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Ranking the U.S. Presidents
It would be nice if
Americans still learned history like they used to. Maybe not exactly
the way they used to; memorizing names and dates is useful, but some historical context is needed to understand the big picture -- what happened and what it really meant.
As with my other lists of famous people, my goal in making this list was to boil down history (in this case, U.S. history) to its essentials and to view history as
a continuum, combining speculation about what is important now
with major developments of the past. To summarize U.S. history in a (hopefully)
readable and entertaining format, I decided to focus on the presidents. 1. George Washington was the natural
leader among the country's founders. He presided over the writing of the Constitution (a
project promoted and steered by his protégé, Alexander Hamilton) which was a very
successful document -- it created a stable central government which maintained economic order, the goal
of the propertied class who wrote it. As president, Washington resisted temptation to
add powers to his office, a good model for subsequent leaders
of democratic republics to follow. Washington pursued cautious fiscal
policy, mediated between political factions, and avoided involvement in
international disputes at a time when the country was too weak to fight.
It's easy to exaggerate the importance of any one individual, but the country
was fortunate to choose Washington, and owes him part of its later success.
Washington's final grade as president: A+ 2. John Adams was one of the principal leaders and theorists of the Revolution, but also a negotiator of the peace
with Britain. As a Puritan and Bostonian, Adams was naturally a dictatorial hothead and hater of monarchy,
but he shared the Federalists' wish for a stable government along British lines. (Note: The federalists of Hamilton's
time argued for a stronger central government which would unite the states; but the government they envisioned was still
tradition-based and much more limited than the one that has since come to exist. By the time of the Civil War,
"conservatives" already found it necessary to assert states' rights against the creeping power of the central government.) Adams' presidency was
marred by mutual antagonism with political factions -- not only Jeffersonian Republicans, but Hamilton's followers in his own party.
Hamilton and others fomented a war with France which never happened, thanks largely to Adams' diplomacy. Final
grade: B+ 3. Thomas Jefferson was a better president than thinker, which
perhaps says something about the society that produced him (or about the irrelevance of theory to practical action?). As a convert
to Enlightenment radicalism, Jefferson was often more influenced by ideology than reality -- and in that mode he wrote the Declaration of
Independence, a litany of revolutionary platitudes which asserted the sovereign right of the people to overthrow government anytime, anywhere.
(Fortunately, cooler heads wrote the Constitution while Jefferson was out of the country.) He was also the first president to indulge in populist rhetoric.
As a Virginian semi-aristocrat, Jefferson's egalitarianism was more
talk than substance, but that's pretty typical of liberal intellectuals. Of course, Jefferson's lifestyle was supported by slavery, which he claimed
to deplore. But in his defense, Jefferson as a gentleman-scholar was legitimately interested in real-world details -- he wrote about natural history and economics, and designed
neoclassical buildings which are great contributions to U.S. architecture. Jefferson's reputation as an intellectual (along with Franklin's) boosted the
Colonies' cred and won European support for the American cause in the Revolution. A radical by nature and an opponent to the pro-business Federalist
agenda by circumstance (i.e. being from a Southern state), Jefferson made some blunders -- his resistance of British naval hegemony led to the
War of 1812, which was almost disastrous. But mostly Jefferson approached the presidency with
moderation, rather than emulating the destructive French revolutionaries he admired. His moment of greatness as president came when his minister to
France, Robert Livingston, grabbed an opportunity to buy the Louisiana Purchase (about ¼ of the current
area of the U.S.), and thus America's future, for chump change. Jefferson's
self-penned epitaph lists several accomplishments but not his presidency;
this is partly false modesty but also reflects Jefferson's philosophy (he
regarded state government as the appropriate testing ground
for governing principles, and espoused a weak federal government that stayed out of the way of economic
interests, which to him meant agrarian commerce). And it's also a measure of his other achievements.
Final grade: B 4. If Jefferson was a
better president than a thinker, James
Madison was the opposite. After Hamilton, Madison was the
most important influence on the U.S. Constitution and therefore one of the most
important statesmen in history. But Madison launched the War of 1812, and it dominated his presidency. The war was ineptly handled by Madison and his
administration, caused heavy material damage (the British burned the
White House, and probably could have retaken the U.S. if they weren't war-weary from fighting France), and was finally settled on the terms that things would be the same as they were before. Final grade: C+ 5. Led by secretary of
state John Q. Adams, James Monroe's
administration acquired Florida, settled boundary disputes with British Canada, and laid down the famous Monroe Doctrine,
which became important much later when the United States had a military.
But Monroe's "era of good feeling" was relative. The Panic of 1819,
encouraged by speculation and wildcat banking, contributed to cynicism about
government. As the nation grew, populism and abolitionism took root in different
regions; the founders were replaced by a much less exceptional generation of
politicians, and ever since, political discourse has been on a lower
plane than in the founders' time. Monroe was a competent leader, but he did not confront social or intellectual problems head-on. Nor have many presidents since then. Final grade: B 6. The career of John Quincy Adams had many high points, but his presidency wasn't actually one of them.
His diplomatic career began in his teens; later Adams negotiated foreign treaties before becoming a senator.
