy problems, influencing presidents such as Truman, LBJ, Clinton, both Bushes etc. Many presidents have adopted his model since his time in office. He was an imperialist and an expansionist monster.

-Lyndon B Johnson (D)
Personally he was an underhanded, rude and mischievous person. He treated his wife, and women in general, like property. There is a brilliant series of books written about him entitled "Lyndon B Johnson: Means of Ascent." Which shows how he stole elections, stuffed ballot boxes, and used every manipulative and underhanded trick to gain power. His Great Society is still crushing us even today; not to mention his absolute horrible foreign policy which drove us to have deeper involvement in Vietnam. Over 50,000 American lives were lost, not to mention millions of innocent Vietnamese lives lost. His visions of a Great Society by the means of government is his ultimate shame. He believed that through the use of government force, you could make people compassionate. This can only be done by voluntary means in a free market society. For every 1 person that his programs may help, 10 more are neglected. Not to mention the general immorality of stealing peoples money to give to someone else, how is this supposed to create a general sense of compassion? Johnson took good intentions and turned them into horrible realities.

-Woodrow Wilson (D)
Woodrow Wilson. Quite possibly the worst president we have ever had, or will ever have. Unlike the other presidents I listed earlier there is not one positive thing to say about this man, not one. Believe me I have tried. He passed the Federal Reserve Act which forever enslaved us to inflation. He gave us the popular phrase "Make the world safe for democracy." How many presidents have used that? George W Bush is the most recent example. He turned American foreign policy from non-interventionism to world police in less than 60 years. He was also in the pockets of world bankers and England. He sold out his country in only 8 years. He ran for re-election in 1916 under the banner "He kept us out of war!" Only months later to thrust America into WWI. A war America had absolutely no business being in. World police power, Federal Reserve, inflation, progressive era programs and intrusive government policies. Woodrow Wilson's policies are at the heart of all of our modern problems. For further reading I suggest Thomas Flemming's "The Illusion of Victory: America and WWI"

-Abraham Lincoln (R)
Yes you read that right, Abraham Lincoln. I know I have some explaining to do. Abraham Lincoln single handily turned the Union from a group of voluntary states in a forced coercive membership. We fought a war in the name of freedom and independence from tyranny against England in the 18th Century. The right to dissolve the bonds between citizens and government if that government is no longer serving them is the very ideal the America stands for. Yet Lincoln turned the voluntary United States into the compulsory United States. Ever since Lincoln the federal governments power over the states has grown by leaps and bounds. Not to mention that Lincoln was an absolute dictator and a tyrant. It is not widely known that Lincoln imprisoned thousands of innocent northerners who were "suspected" of aiding or be sympathetic to the south. Lincoln declared war on civil liberties in the name of "protecting the people." Its amazing how many people who hate president Bush for the Patriot Act are the same people who praise Lincoln. Lincoln simply set a standard for trampling civil liberties, every other president is simply trying to outdo him. Howard Dean during the 04 election was even foolish enough to refer to Lincoln as a civil liberties champion! There is a cult surrounding Lincoln; and groups what to deify this man as some sort of saint. I have a problem with this for any political leader though. We build monuments and statues in white marble and they resemble ancient Greek and Roman gods. This country was founded on saying screw the government and that those in government are not to be trusted! What happened to us? Yes the civil war did end slavery, in name mind you, but why did we need a war? England, France, Germany etc... they all ended slavery without killing hundreds of thousands of people. Slavery is an undeniable evil, but that is not the issue I am pointing out. Slavery is gone and we are all better off because of it, it is the absolute lowest form of treating another individual and the very idea of it sickens me. However do the ends justify the means? Ending slavery is good, but was Lincoln right to imprison, silence and in some cases force dissenters into the army against their will? Is the current War on Terror an adequate excuse for spying and imprisoning individuals who have not been found guilty of anything? Only suspected for some reason of being evil? The issue was the right of the southern states to secede when they believed that their government no longer served them. By Lincoln's actions, he set in motion the rush to power that has been an ever growing problem of the government controlling our economic and civil freedoms. For more information on the other side of Lincoln I recommend Thomas DiLorenzo's "Lincoln Unmasked", and "The Real Lincoln."

