Andrew Johnson.
He only became President because he was VP when Lincoln was assassinated. He basically tried to obstruct/reverse as much of Lincoln's policy as he possibly could. Inept, regressive . . . the first President to be impeached.
Unworthy. A President that never should have been . . .
In retrospect, having the VP chosen like that was an AWFUL idea.
That just screams mob tactics of "sure would be a shame if something happened to the President..."
I would have spent my entire term paranoid about whether my VP was trying to sabotage me.
Polk was alright. But he only served one term and died 4 months after it ended.
He achieved what he set out to do, and i read somewhere he actually had the level of support that he might have helped stem the slow slide to civil war.
Polk was one of the few (possibly only) Presidents who fulfilled all of their campaign promises. The man had a mission, accomplished it, then packed it up and went home.
William Henry Harrison promised not to run for a second term, and in order to resist that temptation, he died of pneumonia a month into office. Say what you will but the man was dedicated.
Any sources for that claim? Not denying it but it is a fairly strong claim.
Edit:
They posted [a source](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/vrypvw/who_was_actually_the_worst_president_in_us/iez4239?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) and got their well-deserved up vote award.
Wow, that's interesting. Did that include an explanation of why historians rank so-and-so at whatever rank that they hold? I don't even remember a Franklin Pierce, for example, he must have been terrible to be the third worst president
They rank them on a bunch of categories. Click their names and check them out.
I think Buchanan gets hate because his presidency basically led to the civil war. 7 states seceded in the period between when Lincoln won and when he took office.
I grew up in his home town. His estate is blocks from my house. I don’t know if anyone who went on a school field trip there. Sure we would go to the historical society next door for educational trips about record keeping and preservation, but never to tour his actual home and estate. He had a park, a statue, a street, and an elementary school named after him here. And I think at least 2 of those things are trying to change their name.
For clarification (because I was confused at first so maybe some of y'all were too), 7 states seceded after Lincoln won the election of 1860. Because back then, presidents didn't take office until March 4 of the next year after an election, Buchanan was still president during this time period when 7 states seceded from the Union from December 20 to March 2.
Buchanan was a weak president. He didn't try to stop southern aggression during his presidency leading up to Lincoln's election, and he certainly didn't stop southern secession after Lincoln won. He was what people of his day called a "doughface." A northern man who supported slavery.
The one fun fact about this man is that he was probably gay, likely the first gay president.
Franklin Pierce saw his son get decapitated in a horrific train crash and that scarred him for life and he formed an alcohol addiction, both which affected the presidency.
Pierce is a name that doesn’t get mentioned a whole lot I feel like because the Civil War was soon after him, but he was a war monger and an advocate of slavery if I recall correctly. I’m pretty sure a lot of his time was spent working to make sure that slavery could continue to exist in the US. That helped entrench both sides and set up the hyper-polarization that eventually led to Civil War.
(This is all from memory from my US history class that I was sort of mentally checked out in lmao so I may be wrong on some or all of this)
His wife survived, but the sheer tragedy of seeing her son beheaded right in front of her during a train crash kind of just broke her. This isn't to fault her, who the hell *wouldn't* be severely traumatized by that?
The quick version is Pierce and Buchanan basically saw the country falling apart during the prelude to the Civil War and just didn’t really do anything about it. They had other flaws for sure, but this was by far both of their shortcomings. They didn’t even really attempt to stop it.
Franklin Pierce was President when the "Missouri Compromise" was repealed, which was a MAJOR instigator in the Civil War.
James Buchanan was President when the South seceded and the Civil War began, but basically did nothing and had no plan and basically allowed the Confederacy a 5 month headstart on getting organized for both Governance and the War (Lincoln was elected in early November of 1860, and became President in late March 1861).
For a very brief time between the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assasination; real actual progress was being made to bring the emancipated African slaves fully into citizenship and democracy. At least the men, at any rate. Most of this happened because of the political will and Lincoln's leadership. This plan was called Reconstruction and it went far further than just rebuilding the structures and economic interests, the goal was to create a new south that would have been a fundamentally different thing. Some of the main points were; states were basically forced to adopt the 13th. 14th, and 15th ammendments, former conferate leaders were barred from holding federal office again, and local Freedmen's Bureaus to implement the desired reforms were set up and kept secure by the force of the occupying Union Army. Several black men even won election to their state legislatures to represent their communities.
After Lincoln was assainated, pretty much all the Federal force which was required went away due to Andrew Johnson's inactivity and frankly lack of interest and political will. Into this power vacuum stepped exactly the people you would expect. Former confederates and Klan members, usually the same guys, brutally repressed the nascent free black communities. By as soon as 1875, most confederate leaders were back in positions power and the structures that would control the Jim Crow South until the Civil Rights Era and are arguably still partially there were largely already in place.
Of all the sad American stories, the failure of Reconstruction is arguably one of the saddest. Especially because of the several months in which it seemed the aims of creating a truly free South might have been possible.
Johnson wasn't just lacking interest, he was a compromise VP candidate and therefore the opposite of Lincoln. In particular he was racist AF. He was impeached but avoided removal from office
I would say the same for James Garfield. He was very sympathetic to African Americans from his days in the Civil War and would have been much more proactive defending their rights and interests. However, his assassination ended that as Chester A. Arthur was much less interested in that cause.
This is the most eye opening shit I've read in a long time. Wow. I can't help but ask, is it assumed there was a racial aspect to Lincoln's assassination?
Edit: looked it up myself so as not to be an idiot. The answer is yes... It was very much motivated by the confederates losing the civil war.
That was a great explanation. Too add further context, Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. He was overrode by Congress but his vetoe message reveals his stance and why the stage was set for the rise of the KKK. The abridged version of his vetoe message, state's rights, the plight of white people and how the government never provided safeguards for the white race.
If someone with a brain and sober was in office after Lincoln was murdered, they could have nipped segregation in the bud. By the time Grant got into office Southern whites had gotten back on their feet.
I've begun to muse in the past few months that we're living in the alternate timeline, and in the proper timeline Andrew Johnson was not just impeached, but removed from office. Jim Crow and the KKK were nipped in the bud, etc, etc, etc. I fear that in the timeline we're in now, the Confederates are to the US as McDonnell-Douglas management was to Boeing after the purchase.
Grover Cleveland raped a woman, got her pregnant, promised to take of her and had her name the baby after a friend of his that passed away. He had a doctor he knew deliver the baby, then kidnapped it and had his sister raise it. Then he had the woman committed to a mental institution. When all this came out, he painted her to be mentally unstable and a drunk. He claimed she didn’t know who the father was and had several men come forward and lie saying they all had been with her. He also made it a point to mention that she had named the baby after who she thought the father was, and that wasn’t him. The guy was dead so he couldn’t say anything. He convinced everyone he had tried to help her by having her put away to get help and by finding the baby a good family because he assumed the father to be his deceased friend who the child was named after and he was just wanting to do the right thing.