As Monroe's secretary of state, Adams deserves credit for getting Florida away from Spain, reaching a
settlement with Britain over the nation's northern border and Oregon, and formulating the Monroe Doctrine.
As president, though, JQA promoted a program for internal "improvements" which was rejected by both
North and South; he was the second president denied a second term (his father was the first). After his term,
Adams went back to Congress and, true to his familial and Puritan roots, was a leading opponent of
slavery. Final grade: B- 7. The elections of Washington, Adams, Jefferson, etc. suggest that early on, the electors
believed the president should be chosen from among the nation's best men. (Though Aaron Burr, who almost won in 1800, would have been a horrible exception.) Andrew Jackson was the
first president elected by seemingly different criteria, a result of the country's changing demographics and changes in the electoral process. Jackson was the first true populist president -- meaning he was elected not because he was better than anyone else, but because he was no better than anyone else. Jackson's election is portrayed as a big historical event by liberal historians who believe that the U.S. should be governed by
democratically elected demagogues, rather than a meritocracy controlled by
the propertied classes (as the founders wished). Actually, Jackson only identified
with populism to the degree it suited him -- he shared some popular tastes (for gambling and cockfighting, for example)
but as a lawyer and land speculator Jackson was as wealthy as anyone in the new then-western states. Jackson wasn't great in any way, except at
fighting -- his earlier slaughters of the Indians and the British (at
New Orleans) were crucial events in opening up the South for settlement. He is one of the most overrated presidents. Faced with the
question of nullification, Jackson revealed himself an enemy of states' rights (quicker to call out troops than to consider the
constitutionality of his position); his Indian policies were cruel and unjust; his economic policies were all over the place; his political appointments dumbed down government. Final grade: C- 8. For various reasons -- populism, the rise of party politics, the expansion of the electorate, who knows -- many of the presidents elected during the mid-19th century were not strong leaders. From 1828 to 1848 the voters diffidently alternated between electing populists and aristocrats, then in the years before the Civil War, elected a run of mediocre fence-straddlers chosen for their lack of offensiveness to either Northerners or Southerners. Most of the nation's greatest politicians in those years never became president (Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Benton). The first to benefit from the trend of lower expectations for the office was Martin Van Buren, a political hack who is regarded as a founder of the party system and creator of one of the first political machines in history. Van Buren helped Jackson win and in turn became Jackson's secretary of state (a good one) and his handpicked successor. But Van Buren was plagued by political squabbles and blamed for the Panic of 1837 (the result of Jackson's boneheaded economic policies, which Van Buren reversed). He left office unpopular after one term. Final grade: B- 9. William Henry Harrison was a then-western politician and a
veteran of wars with Indians and the British, in which he had been eventually (though not quickly) successful. Harrison's mediocre business career and undistinguished congressional service led him in due course to the
presidency. Billed as a war hero, common man and hard drinker, he was elected enthusiastically, caught pneumonia at his inauguration, and died. Final grade: Incomplete 10. John Tyler was another Virginian, a principled legislator and
governor and a moderate conservative who (like many Virginians at the time)
opposed slavery but strongly supported states' rights. He was the first
unelected president. His cabinet resigned and his party disowned him, but he tried to govern anyway. Like his predecessors, Tyler was drawn into the
political push for a federal bank (a chronic populist goal) but held firm against it, and he participated behind the scenes in the annexation of Texas and a treaty
(negotiated by Daniel Webster) with Britain. He did not seek re-election. Because of his Southern loyalties, Tyler is underestimated by historians. Final grade: B 11. Another Jackson
protégé, James Polk was one
of the most effective presidents. Polk's administration resolved the
northwestern boundary dispute with Britain and conducted the Mexican War, resulting in cession of California and the southwest to the United States. James Buchanan, Polk's secretary of state and later an unsuccessful president,
deserves some of the credit. The casus belli for the Mexican War was
basically nonexistent, and the war is now regarded as unjust, but the concept of "yankee imperialism" did not exist at the time. (And remember, Mexico was as much a European satellite as a nation then, not unlike the U.S. itself, so it was not imperialism but a war between equals. Also, Mexico owed the U.S. a lot of money, and threatened to default.) After increasing the size of
the nation by half a billion acres and achieving his other goals, Polk refused to run for
reelection on principle, and died young soon after leaving office. Final
grade: A- 12. Zachary Taylor was a successful (though insubordinate) general in the Mexican War. As president, Taylor was a moderate opponent of slavery who disliked extremists on both sides, but not a skilled politician. His short
time in office and case-by-case approach produced no resolution to the situation; things would be patched up temporarily by the Compromise of 1850, which Taylor opposed on principle. He died in office after eating too much fruit. Final grade: C+ 13. The four presidents
before Lincoln did not represent either faction of the increasingly divided
country, and they didn't achieve much. They neither appeased Northern
radicals who favored abolition (or even secession) nor calmed
Southerners' fears that slavery would be abolished
democratically when more free states were added. A respected politician, Millard Fillmore was president for
