hilarious. Obama, Clinton, and Biden higher than Reagan? education has really declined in this country. Spoiler I did not vote for Reagan in either 1980 or 1984
Reagan for ending the Cold War deserves to be ranked higher than Clinton. Obama other than the ACA didn’t accomplish that much but he is historic for being the first non white President. Something even that John McCain acknowledged in his concession speech. Given how much legislation Biden has passed he is significant but it’s still far too early to determine his place in history.
Obama was an average president at best. atm his significance lies mostly in providing the pathway to trump.
Reagan for introducing Trickle Down economics to America by gutting taxes for the rich deserves his place in the ranking. Trump easily deserves to be last. Ideally once he loses this election the sane Conservatives will finally denounce the MAGAs and give Independents an actual second choice. Trump will go down in history as the death of the current GOP.
On the third Monday in February, the U.S. celebrates Presidents Day, a somewhat vague holiday placed in 1968 near the date of George Washington’s birthday on February 22, 1732, but also traditionally including Abraham Lincoln, who was born on February 12, 1809. This year, that holiday falls on February 19. That the American people in the twenty-first century celebrate Abraham Lincoln as a great president would likely have surprised Lincoln in summer 1864, when every sign suggested he would not be reelected and would go down in history as the man who had permitted a rebellion to dismember the United States. The news from the battlefields in 1864 was grim. In May, General U. S. Grant had taken control of the Army of the Potomac and had launched a war of attrition to destroy the Confederacy. In May and June, more than 17,500 Union soldiers were killed or wounded at the Battle of the Wilderness, 18,000 at Spotsylvania, and another 12,500 at Cold Harbor. As the casualties mounted, so did criticism of Lincoln. Those Republican leaders who thought Lincoln was far too conservative both in his prosecution of the war and in his moves toward abolishing enslavement had plotted with the humorless Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, who perennially hankered to run the country, to replace Lincoln with Chase on the 1864 ticket. In February they went so far as to circulate a document signed by Senator Samuel Pomeroy of Kansas, a key party leader, saying that “even were the re-election of Lincoln desirable, it is practically impossible against the union of influences which will oppose him.” Even if he could manage to pull off a reelection, the Pomeroy circular said, he was unfit for office: “his manifest tendency towards compromises and temporary expedients of policy” would make the “dignity and honor of the nation…suffer.” This was no small challenge: Chase had been in charge of remaking the finances of the United States, and he had both connections and Treasury employees all over the country who owed their jobs to him. In an era in which political patronage meant political victories, he had a formidable machine. Lincoln managed to quell the rebellion from the radicals. In June 1864, soon after the party—temporarily renamed the National Union Party to make it easier for former Democrats to feel comfortable voting for Republicans—met to choose a presidential candidate, Chase threatened to resign from the Cabinet, as he had done repeatedly. In the past, Lincoln had appeased him. This time, Lincoln accepted his resignation. But conservatives, too, were in revolt against Lincoln. Crucially, Thurlow Weed, New York’s kingmaker, thought Lincoln was far too radical. Weed cared deeply about putting his own people into the well-paying customs positions available in New York City, and he was frequently angry that Lincoln appointed nominees favored by the more radical faction. That frustration went hand in hand with anger about policy. Weed was upset that the Republicans were remaking the government for ordinary Americans. The 1862 Homestead Act, which provided western land for a nominal fee to any American willing to settle it, was a thorn in his side. Until Congress passed that law, such land, taken from Indigenous tribes, would be sold to speculators for cash that went directly to the Treasury. Republicans believed that putting farmers on the land would enable them to pay the new national taxes Congress imposed, thus bringing in far more money to the Treasury for far longer than would selling to speculators, but Weed foresaw national bankruptcy. Even more than financial policy, though, Weed was unhappy with Lincoln’s 1863 Emancipation Proclamation, which moved toward an end of human enslavement far too quickly for Weed. On August 22, Weed wrote to his protégé Secretary of State William Henry Seward that he had recently “told Mr. Lincoln that his re-election was an impossibility…. [N]obody here doubts it; nor do I see anybody from other states who authorises the slightest hope of success.” “The People are wild for Peace,” he wrote, and suggested they were unhappy that “the President will only listen to terms of Peace on condition Slavery be ‘abandoned.’” Weed wrote that Henry Raymond, another protégé who both chaired the Republican National Committee and edited the New York Times, “thinks Commissioners should be immediately sent to Richmond, offering to