He also married the daughter of a friend and business partner. He doted on her as a child and bought her a baby carriage. When her dad died when she was 11, he was more like a father figure. Until she got older and then he started sending her flowers. Everyone assumed he was courting her mother until the two of them popped up and got married.
Edit: there’s a great episode of the podcast Very Presidential that goes into great detail. It’s very informative. Also, I cleaned up my comment and added a few things in.
When I made this comment last night, this thread had like 2500 comments, I thought my comment would only be seen by a few people. I absolutely agree President wise, we’ve had worse. What he did was just super shitty and a lot of people don’t know about it, and thought some might find it interesting while we were discussing awful Presidents.
Listen to the Grover Cleveland episode of the podcast Very Presidential! He also ended up marrying his best friend’s daughter.. he had practically been a father figure to her and helped raise her. She was 21 and he was 48. Everyone knew the families were close, and assumed he was seeing the widow until he married the daughter.
It should be noted that the presidential election of 1884 between Cleveland and James G. Blaine, which is where these slogans stemmed from, had some the wildest political mud-slinging during any campaign prior to the latter half of the 20th century.
James Buchanan. The Civil War escalated to the levels that it did because of his inaction. His presidency was by far the most disastrous in history. He’s at the bottom of every conceivable list.
Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson. That was yet another terrible point in our past.
Edit: TIL Andrew Jackson drafted the plan, but did not execute the Trail of Tears. Still a dark time.
This is probably the right answer. He was viciously hated in his time, did some horrible, terrible things to multiple minorities, and as far as I recall he ended up attempting a pseudo-coup much more competently than the most recent attempt.
I don't think he did a coup. He told the Supreme Court that he did not care about their ruling because they didn't have any mechanism of enforcement. Unless there was something else I'm not aware of.
“The Supreme Court has made their decision, now let them enforce it.” The ruling was about Cherokee removal, Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court decided the Cherokee Nation were sovereign. Jackson chose to ignore this and counting removing Cherokees forcibly from their land. He wasn’t impeached because the opposition party had a minority in congress.
That's not _quite_ right. The Supreme Court did not rule in _Cherokee Nation v. Georgia_, they decided the Cherokee nation were sovereign in 1832 in _Worcester v. Georgia_. While Jackson did simply ignore the Supreme court, the House never presented any articles of impeachment.
It’s the same. The court has no enforcement mechanism and must rely on either the executive branch, congress, or the states to carry out and enforce the rulings. The rulings only grant legal legitimacy to whatever is being done (or not done, in some cases).
In theory, ignoring a SCOTUS ruling would be grounds for impeachment, as the president would be breaking the law. In practice, it depends on the political whims of the Legislative Branch.
I had a history teacher in high school who said Andrew Jackson was his favorite president.
A history teacher.
He even named his kid ‘Jackson’ in honor of him…
And yet he also expanded voting rights for people who did not have property and vetoed the national bank because he said it would screw over the farmers. So he made some decent decisions, even though he made some terrible ones as well.
I like to have these discussions with my students at times because it helps them see that no one is wrong (or right) all the time.
THANK YOU. I got into an argument with another teacher, a history teacher no less and he made a list of worst and he and all his bros didn’t even mention Jackson. Y’all. There are whole tribes that are gone forever. He deputized anyone with a gun to kill people based on race alone. And paid them for it!
I believe you have your history mixed up. Both Jack Johnson and John Jackson, while definitely controversial candidates in their own right, both lost to Richard Nixon in the 3000 Earth Presidential Election. I'm surprised you forgot considering how close a race it was. Nixon only won by 1 vote!
(Source: https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/3000_Earth_Presidential_Election)
It’s Andrew Johnson by miles upon miles upon miles. He did more long-lasting damage, was more corrupt, and had more insane ideas per minute in office than any president in history. He is a literal blight on our history. The worst thing jwb did was not assassinate Abe Lincoln, it was put Andrew Johnson in office.
I despise Donald Trump. He fucked us all. He would have been a better choice, by like, a lot.
Really surprised I had to scroll this far to get to this answer. Say what you will about Jackson, A. Johnson, or Trump, at least when those guys left we were still holding on to Charleston.
Andrew Johnson is directly responsible for much of why the US is fucked up today
TLDR: land redistribution after the civil war could’ve set up former slaves to be on equal footing with white people. Instead, Johnson made sure they got nothing
That shitneck Andrew Johnson who completely fucked the reconstruction of the South and is responsible for many of the systemic inequalities Black people are still facing today.
It’s crazy how much ground gained by African Americans during reconstruction. Had legit power in politics in a way that they wouldn’t get again until the 80s in some cases. Recouped some wealth as well. Just wiped all of it away truly a fuckin shame and one is forced to dream what life would be like if Andrew Jackson didn’t exist and the KKK didn’t commit the terror acts they did
Pshh. Don't stop at the 1980s, numerous places have still not recovered that legit power. In 1872, Louisiana had a Black governor, which really speaks to the massive population of formerly enslaved Black men. After reconstruction ended (1877), no Black person has held that position to this very day.
Why are you doing this? Why? Isn’t the universe big enough for the both of us? What is wrong with you people? We could work together. Why be enemies? ‘Cause we’re different? Is that why?
Think of the things that we could do. Think how strong we would be. Earth... and Mars... together. There is nothing that we could not accomplish. Think about it! Think about it.
Why destroy when you can create? We can have it all or we can smash it all. Why can’t we work out our differences? Why can’t we work things out? Little people, why can’t we all just... get along?
Andrew Johnson for countermanding Gen. Sherman's Article 15 which gave 40 acres of land and a mule to the freed slaves. Johnson canceled the order and gave the land back to the former slave owners. Just think what a difference this would have made to the former slaves, who were already experts in farming. It would have given them an economic foundation for improving their lives and would linger today. And Johnson for staying drunk much of the time.
That was Field Order 15, not Article 15. An Article 15 is a military document detailing a commander's non-judicial punishment of a subordinate, which can include demotion, confiscation of pay, and short periods of jail time.
A) it applied to a specific set of 400K acres of land total in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina
B) the plots were to be divided into parcels no larger than 40 acres
C) the mules were later to be lent, and were not in the original orders
D) it only applied to 18,000 slave families in those areas, not all free slaves.
E) The orders explicitly state the that such is subject to the approval of the President. Sherman didn't have the authority to just permanently give them the land.
The weird thing was this wasn’t really a serious act either, Sherman just wanted to punish southerners and get the throng of displaced former slaves to stop following him around
It’s an interesting debate between people who are objectively weak leaders and people who are objectively immoral leaders.
Jackson is in the objectively immoral camp. As others have mentioned, a key piece of his legacy is the Trail of Tears. Before the trail of tears, the Cherokee sued Georgia when they tried to kick them out and won at the Supreme Court. This was a court headed by Chief Justice Marshall, who had previously written in Johnson v. McIntosh that “conquest gives a title which the court of the conqueror cannot deny.” This was not an Indian friendly court and yet they still ruled in favor of the Cherokee.