only a couple of years; he signed the legislation making up the Compromise of 1850, which only briefly
defused arguments over slavery in new territories. Fillmore's political capital was wiped out prematurely when
he signed the despicable Fugitive Slave Act (part of the Compromise), turning the abolitionists against
him. Final grade: C 14. The little-known,
unfashionable choice Franklin Pierce
was nominated by the Democrats at a deadlocked convention because he was the only Northerner who didn't hate the South or vice versa. Pierce supported
states' rights and disliked abolitionists (whose most visible figures were
fanatical religious leaders). His instinct to pursue a middle course was
sound but not visionary, and he got
into real trouble when he supported slavery in the Kansas and Nebraska Territories, causing a low-grade civil war. Not that
Pierce could have succeeded -- by the
time he left office, so many inflammatory words had been said, and so many
political compromises had failed, that a peaceful way out was becoming
unlikely. On the plus side, Pierce secured the Gadsden Purchase (which is
now southern Arizona), completing the
footprint of what would be the 48 contiguous states. Final grade: C- 15. Like Pierce, James Buchanan was a pro-Southern
Northerner who held a completely squishy position on slavery. His faith in
judicial solutions led him to support the disastrous Dred
Scott decision. At a less demanding historical moment Buchanan might have
been an adequate president, but Buchanan's inaction and weakness allowed his party,
his administration, and finally the country to splinter over slavery and
states’ rights. This led to the chaotic election of 1860, in which the Northeast chose Lincoln, a unionist and an articulate opponent of
increasing the extent of slavery (a departure from the string of fence-straddlers which the parties had nominated in
previous years to pacify the radicals). Virginia and a couple of other border states favored an anti-secession candidate who
supported a gradual phase-out of slavery, but the hotheaded Deep South voted for an unapologetic pro-slavery candidate (John
Breckinridge, Buchanan's vice president and a hopeless choice) and seceded when he lost, convinced that Lincoln would
not protect their interests. As Polk's secretary of state Buchanan was one of the best, but he was a failed
president. Other countries have had far worse leaders, but Buchanan is America's nadir. Final grade: F 16. Abraham Lincoln's election triggered Southern secession, and technically speaking, Lincoln was never president
of the United States. Lincoln's admirable qualities must be judged against the horrific war that he (successfully) waged to
reassert control over his former fellow citizens. Lincoln's choice of military action to reunify the nation
could have destroyed it; his generals' scorched-earth invasion of the South was a milestone in the development of total warfare (some of the worst actions were conducted vindictively
in garbage time as it were, after the war was won). The rape and destruction by
the advancing Union armies would have been reprehensible in a war between nations; in the context of a civil war they are
dumbfounding -- if the war's purpose was to reunify the nation, it's hard to defend the logic of eviscerating half of it first.
Lincoln's disregard for civil liberties even in the Northern states is unique in U.S. history, and could have set an alarming
precedent. Of course, the war also allowed (or forced) him to begin the process of freeing 3.5 million American slaves, his great
achievement. Unfortunately for Lincoln's legacy, his words suggest that (at least initially) he cared less about abolition
than about the far more dubious cause of nationalism: “If I could preserve the Union without freeing a single slave, I would.”
Lincoln is remembered as one of the greatest U.S. presidents, partly because of emancipation but more fundamentally
because, well, winners write the history books. Unusual among presidents, Lincoln
was reflective and sensitive as well as ambitious and driven; his poetic oratory was notable even in an era when more American
leaders were orators. There is little else to admire, however, about the statesmen who led the
nation before, during, and after the Civil War -- neither the arrogant Southerners nor the
self-righteous abolitionists. Lincoln did not favor punitive measures against the
South after the war, preferring a quick reconciliation; but the hatred loosed on both sides might have made that impossible even
if he had lived. And another man (one less blinded by moral certainty)
might have been less inclined to bleed the nation to death for the sake of nationalism, an ideal is problematic at best. Final grade: C- 17. Andrew Johnson was chosen as Lincoln's vice president because he was a Southerner. The only president
(so far) to be seriously threatened by a coup attempt, Johnson was caught between his intention to implement a conciliatory
Reconstruction plan and the Radical Republicans in Congress led by Thaddeus Stevens, who wanted to further punish the South.
They attempted to remove the mulishly defiant Johnson (who vetoed good and bad measures alike) from office, and rendered him
powerless. Overriding Johnson, Congress enacted unworkable Reconstruction policies and forced ratification of the Fourteenth
Amendment, which was so broadly (and vaguely) worded that it has allowed the federal government (and specifically the judiciary)
to usurp most of the legislative power granted to the states by the
original Constitution. Final grade: C- 18. A great
general, Ulysses Grant was
not much of a president. The bitter chasm between North and South led to exploitation and inaction, and Reconstruction failed.
Over the decades to come, the
Republican Party's ideological sympathy for business (intrinsic in the party's Whig roots, but trumped at first by the more
urgent issue of slavery) would invite corrupt alliances between government and business interests. But there was plenty of more
basic corruption in Grant's administration, too -- it was probably the most scandal-ridden administration until Nixon's. Grant was
innocent himself, but historians fault him for his poor choice of friends and appointees and for his abject lack of leadership.