Bad Honorable Mention Presidents

-Herbert Hoover (R)
Hoover is seen by many as an example of a hands off free market president, however this is a myth. Hoover's intervention into the credit and monetary markets during the late 1920's are one of the main factors that lead to the crash of 1928. Hoover was by no means a true "free marketer." Many of FDR's policies were simply an expansion of the policies started under Hoover. Hoover had the government intervene to a high degree into the credit markets and artificially expand credit to those who could not afford it. People became paper millionaires, but had no real value or assets. Sound familiar?? This is exactly what is happening now in the economy due to Federal Reserve intervention into the housing market. Hoover could have taken a true hands off approach to this problem but he did not. In fact if he had not intervened into the credit market the crash of 1928 would not have happened at all. Murray Rothbard's brilliant book "America's Great Depression" goes into much depth about Hoover and FDR and why their actions led to and prolonged the Depression.

-Richard Nixon (R)
Nixon is an interesting case study. He permanently removed us from the gold standard, which instantly rockets him up to a horrible president in my eyes. However he did finally pull American troops out of Vietnam, and his foreign policy was outstanding. Opening up China to the US for business and the subsequent prosperity enjoyed by both Americans and Chinese is a huge plus in his favor. I just can not get over the removal of the gold standard. If it was anything else I would easily have him as at least an mediocre president. His domestic economic policies are also bad; with taxing business very high and endorsing inflation; which was well over12% under him. I still need to do more research on him, but for now I have him as a weird "somewhat great but at the same time horrible president." He gets his own category I guess.

-James Buchanan (D)
I gave Lincoln a lot of criticism but Buchanan's horrible handling of secession and North South relations merits some serious criticism. A lot of his actions and lack of action paved the way for the civil war.

-Jimmy Carter (D)
I think the Iran hostage crisis pretty much sums it up. Not to mention the horrible economic condition America was in due to not just Carter's policies but his lack of action in removing regulation. He taxed business to the highest in American history and as a result unemployment and inflation where both in double digits. This was the norm for almost all presidents in the late 60's up until the mid 1980's when Reagan was elected. Inflation and unemployment were around 15% and Keynesian economics were in full swing. Nixon was plagued by this same problem. He at first declared his opposition to Keynesian economics but after he was elected he embraced Keynesian economics.

-George W Bush (R)
I was hesitant about this one. Mainly because his presidency is not officially done yet; but also because its so trendy to hate Mr. Bush. Everyone thinks that Bush is the worst president ever, I would disagree with this. However the recent bailout plan, the largest in our nations history; sealed the deal with me. I never thought a so called small government republican would pass the largest bailout ever! He not only passed the bailout, he created a new cabinet position Homeland Security. He also went overseas and got America mixed up into a war with a nation that did not directly attack us, he wanted to make the world safe for democracy; once again showing how badly Woodrow Wilson has screwed us. He is actually one of the largest spending presidents in our history; he seems more like a progressive really. The Patriot Act also permits spying on innocent Americans. No Child Left Behind is also a costly program that does absolutely nothing for education. So to sum it up, No Child Left Behind, Homeland Security, Iraq War, the Patriot Act and the bailout all put Bush pretty high up on the worst presidents ever list. However like I said he has a few months left maybe he'll do something to impress me; and then maybe Sarah Palin will become a qualified leader and Barack Obama will actually say something with some substance. I'm probably asking for too much though.

-William McKinley (R)
He was a huge advocate of central banking and economic planning; both disastrous for this country. His foreign policy was also very imperialistic.

Those are my absolute worst presidents ever, with a few honorable mentions that were very bad, but sadly were not bad enough to make the top 5. They tried real hard, but with FDR, Lincoln, Wilson, Johnson and Teddy Roosevelt as the competition, its hard to compete. Just for reference the tally is 11 presidents so far with 6 Republicans and 5 Democrats lest it be thought I was being partisan or that I consider either party worth a damn. My top 5 best will be in the next post.

In Liberty,
Mr. Jefferson

"A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."
-Thomas Jefferson