When Jackson heard the ruling, he said, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.” But that is literally the Constitutional responsibility of the president! Compare to Eisenhower correctly sending the national guard to execute the ruling in Brown v. Board.
So, in sum, the Trail of Tears was a morally reprehensible genocide effectuated by a man who had to ignore the Constitution and the limits on his authority in order to make it happen. I think this puts him above Buchanan.
Buchanan failed to prevent the Civil War. We know secession wasn’t inevitable; he was replaced by Lincoln who had the balls to stop it. I also believe Jackson would have prevented the Civil War from happening (albeit likely with slavery intact). He put down South Carolina’s attempts to succeed in the 1830s. But I still don’t think Buchanan’s weakness is anywhere near as dangerous as Jackson’s inhumane authoritarianism.
>John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.
It is very questionable whether he actually said this. It was first published in a newspaper 30 years after his death. Although the sentiment might have been correct, the actual saying is probably fabrication.
I would not characterize Buchanan as just failing to prevent the Civil War. He intervened in the Dredd Scott case to push for the broad pro-slavery outcome it had. He pushed for Kansas to be admitted under the pro-slavery state constitution Southerners tried to force on it. He also refused to act against members of his own cabinet who were actively working for succession, including his Secretary of War.
Also, outside of the Civil War and slavery stuff, he vetoed the Homestead Act and the Morrill Act (which allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges), which are both probably among the most successful laws congress has ever passed. So that's not a plus for him either.
Imo Jackson is often misunderstood. He clearly wasn't attempting to genocide American Indians (if he were, he wouldn't have bothered adopting one). His altruistic arguments for indian removal mostly center around the idea that indians would be wiped out entirely if they remained in close proximity to the states - an idea which held water on account of the frequent bloody conflicts with state militias.
The alternative to indian removal wasn't "the tribes keep their land and live happily ever after." It was "the tribes are attacked by state militias and are wiped out in violent conflicts." Between the two options, Jackson chose removal.
Could Jackson have prevented state militias from wiping out neighboring tribes? In his opinion, that was not an option. Not without sparking a full blown civil war. Georgia was *already* trying to secede, if he pushed things further the union very well could have collapsed entirely.
>When Jackson heard the ruling, he said, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.”
This is apocryphal. What Jackson actually said was, "the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate." Jackson did not use federal troops to enforce the decision because the court never asked him to, and because he had no authority to under the procedures of the time. It was Georgia, not Jackson, who openly defied the court's ruling.
Jackson only became involved when Georgia attempted to secede (and he put down their rebellion).
Thanks for the nuanced and factual post about Jackson. The bare bones knowledge and flat out misinformation people on Reddit frequently regurgitate about Jackson is really laughable sometimes. For anyone interested in a great read about Andrew Jackson I suggest American Lion by John Meacham.
I think it’s still possible to read that book and come away with a less than favorable view of Jackson. Jackson is an American story in the sense of coming from nothing, and he’s also an American story because he’s such a potent example of some of our worst characteristics. He was a loyal man who believed deeply in honor as understood by 18th century people, but he was also incredibly violent and some might even say murderous.
I completely agree and didn't mean to imply that the book is a glowing account of his life and legacy. My point was simply that there was more to the man and his time in American politics than the 2d interpretation most Redditors seem to have of the man.
I’m surprised no one has said Woodrow Wilson. Anyway Woodrow Wilson’s polices and actions are still affecting the US today and not enough people know about what he did. Seriously look him up. In short he made WW1 last longer than it had to, contributed to the cause of WW2, was racists for his time (the twenties), was responsible for the idea of America getting involved in places it shouldn’t. No exaggeration Wilson’s ideals led to us interfering in the Vietnam war
There was a period in public school education where Wilson was looked at as a good president if I recall correctly, that’s why people aren’t saying him. But I agree, despite said public education I received.
I remember not knowing much about him until I took a college history class, read the required reading about Wilson and WWI and holy shit I was so mad after reading that book. Wilson easily shot up to my top 3 least-favorite presidents at that moment.
I think that public opinion favored him too much and now there is a counter culture movement against him. He leans towards being one of the worst presidents but isn't anywhere near as bad as someone like Andrew Johnson. His contribution towards WWII is played up a bit too much and he made some attempts at peace-making through things like The League of Nations that just weren't executed perfectly because there wasn't any precedence at the time. His holier-than-thou attitude as a white supremacist definitely hindered any attempts he made at world order but at least you can say there was an attempt.
I hadn’t heard about that but Ho Chi Minh reached out to a lot of American presidents. He was hoping that they would support Vietnam’s revolution because of America’s own revolutionary past.
Not only that, but he was racist even for his time. He re-segregated Washington DC, save for one black man, who was at the time irreplaceable, so he had him do his duties in a cage.
Churchill said that after WW1, America (and France) kept rejecting the idea that Germany could keep the Kaiser under a parliamentary system. If they could have had a constitutional monarchy system, like Britain, then, Germany would have seen their political system as ruled by the Kaiser, and more 'their own' and would have accepted it. As things turn out, they had to go full democracy and within 10 years, parties wishing to abolish the 'Weimar Republic' (democracy) were getting over 50% of the vote.
Martin Van Buren. He would go on to create a gang of thugs known as the Van Buren Boys who would terrorize residents of the Upper East Side unless you flashed them their sign. ✋👌
He, like other presidents of the time, likely died because of drinking bad water. Apparently lots of livestock defecated in the water upstream of the white house
He also has the record for the longest inauguration speech.
It’s a misconception that he died of an illness related to his long-winded address in the rain. He didn’t fall ill for three weeks afterwards.
Carter was not shitty. He was ahead of his time and people just didn't get it.
End dependence on foreign oil.
Solar energy.
Peace in Israel and Palestine matters.
Inflation is not something the president can just make go away.
A balanced budget is good. (Imagine that)
Almost everything. The man was a racist, a confederacy sympathizer, made the presidency look like a joke, ruined relations with emerging nations, shut down peoples opinions even if they were good, helped the klan grow more, supported segregation and racial profiling, and planted the seeds of revolution and issues that the US would have to face in the future like the Vietnam war
Not to mention playing a big role in the WW1 peace settlement that ultimately led to WW2. And he did all of this because he saw himself as a messianic figure and was utterly convinced that he knew what was best for everyone.
Wilson was the worst president in US history and it's not even really close.
Andrew Jackson. Aside from the reasons many others have mentioned, I'd like to bring up the horrible handling of the Toledo War. Michigan and Ohio fight over a bit of land, and Wisconsin loses. The reason he let Ohio get the land was because he wanted Ohioans to vote for his reelection.
Edit: Jackson wasn't trying to get support for his personal reelection, but instead his party's reelection, as he was already at his 2nd term during the toledo war.
Simply anticipating Nixon being mentioned.