One of Grant's ambiguous achievements was the creation of Indian reservations -- a tragic conclusion to decades of conflicts, but
it may have saved vestiges of some Indian nations. Final grade: D+ 19. Rutherford Hayes' election, which was decided by an electoral
commission after Samuel Tilden won a popular majority, confirmed that Reconstruction was dead. The Northern Republican
candidate (Hayes) got the White House; in exchange, federal troops were recalled from the South, which was so rebellious
after years of corrupt government, military occupation and "carpetbaggers" that re-opening the war was a
possibility. Hayes was a reform-minded religious man and fiscal conservative who won some respect in office; he refused
a second term. The North marched toward modernity; the Southern states reverted to white-only political rule,
economic progress was slow, and racial attitudes took hold and worsened. Final grade: B- 20. A teacher, soldier, and politician accomplished in mathematics and languages, James Garfield was narrowly elected
president and immediately faced a now-meaningless dispute over the
presidential power to make appointments. He was shot by a "disgruntled" (i.e. crazy) office-seeker a few months into his term. Final grade: Incomplete 21. Chester Arthur was the least-qualified president ever -- except
for six months as vice president, the highest office he had ever held was New York City's port collector.
He was ousted from that office after refusing to fire political hires (he was a loyal member of the New York
machine). Then he was
resurrected as a martyr to corruption by the GOP, already the party of cronyism, and added to the
Garfield ticket. When he became president, Arthur surprised everyone by
backing civil-service reforms and vetoing porkbarrel spending. His party retaliated by refusing to re-nominate him. Final grade: B- 22. A Democrat who was
willing to buck Tammany Hall, the mighty NY political machine, Grover Cleveland followed Hayes in
pursuing moderate reforms of the civil service, though since the government
has grown several thousand times bigger since then,
it's hard to say whether he did any lasting good. Cleveland is remembered by liberal historians (when he is
remembered at all) as a capable president. He was not actually very progressive (one of his best-known actions was
calling out federal troops to put down a railroad strike) but he was the strongest
leader between Lincoln and McKinley, and a better president than either one. He opposed
protective tariffs, cut taxes and government spending
(something you can't say about many presidents), and respected the
boundaries of his office. Final grade: B+ 23. Benjamin Harrison was a liberal Republican who was unable to
reconcile the reformist philosophy of his party's origin with its business-friendly
political persona. He built up the military, signed some bad legislation
into law, and watched a government surplus disappear, which led to Cleveland's re-election. Final grade: C+ 24. The young William McKinley was known as an
advocate of protectionism, but his campaign issue was a
fight over the currency; McKinley defeated the populist demagogue
William Jennings Bryan. Populism is the doctrine that all people with
common sense believe what the populist wants you to also believe. (Bryan did not go away after losing the election --
he ran again for the presidency against Taft, and incongruously served as Wilson's secretary of state. Finally,
Bryan's stubborn conceit that reality is whatever he wanted it to be inspired his not-very-creditable
prosecution of the "monkey trial" against radical lawyer Clarence
Darrow; the trial lowered the debate over evolution to the primitive level where it still crawls.) In office,
McKinley became a reluctant expansionist, or more accurately "New Imperialist." Modern Republicans praise
McKinley because he was (mostly) friendly to business and tried to change his
party and the nation with the changing times. He was assassinated by an
anarchist, at a time when social order was the norm in the U.S. and terrorism was almost unheard of. Final
grade: B- 25. Rough and tough,
irrepressible and irresponsible, Theodore
Roosevelt was a compulsively energetic "man of action" comfortable with
overlooking constitutional checks and balances. A pro-American expansionist but an
anti-business Progressive, Roosevelt has no real parallel in today's
politics. His compulsion for reform, like his naive social Darwinism, may
have been an unexamined impulse, and his warmongering was outrageous, but his instincts were often sound. His most
visionary projects were forest and wildlife conservation and, of course,
the Panama Canal, which he expedited by what would today be considered
flagrant violation of international law, had any existed at the time. He
declined to run for a second full term (a decision he foolishly announced at
the beginning of his first elected term, making himself an instantly lame duck). Though
it bled into demagoguery, TR's trust-busting and regulation of commerce charted
what now seems like a middle course between big business (and the GOP that
served it) and labor, which he also distrusted. Unfortunately, after
TR left the White House his impatience with incremental reforms
blurred with personal ego-tripping and inspired him to run again for
president against his chosen successor, Taft, which accomplished nothing
except delivering the White House to Wilson and the Democrats. But that's
what you get when you dance with a Bull Moose. Final grade: B+ 26. Weighty (at least in
weight -- over 300 pounds) William Taft was a more active trust-buster
and reformer than Roosevelt, but lacked TR's panache. Taft did
several things that boosted the future of big-government liberalism, unfortunately,
such as supporting the constitutional amendments allowing a federal income tax and mandating the popular election of
senators. But he wasn't vigorous (or rabid) enough for liberal Republicans of the time, including TR, who ran against
Taft four years after handing him the keys. Thanks to Roosevelt, Taft came in third, but his true vocation turned out to
be the judiciary; after losing the election he became chief justice