treat for Peace on the basis of Union.” On August 23, 1864, Lincoln asked the members of his Cabinet to sign a memorandum that was pasted closed so they could not read it. Inside were the words: “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards. — A. Lincoln” But then his fortunes turned. Just a week after Weed foretold his electoral doom, the Democrats chose as a presidential candidate General George McClellan, formerly commander of the Army of the Potomac, in a transparent attempt to appeal to soldiers. But to appease the anti-war wing of the party, they also called for an immediate end to the war. They also rejected the new, popular measures the national government had undertaken since 1861—the establishment of state colleges, the transcontinental railroad, the new national money, and the Homestead Act—insisting on “State rights.” Americans who had poured their lives and fortunes into the war and liked the new government were not willing to abandon both to return to the conditions of three years before. Then news spread that Rear Admiral David Farragut had taken control of Mobile Bay, the last port the Confederates held in the Gulf of Mexico east of the Mississippi River. On September 2, General William T. Sherman took Atlanta, a city of symbolic as well as real value to the Confederacy, and set off on his March to the Sea, smashing his way through the countryside and carving the eastern half of Confederacy in half again. Reelecting Lincoln meant committing to fight on until victory, and voters threw in their lot. In November’s election, Lincoln won about 55% of the popular vote compared to McClellan’s 45%, and 212 electoral votes to McClellan’s 12. Lincoln won 78 percent of the soldiers’ vote. After his reelection, Lincoln explained to a crowd come to serenade him why it had been important to hold an election, even though he had expected to lose it: “We can not have free government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.”
Link for above article: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-18-2024 It was deemed impossible for Lincoln to win re-election, or so thought they, including his own party.
Reagan dropped down 7 positions from 2018 to 2014. He's ranked 5th by Republicans, 18th by Democrats, 14th by Independents. Clinton is ranked 10th by Republicans, 12th by Democrats, 11th by Independents. Obama is ranked 15th by Republicans, 6th by Democrats, 8th by Independents. Trump is ranked 41st by Republicans, 45th (last) by Democrats, 45th by Independents. Of some interest are the most underrated and most overrated. Jimmy Carter is the most underrated. George HW Bush, Eisenhower, Johnson, and Biden are also among the underrated. JFKennedy is the most overrated, and Ronald Reagan is the 2nd most overrated (which explains the drop). Jefferson and Roosevelt are also among the overrated.
I don't know why Obama is ranked so highly. Perhaps it's due to how scandal-free and clean his administration was. The ACA isn't that big of an accomplishment by Obama, IMO, given he had a supermajority. Biden ranks higher in my book, considering the much more partisan environment and a divided government. Yet, he has already signed three laws that are very important, IMO.
I grew up thinking Reagan was one of the greatest Presidents ever. But the more I read about Reagan, the more I realize he did a lot of terrible things to the country. In the 50's, many public colleges and Universities were tuition-free or near tuition free. Republicans were alarmed at the numbers of college students protesting the Vietnam war and turning away from Republican ideology. Roger Freeman, the education advisor to Nixon and Reagan once said “We are in danger of producing an educated proletariat (working class)… That’s dynamite! We have to be selective on who we allow to go through higher education.” So when Reagan became Governor of California he began slashing funding for higher education in order to make it harder for the poor to go to college. Many California University's were forced to begin charging tuition. This soon became a trend among all republican governors and colleges across the country had to begin charging tuition as their funding decreased. More of Reagans legacy: Deinstitutionalization leading to an explosion in homelessness and more incarcerations Beginning of the spiraling National Debt Instigating and promoting the "Welfare Queen" myth Trickle Down Economics which has decimated the middle class Freezing Minimum wage while also advocating for the elimination of minimum wages for minors CIA involvement in the trafficking of cocaine from Central and South America into minority neighborhoods & essentially creating the Crack epidemic Vetoing sanctions against an Apartheid government (thankfully overridden) and designating Nelson Mandela as a terrorist On the flip side, his hardline stance against the Soviet Union helped bring about the end of the Cold War, but a lot of that was also due to the Soviet Union not being able to afford to keep up. It would've died regardless, but he did help it happen quicker. He also presided over much needed immigration reform. He was well-spoken.
Agree 100%, I was very young but my takeaway was stopping the cold war was the big deal and then of course nostalgia kicks in when he left but when you look back at what he really did he deserves the ranking..............trickledown economics was a killer IMO.