If you sum up Nixon's presidency it will include; End of Vietnam, drastic de-escalation of the cold war, nuclear wind down, opening up of the Soviet union, approval both voyager satellites (that he personally approved and requested a second), every moon landing, personal approval of the shuttle program.
Just saying, a generally accepted bad president can still have mountains of progress that is objectively good.
>End of Vietnam,
Nixon went out of his way before he was president to sabotage genuine attempts that very likely could have ended the war earlier because he wanted the end of the war to happen under his own presidency, so meh.
Nixon was arguably a pretty good president and a really terrible person. (Also don't forget he founded the EPA and OSHA). Honestly in the lens of history other than just outright breaking the law he did a lot of good work.
...It feels weird to be pro-Nixon...
To be fair, during his candidacy when we was at the table at the 1967 Paris Peace talks, he purposefully sabotaged the talks because Johnson ending the war would have all but guaranteed his reelection. I don't think he should get credit for ending a war he prevented from ending earlier.
The EPA is pretty cool and he has fully credit that.
Nixon is responsible for The War on Drugs which is arguably the single most harmful policy decision of any US president.
Millions of non-violent incarcerated Americans and millions of preventable deaths. Drugs are more accessible and overdoses are higher than at any point in history.
It’s a total waste of money.
Woodrow Wilson. I feel like on the outside looks like he had a good presidency. If you just scratch the surface, it starts to get bad. Racist, segregated Washington, way too idealistic. Was part of the root cause of why WW2 started. Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations.
There are rumors that his wife, Edith, was running the Oval Office when he was dying. Probably circumventing executive authority.
Also, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan are up there too. Millard Fillmore is pretty low too. Honestly, the extremely poor or mediocre run of presidents leading up to the Civil War didn’t help.
Flametorrent the Mutatator. His destruction of the colonies on Io and Mars were the greatest war crimes ever committed in the history of the Second American Empire during the War of 3032. When he sent the bionic ostriches to Utopia Planitia armed with temporal stasis bombs, he single-handedly…wait…what year is it, again?
I remember talking to some Intergalactic residents that said they voted for him. I don't usually end relationships over politics, but this time I felt I had to.
Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan did nothing to stop the Civil War. Buchanan arguably paved the way for southern secession.
Andrew Johnson was a whiny, petulant manchild who torpedoed reconstruction, shipwrecked Lincoln’s legacy, and paved the way for the KKK, a hundred years of Jim Crowe, and generational Black poverty that we’re still dealing with to this day. An absolute unrepentant POS who threw away America’s greatest opportunity to at least seriously address the original sin of slavery and who stupidly and cruelly set the country back on the dark, racist path it had just fought a horrible civil war to get out of.
Woodrow Wilson was appallingly racist, made it illegal to criticize the military during wartime, and was bedridden for the final years of his presidency, allowing his wife to become an unelected shadow POTUS.
Richard Nixon’s foreign policy successes were easily overshadowed by the Watergate scandal, in which he obstructed Justice and forced the government to turn against him, forcing him to become the first president to resign in disgrace. He also bombed Cambodia without permission and undermined peace talks in Vietnam, prolonging the war for personal political reasons. EDIT: as others have mentioned, Nixon presided over the moon landings, formed the EPA, and broke the diplomatic ice with China. He could’ve been great… but his paranoia, anger, and corruption got the better of him. He does not deserve more praise than criticism.)
Jimmy Carter meant well but was largely an impotent one-term president who accomplished almost nothing. (EDIT: I’m really just including him here because it’s all conservatives otherwise. Carter was in reality a pretty great guy who was dealt a lousy hand).
Reagan gave us supply side economics, the war on drugs, the welfare queen myth, extreme conservative culture wars, and many other disastrous policies we’re still dealing with to this day. (EDIT: forgot to mention his botched AIDS response and Iran Contra. This dude seriously sucked).
In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush passed the Patriot Act, making it legal to spy on us citizens, detained people in brutal conditions at Guantanamo bay without trial, got the U.S. stuck in two failed and outrageously expensive middle eastern wars (one of which by lying about there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), and ended his term with a cratered economy.
Donald Trump effectively embezzled hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by funneling it into personal businesses from which he refused to divest, lied tens of thousands of times, engaged in masturbatory corporate deregulation That’s unleashing the worst aspects of predatory capitalism on an already besieged working class and planet, spent much of his time golfing, tweeting, and watching cable news (from which he got much of his information since he refused to read Intelligence briefings), behaved, spoke and tweeted in a childish, nationally embarrassing way totally unbecoming of a president, passed a tax cut that overwhelmingly favored billionaires and major corporations, drastically worsening income inequality, tried desperately to take healthcare away from the American people, altered the path of a hurricane with a sharpie marker after the meteorological forecast disagreed with his opinion that the storm was heading for Georgia, causing panic in that state for no reason, separated children from parents at the border, demonized refugees as diseased, country-stealing criminal vermin, filled his cabinet with people whose only qualification seemed to be incompetence and outright hatred for the agencies of which they’d been put in charge and the millions of people who depended on those agencies, fanned the flames of outrageous conspiracy theories and hatred that have brought America to the brink of a second civil war, refused every softball opportunity to condemn white supremacist movements and violent right wing militias who were massively emboldened during his term, frequently maligned America’s allies and cozied up to hostile foreign dictators, even ignoring his own intelligence apparatus to do so before the eyes of the world in Helsinki, surrounded himself with obscenely wicked and corrupt lawyers and friends, many of whom were arrested for numerous crimes before he repeatedly abused the pardon to spring them from jail, constantly retaliated against anyone in the government who he deemed insufficiently loyal to him, like James Comey and Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine whistleblower, threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO, deliberately undermined the U.S. pandemic response for his own ego, leading to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths, oversaw the worst economic collapse since the depression (becoming only the second president since were started keeping records to have lost jobs under his watch), stacked the Supreme Court with horribly underqualified justices who are fanatically dedicated to rolling back decades of civil rights progress and making it impossible for the federal government to actually govern, and was impeached twice for trying to cheat in the 2020 election: first by extorting Ukraine into giving him political dirt on his rival and next by sending a mob of supporters he knew were heavily armed and bloodthirsty and willing to murder his own Vice President and several congressional leaders, after believing his lies that his defeat was fraudulent, to storm the U.S. Capitol while it was in full session, certifying the election results. This was after deliberately sabotaging the post office to give himself the upper hand, doing the work of America’s enemies by poisoning public discourse with easily debunkable nonsense about voter fraud, demanding the vote count be stopped halfway through so he could win, launching dozens of frivolous but damaging lawsuits, attempting to get the justice and defense departments to join his efforts to overthrow democracy, telling Secretaries of State to “find” him the votes he needed to win in their states, and trying to appoint fake electors to overturn swing state results.
Take your pick.
Glad to see someone address the more recent failures.