of the Supreme Court. Like McKinley, Taft deserves credit for keeping William J. Bryan from being president. After
Taft, the Democrats would become the Progressive party, while the Republican Party settled into its default identity as
the pro-business party. Final grade: C- 27. Woodrow Wilson was the only academic, and arguably the first modern intellectual, to be
elected president. His term was predictably disastrous. Wilson shared the shallowness of many academics (during
his life his professed political philosophy moved 180 degrees, from Burkean federalism to utopian internationalism,
without his noticing the change) -- he was too comfortable with ideas in the abstract, and no good at foreseeing real-world
consequences. Wilson was also a fanatical utopian and obsessed with political power; he bullied various Latin American
countries without cause and went farther than any other president except Lincoln to suspend civil rights and stifle dissent
during wartime, creating a bureaucratic propaganda machine (emulated by FDR during the New Deal and WWII). Wilson's administration
was misguided but superficially competent; its follies were too big to be visible to many people at the time. The first
true big-government ideologue in the White House, Wilson pushed through creation of the Federal Reserve system (an old
populist cause) years before monetary policy was well understood; its policies would encourage irresponsible lending in
the '20s and, ten years on, cause the Depression. Wilson's "war to end all wars" didn't -- though under
his leadership, the U.S. did end the war. This strengthened the country's position in the world and could have been a
teachable moment, but Wilson used his clout to push the flawed Versailles Treaty and the League of Nations (which was
soon undermined by the other powers), possibly the biggest waste of political capital in human history. The failure to
rebuild Europe after WWI would contribute to the rise
of Hitler. Wilson regarded himself as a failure, but he escaped knowledge of the worst repercussions of his actions by
dying in 1924. He was incapacitated by a stroke before the end of his second term; the ship of state sailed on,
with Wilson's wife among others at the helm. Final grade: D 28. Warren G. Harding has long been regarded as one of the worst
presidents (partly because journalists didn't like him, and wrote their bias into the history books).
Actually, Harding was merely one of the most mediocre presidents. He dramatically cut government
spending, stoking the economy, but speculation and the stock market bubble ensued. A popular president but a flawed role model, Harding was dominated by his mannish wife, started an unproductive council on race relations, and presided over a corrupt administration. In short, the parallels between
Harding and Bill Clinton are eerie, though the legend that Harding kept a
mistress in the White House may be untrue (and of course, Clinton didn't cut spending). Harding also lacked Clinton's speechifying skills -- the florid bullshit of his public addresses earned the ridicule of H.L. Mencken. Unlike Clinton, Harding was
not personally implicated in the scandals that sank his administration -- though Harding died before reaching the point in his
term when Clinton got caught. Final grade: C 29. Not a political
superstar, Calvin Coolidge became president at Harding's death. Coolidge was a fervent and intelligent believer in laissez-faire government; accordingly, he is not remembered for doing much. Coolidge slept on the job for almost six years, but the president could do that then. He presided over the monetary expansion and prosperity of the Roaring Twenties, which he did nothing to interfere
with, and left before the crash, which he did nothing to try to head off. The going would get tougher in 1929, but by then Coolidge was back in Vermont. Final grade: B- 30. A tireless progressive zealot, Herbert Hoover oversaw international aid and development projects before and after his presidency (including food relief to China after the Boxer Rebellion and to Russia during the horrifying famine caused by Lenin's policies). But Hoover was one of the least successful presidents. His term had just started when the market crashed. Caught in a net of bad monetary policy, Hoover frantically ratcheted up government spending while the Fed insanely contracted the money supply and made the situation progressively worse. Though largely blameless for the crisis, Hoover left office powerless and ridiculed. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy than the misguided utopian Hoover, but still, it's not clear anyone else would have done much better. Note: The president can influence the economy, but does not control it. Final grade: C- 31. Franklin D. Roosevelt gets much more credit than he deserves for battling the Great Depression -- his early efforts were unsuccessful (or rather, an initial experiment with expanding the money supply helped, but then the Fed contracted the money supply again and things got even worse). (Note: The president can influence the economy, but not control it.) Roosevelt's speeches gave the country hope and his administration created jobs, but the New Deal failed to end the Depression; if WWII had not later forced a rapid expansion of the money supply, he might be remembered as a failure. Roosevelt's real agenda was to usher in state capitalism, a radical departure for America though not completely new; the so-called New Deal was an extension of programs launched by Wilson and by Hoover, the last progressive Republican. FDR knowingly weaved the welfare-state web that now entangles us (flagrantly manipulating the Constitution as needed), fully aware that we could never go back -- the bureaucracy would not revert to manageable size when the crisis was over. As a hereditary member of the moneyed elite, Roosevelt was allowed to remake society without much resistance; he also had twelve years to do it. Arguably, FDR is America's worst president ever, since he (even more than Wilson) appointed intellectuals to influential positions in government (the so-called "Brain Trust") where they have intermittently