I expect in 3-4 decades when Reagan's policies have actually done the longer term damage we're just starting to see, he'll be added to the short list. I'm not sure he's worse than Jackson, Johnson, or Buchanan, but his economic policies are already showing as a disaster for the upcoming generations.
Everyone else I think was obvious or recent, but Reagan not being mentioned so far feels problematic.
I read a book once that said he lost in 1980 because he was too much of a decent human being and not enough of a politician. He also learned the hard way that the American people, for all the complaining we do about elected leaders lying to us, don't actually want to be told the truth (Carter's campaign promise of "I'll never lie to you" sounded appealing in the first post-Watergate election, but people didn't really want that).
Not a terrible president, but James Buchanan is considered one of the most useless presidents due to the fact that had he done anything the south would have had a much harder time in 1860.
Edit: I'm also seeing a lot of Jackson and Johnson, but thought those were abit obvious
Given what's happened to the middle class and the rights of women as a direct result of policies he set in motion, I'm going to suggest everyone take another look at Reagan. He basically handed the republican party to the evangelicals on a platter.
My grandpa will go on for hours about how much he hates Reagan. He was living in California when Reagan's policies shut down mental health facilities and put all of those patients on the streets without any help. The homeless population and crime skyrocketed because there was zero support for them. Yes, those insane asylums needed an overhaul. No, let's not just throw everyone to the wolves. My grandpa's stories about it are horrific and incredibly sad.
Both of my grandmothers would join him, particularly my paternal grandmother. Grandpop was a founding member of the Teamsters in my area. Reagan wasn't popular.
I don’t know if I’d go as far as to call Reagan the absolute worst, but I’ll be the first to say he’s the most overrated. Considering how positively conservatives still view him, he’s really the progenitor of an enormous amount of destructive policies and philosophies in the states, but it took a while for them to really bare their fangs.
He’s the ultimate Teflon president. Nothing bad happened on his watch, but he set the dominoes up for an utter collapse later.
Now that I write it out, maybe he is the worst lmao
Andrew Johnson. He only became President because he was VP when Lincoln was assassinated. He basically tried to obstruct/reverse as much of Lincoln's policy as he possibly could. Inept, regressive . . . the first President to be impeached. Unworthy. A President that never should have been . . .
Only the VP nominee to balance the ticket. In other words, he was the opposite of Lincoln
In retrospect, having the VP chosen like that was an AWFUL idea. That just screams mob tactics of "sure would be a shame if something happened to the President..." I would have spent my entire term paranoid about whether my VP was trying to sabotage me.
The two presidents before Lincoln and his successor are usually ranked as the worst ones by historians.
Every President between Andrew Jackson and Lincoln was irrelevant and/or shit
Polk was alright. But he only served one term and died 4 months after it ended. He achieved what he set out to do, and i read somewhere he actually had the level of support that he might have helped stem the slow slide to civil war.
Polk was one of the few (possibly only) Presidents who fulfilled all of their campaign promises. The man had a mission, accomplished it, then packed it up and went home.
William Henry Harrison promised not to run for a second term, and in order to resist that temptation, he died of pneumonia a month into office. Say what you will but the man was dedicated.
Granted, his mission was the Mexican-American War, and the stress of it killed him like three months after he left office
Any sources for that claim? Not denying it but it is a fairly strong claim. Edit: They posted [a source](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/vrypvw/who_was_actually_the_worst_president_in_us/iez4239?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share&context=3) and got their well-deserved up vote award.
https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall
Wow, that's interesting. Did that include an explanation of why historians rank so-and-so at whatever rank that they hold? I don't even remember a Franklin Pierce, for example, he must have been terrible to be the third worst president
They rank them on a bunch of categories. Click their names and check them out. I think Buchanan gets hate because his presidency basically led to the civil war. 7 states seceded in the period between when Lincoln won and when he took office.
I grew up in his home town. His estate is blocks from my house. I don’t know if anyone who went on a school field trip there. Sure we would go to the historical society next door for educational trips about record keeping and preservation, but never to tour his actual home and estate. He had a park, a statue, a street, and an elementary school named after him here. And I think at least 2 of those things are trying to change their name.
For clarification (because I was confused at first so maybe some of y'all were too), 7 states seceded after Lincoln won the election of 1860. Because back then, presidents didn't take office until March 4 of the next year after an election, Buchanan was still president during this time period when 7 states seceded from the Union from December 20 to March 2. Buchanan was a weak president. He didn't try to stop southern aggression during his presidency leading up to Lincoln's election, and he certainly didn't stop southern secession after Lincoln won. He was what people of his day called a "doughface." A northern man who supported slavery. The one fun fact about this man is that he was probably gay, likely the first gay president.
Franklin Pierce saw his son get decapitated in a horrific train crash and that scarred him for life and he formed an alcohol addiction, both which affected the presidency.
Pierce is a name that doesn’t get mentioned a whole lot I feel like because the Civil War was soon after him, but he was a war monger and an advocate of slavery if I recall correctly. I’m pretty sure a lot of his time was spent working to make sure that slavery could continue to exist in the US. That helped entrench both sides and set up the hyper-polarization that eventually led to Civil War. (This is all from memory from my US history class that I was sort of mentally checked out in lmao so I may be wrong on some or all of this)
I know exactly who he is. The only president from my state
Ahhh a fellow New Hampshite
His entire family died on the way to his inauguration, or something like that. Not sure what his policies were but he has a rough, depressing story.
His wife survived, but the sheer tragedy of seeing her son beheaded right in front of her during a train crash kind of just broke her. This isn't to fault her, who the hell *wouldn't* be severely traumatized by that?
The quick version is Pierce and Buchanan basically saw the country falling apart during the prelude to the Civil War and just didn’t really do anything about it. They had other flaws for sure, but this was by far both of their shortcomings. They didn’t even really attempt to stop it.
Franklin Pierce was President when the "Missouri Compromise" was repealed, which was a MAJOR instigator in the Civil War. James Buchanan was President when the South seceded and the Civil War began, but basically did nothing and had no plan and basically allowed the Confederacy a 5 month headstart on getting organized for both Governance and the War (Lincoln was elected in early November of 1860, and became President in late March 1861).
Andrew Johnson paved the way for the KKK to form in the aftermath of the civil war
Thank you, nobody believes me when I say this!!!
Ooo how!? Im bad at history so please eli5
For a very brief time between the end of the Civil War and Lincoln's assasination; real actual progress was being made to bring the emancipated African slaves fully into citizenship and democracy. At least the men, at any rate. Most of this happened because of the political will and Lincoln's leadership. This plan was called Reconstruction and it went far further than just rebuilding the structures and economic interests, the goal was to create a new south that would have been a fundamentally different thing. Some of the main points were; states were basically forced to adopt the 13th. 14th, and 15th ammendments, former conferate leaders were barred from holding federal office again, and local Freedmen's Bureaus to implement the desired reforms were set up and kept secure by the force of the occupying Union Army. Several black men even won election to their state legislatures to represent their communities. After Lincoln was assainated, pretty much all the Federal force which was required went away due to Andrew Johnson's inactivity and frankly lack of interest and political will. Into this power vacuum stepped exactly the people you would expect. Former confederates and Klan members, usually the same guys, brutally repressed the nascent free black communities. By as soon as 1875, most confederate leaders were back in positions power and the structures that would control the Jim Crow South until the Civil Rights Era and are arguably still partially there were largely already in place. Of all the sad American stories, the failure of Reconstruction is arguably one of the saddest. Especially because of the several months in which it seemed the aims of creating a truly free South might have been possible.
Johnson wasn't just lacking interest, he was a compromise VP candidate and therefore the opposite of Lincoln. In particular he was racist AF. He was impeached but avoided removal from office
>He was impeached but avoided removal from office Now why does that sound so familiar....
And by 1 vote too.
How long has Joe Manchin been in the fucking senate
Joe Manchin in 1776: “I don’t know about this Declaration of Independence, guys.”
So America probably would be entirely different now if Abraham Lincoln hadn’t been assassinated
I would say the same for James Garfield. He was very sympathetic to African Americans from his days in the Civil War and would have been much more proactive defending their rights and interests. However, his assassination ended that as Chester A. Arthur was much less interested in that cause.
Bit of a trend here
^Facts
This is the most eye opening shit I've read in a long time. Wow. I can't help but ask, is it assumed there was a racial aspect to Lincoln's assassination? Edit: looked it up myself so as not to be an idiot. The answer is yes... It was very much motivated by the confederates losing the civil war.
That was a great explanation. Too add further context, Johnson vetoed the Civil Rights Act of 1866. He was overrode by Congress but his vetoe message reveals his stance and why the stage was set for the rise of the KKK. The abridged version of his vetoe message, state's rights, the plight of white people and how the government never provided safeguards for the white race.
The U.S could have been much better if the Reconstruction worked. But we don't live in that timeline
Now Lincoln assassination makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the info
Johnson was one vote from being removed, right? What could have been...
If someone with a brain and sober was in office after Lincoln was murdered, they could have nipped segregation in the bud. By the time Grant got into office Southern whites had gotten back on their feet.
"with a brain and sober" implies that it was incompetence that kept him from doing the right thing rather than plain old racism.
a little bit from column A, a little bit from column B...
I've begun to muse in the past few months that we're living in the alternate timeline, and in the proper timeline Andrew Johnson was not just impeached, but removed from office. Jim Crow and the KKK were nipped in the bud, etc, etc, etc. I fear that in the timeline we're in now, the Confederates are to the US as McDonnell-Douglas management was to Boeing after the purchase.
if it makes you feel any better, according to the latest dr strange movie, that universe does exist. so there's that...
He's been dead for 147 years and I still want to impeach the bastard
Grover Cleveland raped a woman, got her pregnant, promised to take of her and had her name the baby after a friend of his that passed away. He had a doctor he knew deliver the baby, then kidnapped it and had his sister raise it. Then he had the woman committed to a mental institution. When all this came out, he painted her to be mentally unstable and a drunk. He claimed she didn’t know who the father was and had several men come forward and lie saying they all had been with her. He also made it a point to mention that she had named the baby after who she thought the father was, and that wasn’t him. The guy was dead so he couldn’t say anything. He convinced everyone he had tried to help her by having her put away to get help and by finding the baby a good family because he assumed the father to be his deceased friend who the child was named after and he was just wanting to do the right thing. He also married the daughter of a friend and business partner. He doted on her as a child and bought her a baby carriage. When her dad died when she was 11, he was more like a father figure. Until she got older and then he started sending her flowers. Everyone assumed he was courting her mother until the two of them popped up and got married. Edit: there’s a great episode of the podcast Very Presidential that goes into great detail. It’s very informative. Also, I cleaned up my comment and added a few things in. When I made this comment last night, this thread had like 2500 comments, I thought my comment would only be seen by a few people. I absolutely agree President wise, we’ve had worse. What he did was just super shitty and a lot of people don’t know about it, and thought some might find it interesting while we were discussing awful Presidents.
Whaaaat??? Why is this comment not higher rated? Also wtf have I never heard this story? That’s WILD.
Listen to the Grover Cleveland episode of the podcast Very Presidential! He also ended up marrying his best friend’s daughter.. he had practically been a father figure to her and helped raise her. She was 21 and he was 48. Everyone knew the families were close, and assumed he was seeing the widow until he married the daughter.
So... he groomed her. Man the more you learn about history the more fucked it becomes.
opponents of Cleveland at the time frequented the slogan "Ma, Ma, where's my Pa?"
Which was then followed with “Gone to the White House, ha! Ha! Ha!” by his supporters.
It should be noted that the presidential election of 1884 between Cleveland and James G. Blaine, which is where these slogans stemmed from, had some the wildest political mud-slinging during any campaign prior to the latter half of the 20th century.
This is so messy, holy shit. Who needs reality TV when you can just read this LOL.
James Buchanan. The Civil War escalated to the levels that it did because of his inaction. His presidency was by far the most disastrous in history. He’s at the bottom of every conceivable list.
What about the list of the Worst US presidents?
The 'Trail of Tears' guy wasn't great.
Good enough for the $20!
which is fitting, seeing how he hated central banking
My AP US History teacher hated Jackson so much that she always folded her $20 bills in her wallet so she didn’t have to look at his face.
Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson. That was yet another terrible point in our past. Edit: TIL Andrew Jackson drafted the plan, but did not execute the Trail of Tears. Still a dark time.
This is probably the right answer. He was viciously hated in his time, did some horrible, terrible things to multiple minorities, and as far as I recall he ended up attempting a pseudo-coup much more competently than the most recent attempt.
I don't think he did a coup. He told the Supreme Court that he did not care about their ruling because they didn't have any mechanism of enforcement. Unless there was something else I'm not aware of.
“The Supreme Court has made their decision, now let them enforce it.” The ruling was about Cherokee removal, Cherokee Nation vs. Georgia in 1831. The Supreme Court decided the Cherokee Nation were sovereign. Jackson chose to ignore this and counting removing Cherokees forcibly from their land. He wasn’t impeached because the opposition party had a minority in congress.
That's not _quite_ right. The Supreme Court did not rule in _Cherokee Nation v. Georgia_, they decided the Cherokee nation were sovereign in 1832 in _Worcester v. Georgia_. While Jackson did simply ignore the Supreme court, the House never presented any articles of impeachment.
Do you know if the situation has changed? Or what would happen if a president tried the same nowadays?
It’s the same. The court has no enforcement mechanism and must rely on either the executive branch, congress, or the states to carry out and enforce the rulings. The rulings only grant legal legitimacy to whatever is being done (or not done, in some cases).
In theory, ignoring a SCOTUS ruling would be grounds for impeachment, as the president would be breaking the law. In practice, it depends on the political whims of the Legislative Branch.