undermined the nation's social institutions and moral values ever since. But the war gave Roosevelt's statism a purpose, and paradoxically, his early support of Britain and prosecution of WWII helped save the world. Roosevelt presided over the transformation of a nation almost fatally damaged by bad monetary policy into the greatest military power in history, within three years -- an achievement which outweighs some of the negatives. But WWII was not entirely a "good war" as is often said; rather, it was the worst event in human history, and it changed and corrupted the whole world. Even the U.S. was responsible for morally repugnant actions, including horrific mass bombing of civilian targets, which Roosevelt had denounced before entering the war. Of course, FDR didn't start the war, and he did help to finish it -- but at the price of turning the U.S. into the same kind of bureaucratic leviathan it fought against. He also allowed Stalin -- one of history's worst mass murderers, who had he lived might have launched a second Holocaust -- to take a coequal position in the ensuing Cold War. Roosevelt held the nation's confidence through difficult times; but the confidence was largely undeserved. Final grade: C- 32. Harry Truman's biggest decision, to open the atomic age,
probably saved many more lives than it cost by ending history's most lethal war (which was still raging when the bombs were dropped)
and preventing an invasion of Japan. It also
kept Stalin out of the Far East theater, a serious concern at the time. But it made the U.S. the first to cross
the nuclear threshold, a horrible turning point in history. Truman's failure
to respond to the fall of China can be excused -- what could he have done? -- and he fought communism in Korea
(though Eisenhower finished the war). America's failure to dictate terms to the Soviet Union during the few years
before the Soviets gained nuclear capacity is regrettable; but taking the (very) long view, maybe it's for the best that communism
was allowed to fail on its own merits. Truman approved the Marshall Plan, which set up a stable postwar order in Europe
(unlike Wilson) -- though it may have raised unwarranted expectations about the effectiveness of foreign aid.
Conclusion: not bad for an ordinary guy who allegedly never wanted to be president. Maybe there's a lesson
there? Final grade: B- 33. A good man,
great military commander, but somewhat flawed president, Dwight Eisenhower warned against the
military-industrial complex but did not reign it in -- in fact, he created
the interstate highway system for it to drive on. Worse, he mistakenly
appointed Earl Warren, who would begin the Supreme Court's multi-decade
attack on our moral values. (Like many liberal heroes, Warren
is clay-footed; he was responsible for the Japanese internment during WWII, along with fellow left-liberal icon FDR.) As a good soldier,
Ike held himself accountable for the mistake. Vietnam later became the symbol of American loss of moral credibility,
but the cultural revolution inaugurated by the Warren court and liberal intellectuals in the 1950s did far more to undermine America's confidence
and sense of purpose. (By the way, Eisenhower postponed involvement in Vietnam, probably wisely.) Ike's
decision to order the National Guard to Little Rock's Central High was defensible on moral grounds but dubious from a
constitutional standpoint, and a more intrusive action by the federal government than others that Eisenhower declined on principle. It
was also a moment when the influence of the left could have been
frustrated by a president's actions. Final grade: B- 34. John F. Kennedy brought youth and idealism -- and adultery, corruption and
nepotism -- to the White House, and left in a casket less than three years
later, the mood shattered. In between, Kennedy got through the decade's worst moment, the missile crisis, ably but
botched other foreign policy tests, especially the Bay of Pigs (a scheme inherited from the previous
administration). He continued the wise course of containing communism, but it led him into all-out war in Vietnam. He launched
the moon missions, but he left the country in the hands of his disliked rival, Lyndon
Johnson. An incomplete would be just, but there's enough to grade, and the overall grade is not too bad --
Kennedy looked and acted the part of
president better than anyone since, not that that's saying much. Final grade: B- 35. Dealmaker Lyndon Johnson used his grip on the testicles of influential members of Congress
to pass Kennedy's unfinished agenda; he also promised to end the Vietnam War, which contributed to his
overwhelming re-election in 1964. (Barry Goldwater, in most ways the better choice, was a non-starter at a time when the
country was brainwashed into yearning for dramatic social reform.) Thereafter Johnson ruled like an
over-enlightened despot, hurling more legislation at the country than any other president except his mentor FDR, from
good to awful -- beginning with the Hart-Cellar Immigration Act, which scrapped the earlier (successful) quotas for legal
immigrants, paving the way for a flood of low-skilled immigrants imported at the behest of business, which may ultimately
result in the U.S. becoming a third world country. LBJ is best remembered for the Great Society programs, which
we can pray will be someday dismantled, though not in time to save the African-American nuclear family.
Programs ostensibly meant to end poverty incentivized it; the poverty rate, which had
been declining for decades, soon rebounded.
Johnson's guns-and-butter budgets started the rise of inflation which worsened in the 1970s. Fighting communism was laudable,
but the Vietnam War was costly and pursued diffidently until too late; it may have slowed communism's advance for a few
crucial years, but it also made the U.S. government a punching bag for the radical left. The left became a corrosive
cultural movement during the Johnson years; his legislative agenda encouraged them in many ways, though they were ready to
turn on him by 1968. Johnson's refusal to run for another term reflected his
inability to resolve the war, but Nixon gets more blame for its messy end.