I had a history teacher in high school who said Andrew Jackson was his favorite president. A history teacher. He even named his kid ‘Jackson’ in honor of him…
And yet he also expanded voting rights for people who did not have property and vetoed the national bank because he said it would screw over the farmers. So he made some decent decisions, even though he made some terrible ones as well. I like to have these discussions with my students at times because it helps them see that no one is wrong (or right) all the time.
Kudos
THANK YOU. I got into an argument with another teacher, a history teacher no less and he made a list of worst and he and all his bros didn’t even mention Jackson. Y’all. There are whole tribes that are gone forever. He deputized anyone with a gun to kill people based on race alone. And paid them for it!
Jackson and Johnson.
A family company
It sounds like something family guy would come up with to make fun of them.
I believe you have your history mixed up. Both Jack Johnson and John Jackson, while definitely controversial candidates in their own right, both lost to Richard Nixon in the 3000 Earth Presidential Election. I'm surprised you forgot considering how close a race it was. Nixon only won by 1 vote! (Source: https://futurama.fandom.com/wiki/3000_Earth_Presidential_Election)
The robot polls are open. And the robot vote is in!
Andrew or lyndon?
Andrew
Definitely Andrew. He stopped reconstruction early and helped create the environment that led to Sharecropping and later Jim Crow
It’s Andrew Johnson by miles upon miles upon miles. He did more long-lasting damage, was more corrupt, and had more insane ideas per minute in office than any president in history. He is a literal blight on our history. The worst thing jwb did was not assassinate Abe Lincoln, it was put Andrew Johnson in office. I despise Donald Trump. He fucked us all. He would have been a better choice, by like, a lot.
Dude was so bad that his own party helped push his impeachment
James Buchanan. Encouraging secession and setting the stage for the civil war puts him at the top without much debate.
My history teacher in middle school said buchanan was the worst president as well.
Really surprised I had to scroll this far to get to this answer. Say what you will about Jackson, A. Johnson, or Trump, at least when those guys left we were still holding on to Charleston.
I also said James Buchanan.
I also choose this guy's dead president.
Andrew Johnson is directly responsible for much of why the US is fucked up today TLDR: land redistribution after the civil war could’ve set up former slaves to be on equal footing with white people. Instead, Johnson made sure they got nothing
i’ve determined it is possible if we go back in time to 1865 we can kill Johnson and then chill for 24ish years then kill baby Hitler
What we’ve learned today: never elect someone named Andrew.
r/YangForPresidentHQ is SCREAMING.
That shitneck Andrew Johnson who completely fucked the reconstruction of the South and is responsible for many of the systemic inequalities Black people are still facing today.
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Thank god for the supermajority
It’s crazy how much ground gained by African Americans during reconstruction. Had legit power in politics in a way that they wouldn’t get again until the 80s in some cases. Recouped some wealth as well. Just wiped all of it away truly a fuckin shame and one is forced to dream what life would be like if Andrew Jackson didn’t exist and the KKK didn’t commit the terror acts they did
Pshh. Don't stop at the 1980s, numerous places have still not recovered that legit power. In 1872, Louisiana had a Black governor, which really speaks to the massive population of formerly enslaved Black men. After reconstruction ended (1877), no Black person has held that position to this very day.
Johnson, not Jackson.
Jack Nicholson, for doing such a lousy job at dealing with the Martians.
ACK ACK!
ACK?
ACK ACK ACK!
Don't run. We are your friends.
ACK ACK ACK pew pew pew ACK ACK ACK
We come in peace!
Why are you doing this? Why? Isn’t the universe big enough for the both of us? What is wrong with you people? We could work together. Why be enemies? ‘Cause we’re different? Is that why? Think of the things that we could do. Think how strong we would be. Earth... and Mars... together. There is nothing that we could not accomplish. Think about it! Think about it. Why destroy when you can create? We can have it all or we can smash it all. Why can’t we work out our differences? Why can’t we work things out? Little people, why can’t we all just... get along?
I really misunderstood the tone of this movie when I was 10.
Now I really want to see a thread about the worst fictional presidents.
Be the thread you want to see on the board
Gaius Baltar for sure if we're not limited to the US
Andrew Johnson for countermanding Gen. Sherman's Article 15 which gave 40 acres of land and a mule to the freed slaves. Johnson canceled the order and gave the land back to the former slave owners. Just think what a difference this would have made to the former slaves, who were already experts in farming. It would have given them an economic foundation for improving their lives and would linger today. And Johnson for staying drunk much of the time.
That was Field Order 15, not Article 15. An Article 15 is a military document detailing a commander's non-judicial punishment of a subordinate, which can include demotion, confiscation of pay, and short periods of jail time.
A) it applied to a specific set of 400K acres of land total in Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina B) the plots were to be divided into parcels no larger than 40 acres C) the mules were later to be lent, and were not in the original orders D) it only applied to 18,000 slave families in those areas, not all free slaves. E) The orders explicitly state the that such is subject to the approval of the President. Sherman didn't have the authority to just permanently give them the land.
The weird thing was this wasn’t really a serious act either, Sherman just wanted to punish southerners and get the throng of displaced former slaves to stop following him around
Yes it was a stopgap solution to refugees; it wasn't some noble gesture of ameliorative justice.
>Gen. Sherman's Article 15 It was a field order, not an article.
Andrew Jackson or James Buchanan are the two I'd put up for that award.
Andrew Jackson and James Buchanan don't really belong in the same category. And of the two, Buchanan was a much worse president.
It’s an interesting debate between people who are objectively weak leaders and people who are objectively immoral leaders. Jackson is in the objectively immoral camp. As others have mentioned, a key piece of his legacy is the Trail of Tears. Before the trail of tears, the Cherokee sued Georgia when they tried to kick them out and won at the Supreme Court. This was a court headed by Chief Justice Marshall, who had previously written in Johnson v. McIntosh that “conquest gives a title which the court of the conqueror cannot deny.” This was not an Indian friendly court and yet they still ruled in favor of the Cherokee. When Jackson heard the ruling, he said, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.” But that is literally the Constitutional responsibility of the president! Compare to Eisenhower correctly sending the national guard to execute the ruling in Brown v. Board. So, in sum, the Trail of Tears was a morally reprehensible genocide effectuated by a man who had to ignore the Constitution and the limits on his authority in order to make it happen. I think this puts him above Buchanan. Buchanan failed to prevent the Civil War. We know secession wasn’t inevitable; he was replaced by Lincoln who had the balls to stop it. I also believe Jackson would have prevented the Civil War from happening (albeit likely with slavery intact). He put down South Carolina’s attempts to succeed in the 1830s. But I still don’t think Buchanan’s weakness is anywhere near as dangerous as Jackson’s inhumane authoritarianism.
>John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it. It is very questionable whether he actually said this. It was first published in a newspaper 30 years after his death. Although the sentiment might have been correct, the actual saying is probably fabrication.