Final grade: D- 36. Richard Nixon's election opened a new political era in which both parties
skirmished for populist votes -- the Democrats through identity politics (i.e. creating resentment against whites and
males), the Republicans by pandering to mistrust of educated elites. The ugly partisan atmosphere which resulted
(often decried but rarely understood) would work to the benefit of a few canny Republicans who won political offices as "uniters",
but Democrats have been more effective and shameless at manufacturing class warfare, with the perverse result that
Republican presidents such as Nixon were shamed into approving ever more liberal policies. Nixon signed a lot of good and
bad legislation, piling on to the regulatory build-up and assault of LBJ. He also appointed the authors of the Roe
decision, which made explicit the complete subjectivity of the Supreme Court in interpreting the Constitution (a phenomenon
pioneered by FDR, however). On the
economic front, Nixon abolished the gold standard (probably a bad thing) and dumbfoundingly imposed wage and price controls
to curb inflation, ushering in the runaway inflation of the 1970s. Nixon's foreign policy goals
were solid but his achievements fell far short -- especially the
dishonorable peace in Vietnam, which fell apart as soon as Nixon was forced out of office. Any good Nixon might have done was
undone by his disgrace, which boosted the left, hurt mainstream conservatism, and weakened the country's standing in the world. Nixon's loose
attitude toward the rule of law was used by his political enemies (who hated
his fervent anti-Communism, as he hated them) to destroy him, damaging the institution of the presidency in general. In retrospect the
actual Watergate incident was unimportant, but Nixon's eggs-for-omelettes philosophy led him to
condone the wire-tapping and other excesses that caused his undoing. An intelligent but suspicious and vindictive man,
Nixon surrounded himself with mediocrities and venal sleazeballs like John Dean. Dean may have ordered the Watergate break-in,
but by turning canary at the right moment, he came out of the scandal a hero; Nixon, who probably
didn't know about the break-in, is reviled as a criminal. Oh well, you're
judged by the company you keep. Final grade: F 37. Gerald Ford is the only president who never appeared on a
national ticket (he was appointed after Nixon's first vice president
resigned in disgrace), which should probably tell you something. More recent occupants
of the White House make Ford look better now, though. A typical country-club Republican,
Ford was in office only a short time, and he did nothing really wrong. Final grade: C 38. An atypical
political outsider who accidentally got the keys to the White House (thanks to
Watergate), Jimmy Carter combined
moralistic qualms with missionary liberalism. The recipe didn't add
up to a successful presidency, for reasons which were not all Carter's fault:
Washington didn't embrace him, the country's cultural degeneration into
hedonism made it hard to reach out to (especially for a Southern Baptist,
even a liberal one), and the USSR invaded Afghanistan, a blow to Soviet apologists and conciliators such
as Carter. Carter was a weak leader, but not all his actions were misguided; he was perhaps the last
president who was not simply a panderer to partisan ideology. On the plus side, Carter brokered the expensive but
successful Camp David treaty and appointed monetarist Paul Volcker as Fed chairman;
Volcker's policies kicked off a long run of good years for the economy (after
his disastrous but brief recession
starved it). On the minus side, Carter brought human rights to the top of the
international agenda, where it has accomplished little while camouflaging
various lies and hatreds (and encouraging policies which have benefited America's enemies). After his
one-term presidency, Carter's adherence to the Social Gospel led him tirelessly to embrace fatuous diplomatic efforts
and reach out to corrupt regimes in Korea, Cuba, and Palestine. Carter's
sincerity, admirable in office, turned into a kind of egomania, which men
of God are sometimes prone to. Final grade: C+ 39. Ronald Reagan is increasingly remembered as a great man by one
half of the political world, the GOP. He is remembered wrong. Reagan was an unserious thinker who rightly
cherished a few solid values but regarded further thought as unnecessary. Reagan's administration did
nothing to impede the course of the current world order, in which cheap oil, free trade and immigration
have gradually erased the economic dominance of the developed nations and forced them into a
defensive posture. Reagan defunded alternative energy research which might have lessened U.S. dependence on
Middle Eastern oil; his misguided opposition to the environmental movement
drove it to the left; his lukewarm advocacy for conservative principles allowed the entire nation to move
further left (and become more polarized). Reagan's failure to reign in government spending or to further a
conservative social agenda is glaring in retrospect, but it has not bothered his short-sighted
admirers, who were mostly just interested in the tax cuts. Tax cuts would have been worthwhile if they had
been absolute and induced government to shrink, but Reagan
merely transferred much of the tax burden to the middle class by cutting income taxes and hiking payroll taxes
(Social Security), while encouraging deficit spending. By the end of his term, huge deficits and public debt
had become seemingly permanent. Reagan's dramatic defense buildup was a simplistic but appropriate Cold War strategy; it undoubtedly impressed
the Soviet government, and resulted in much stronger military capacity, though whether it improved the
long-term security of the country is unclear. (And the U.S. alliance with Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan,
like our covert support of Iran, was ill-advised in retrospect.) The only good thing about Reagan
was his anti-Communism, a vestige of the old order; Reagan gets too much credit for
the fall of the Soviet Union, but at least he stood up to the Russians and said the right things. Final grade: C 40. Unlike most
presidents, George Bush had a
varied resumé in government but not much time in elected office (usually
it's the other way around). Perhaps because of that, Bush governed more like
an administrator than a president; his team was mostly adequate but
unimaginative, and his failure to push a bigger positive agenda probably
made him a one-termer. (There was also a minor recession, which Bill Clinton shamelessly characterized as
"the worst economy of the last 50 years.") Bush's critics on the left were too entrenched for him to fight,
not that he tried -- the "culture war" became a one-sided radical-liberal rout while Bush stammered
platitudes about points of light. Predictably, Bush's biggest gamble, the Gulf War, was handled competently but
unimaginatively, and left the problem of Iraq to be tackled by his son at a
less auspicious historical moment. Final grade: B- 41. In many ways, Bill Clinton was the Democrats'
answer to Reagan -- a savvy, slick (and lucky) manipulator of public opinion.
In one respect he was the opposite of Reagan -- where Reagan adhered to a few core principles and failed to grasp other viewpoints, Clinton was adept with policy minutiae but untroubled by lofty ideas (not to mention moral
scruples). The media treated Clinton sycophantically; world leaders felt
unthreatened by him, and (like Reagan) his telegenic ease was confused with charisma. In reality,
Clinton was a seat-warmer whose ability was strangled by his narcissism.
Clinton's grade is the sum of small achievements and larger transgressions:
intervention in Yugoslavia, failure to do same elsewhere, his failure to take the threat of terrorism seriously or act on
other social problems such as immigration, his symbolic endorsement of "free trade" agreements which encouraged
outsourcing of skilled jobs and economic productivity, his association with politicians both smart and shady,
his defense of his wife's legal and political blunders and vice versa,
and his divisive demonizing of his political opponents -- while taking credit for their legislative achievements,
like welfare reform. (Two less-noticed actions of Clinton's administration were legalizing risky derivatives trading and
loosening mortgage lending policies,
which fostered exurban sprawl and eventually triggered the economic meltdown of 2008.) But Clinton's defining
moment was the Lewinsky business, when his opponents got tired of his lies and went after his hide. The ad
hominem attacks Clinton orchestrated on his accusers kept public opinion on his side, and we may see more of the
same in the future. Final grade: C- 42. George W. Bush was a different (and odd) type of populist; instead
of manipulating the opinion elites to protect himself, as Clinton did,
Bush appealed to the working class and military to affirm his Christian-liberal values and corporate welfare statism.
Driven further in this direction by the Sept. 11 attacks, Bush became an ideologue who could not articulate
his ideology, presiding over an ever-growing, ever more mediocre government. A better leader might have
struck at the roots of terrorism by partitioning Palestine, attacking al-Qaeda more quickly in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, fighting Iranian-sponsored terrorism, or calling out anti-American
dissent at home. At least Bush should have presented U.S. military actions coherently as a struggle against an
ideology (namely, anti-Americanism) instead of a tactic (terrorism), or defended Western cultural traditions instead of
meaningless non-values like "freedom". Instead, Bush naively promoted the liberal doctrine of tolerance which
contributes to pluralizing and weakening the West. Bush's domestic accomplishments were mostly awful: he approved
large increases in education and entitlement spending, which were already uncontrolled. Both Clinton and Bush
allowed foreign labor to flood the country at the behest of business, displacing American workers, while capital
moved overseas (their free trade agreements removed what few impediments existed, allowing goods to be manufactured
abroad and sold in the U.S. with impunity). Bush's rejected immigration plan, which would have sanctioned
this process, was tantamount to economic treason. The service sector of the economy burgeoned, favoring less educated
and skilled Americans; meanwhile, social ills such as drug use, obesity and public immorality rapidly worsened. The U.S. assumed
responsibility for imposing order in Iraq and Afghanistan while lacking the vision, resources, or methods
required; the result drained the nation's capacity without greatly improving its reputation. Bush's mostly undelivered promises to
social conservatives were reminiscent of Reagan (largely because the conservative agenda itself had lost
focus, not because of Bush's lack of commitment) but his guns-and-butter spending makes LBJ a better referent. Bush's
failure to acknowledge the negative effects of immigration (or even to enforce the law) may be viewed as
the defining inaction of his presidency. Or perhaps his uninspired foreign policy -- making alliances with some rogue states
while invading others -- was the defining inaction. Or if global warming gets bad and we all have to move to Canada,
then maybe Bush's faith in energy lobbyists rather than scientists will be the defining inaction.
Regardless, things don't look good. It's early yet, but Yale's most
famous "C" student is unlikely to get even a passing grade from historians. Grade: D+ 43. Bush's failures inspired America to
elect Barack Obama, a utopian liberal whose optimistic
rhetoric lulled voters into overlooking his roots in the far left. Obama's ethnicity
gave him automatic clout and carried him into the White House, but his political capital
evaporated quickly, wasted on actions that did not greatly further his -- or really any -- agenda.
So far, these have included a pointless health care measure that did not even try to control costs; a
misguided Keynesian stimulus package that contained more education waivers and unemployment benefits
than bricks and mortar; and a much-reviled climate change bill that never materialized. His efforts
served only to increase the government's debt obligation; how rapidly this will accelerate America's
decline remains to be seen. Grade: Incomplete
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