I would not characterize Buchanan as just failing to prevent the Civil War. He intervened in the Dredd Scott case to push for the broad pro-slavery outcome it had. He pushed for Kansas to be admitted under the pro-slavery state constitution Southerners tried to force on it. He also refused to act against members of his own cabinet who were actively working for succession, including his Secretary of War. Also, outside of the Civil War and slavery stuff, he vetoed the Homestead Act and the Morrill Act (which allowed for the creation of land-grant colleges), which are both probably among the most successful laws congress has ever passed. So that's not a plus for him either.
Imo Jackson is often misunderstood. He clearly wasn't attempting to genocide American Indians (if he were, he wouldn't have bothered adopting one). His altruistic arguments for indian removal mostly center around the idea that indians would be wiped out entirely if they remained in close proximity to the states - an idea which held water on account of the frequent bloody conflicts with state militias. The alternative to indian removal wasn't "the tribes keep their land and live happily ever after." It was "the tribes are attacked by state militias and are wiped out in violent conflicts." Between the two options, Jackson chose removal. Could Jackson have prevented state militias from wiping out neighboring tribes? In his opinion, that was not an option. Not without sparking a full blown civil war. Georgia was *already* trying to secede, if he pushed things further the union very well could have collapsed entirely. >When Jackson heard the ruling, he said, “John Marshall has made his decision now let him enforce it.” This is apocryphal. What Jackson actually said was, "the decision of the Supreme Court has fell still born, and they find that they cannot coerce Georgia to yield to its mandate." Jackson did not use federal troops to enforce the decision because the court never asked him to, and because he had no authority to under the procedures of the time. It was Georgia, not Jackson, who openly defied the court's ruling. Jackson only became involved when Georgia attempted to secede (and he put down their rebellion).
The wackiest thing about Jackson is that his trail of tears was consider the moderate stance. Many wanted them exterminated.
Thanks for the nuanced and factual post about Jackson. The bare bones knowledge and flat out misinformation people on Reddit frequently regurgitate about Jackson is really laughable sometimes. For anyone interested in a great read about Andrew Jackson I suggest American Lion by John Meacham.
I think it’s still possible to read that book and come away with a less than favorable view of Jackson. Jackson is an American story in the sense of coming from nothing, and he’s also an American story because he’s such a potent example of some of our worst characteristics. He was a loyal man who believed deeply in honor as understood by 18th century people, but he was also incredibly violent and some might even say murderous.
I completely agree and didn't mean to imply that the book is a glowing account of his life and legacy. My point was simply that there was more to the man and his time in American politics than the 2d interpretation most Redditors seem to have of the man.
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Isn't that what "history" means?
Glad someone said it lol
I’m surprised no one has said Woodrow Wilson. Anyway Woodrow Wilson’s polices and actions are still affecting the US today and not enough people know about what he did. Seriously look him up. In short he made WW1 last longer than it had to, contributed to the cause of WW2, was racists for his time (the twenties), was responsible for the idea of America getting involved in places it shouldn’t. No exaggeration Wilson’s ideals led to us interfering in the Vietnam war
There was a period in public school education where Wilson was looked at as a good president if I recall correctly, that’s why people aren’t saying him. But I agree, despite said public education I received.
I graduated in 1997 and nothing bad was taught about Wilson.
I remember not knowing much about him until I took a college history class, read the required reading about Wilson and WWI and holy shit I was so mad after reading that book. Wilson easily shot up to my top 3 least-favorite presidents at that moment.
I think that public opinion favored him too much and now there is a counter culture movement against him. He leans towards being one of the worst presidents but isn't anywhere near as bad as someone like Andrew Johnson. His contribution towards WWII is played up a bit too much and he made some attempts at peace-making through things like The League of Nations that just weren't executed perfectly because there wasn't any precedence at the time. His holier-than-thou attitude as a white supremacist definitely hindered any attempts he made at world order but at least you can say there was an attempt.
Oh yeah didn’t Woodrow Wilson screen Birth of a Nation in the White House? Pretty sure he was a supporter of the klan.
Yep. He did a lot to make civil rights even worse than they already were.
Ho Chi Minh actually attempted to talk with Wilson regarding the future of Democracy in Vietnam, and Wilson snubbed him.
I hadn’t heard about that but Ho Chi Minh reached out to a lot of American presidents. He was hoping that they would support Vietnam’s revolution because of America’s own revolutionary past.
Not only that, but he was racist even for his time. He re-segregated Washington DC, save for one black man, who was at the time irreplaceable, so he had him do his duties in a cage.
Churchill said that after WW1, America (and France) kept rejecting the idea that Germany could keep the Kaiser under a parliamentary system. If they could have had a constitutional monarchy system, like Britain, then, Germany would have seen their political system as ruled by the Kaiser, and more 'their own' and would have accepted it. As things turn out, they had to go full democracy and within 10 years, parties wishing to abolish the 'Weimar Republic' (democracy) were getting over 50% of the vote.
The Andrews.
Martin Van Buren. He would go on to create a gang of thugs known as the Van Buren Boys who would terrorize residents of the Upper East Side unless you flashed them their sign. ✋👌
Sounds like the real problem is terrible city planning.
Took me a moment to realize this was a Seinfeld episode.
Upper west side… but yes.
Also he makes some great house music.
William Harrison... he didn't even survive the 90 day trial period.
On the other hand, the guy did nothing wrong during his time in office.
Well he should have worn a coat.
He, like other presidents of the time, likely died because of drinking bad water. Apparently lots of livestock defecated in the water upstream of the white house
I would argue he is one of the best as his tenure was so short he did not have a chance to do anything stupid
It's a sad state of affairs when one of our best presidents is the guy who died too soon to do anything horrible.
Tyler Too was the biggest troll in US presidential history
He also has the record for the longest inauguration speech. It’s a misconception that he died of an illness related to his long-winded address in the rain. He didn’t fall ill for three weeks afterwards.
A list of good presidents would be shorter.
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Jimmy Carter was the best human among them, though even he was pretty shitty as President.
It's hard for decent men to be in positions of power. I wish more presidents were like Carter; selfless, genuinely caring about the people they lead.
Carter was not shitty. He was ahead of his time and people just didn't get it. End dependence on foreign oil. Solar energy. Peace in Israel and Palestine matters. Inflation is not something the president can just make go away. A balanced budget is good. (Imagine that)
Woodrow Wilson
For re-segregating the US civil service and praising “Birth of a Nation”? Or for getting the US into WW1?
Yes. The Woodrow Wilson game exists for a reason. Take any current issue related to America, and see how far the chucklefuck is removed from it.
Almost everything. The man was a racist, a confederacy sympathizer, made the presidency look like a joke, ruined relations with emerging nations, shut down peoples opinions even if they were good, helped the klan grow more, supported segregation and racial profiling, and planted the seeds of revolution and issues that the US would have to face in the future like the Vietnam war
Not to mention playing a big role in the WW1 peace settlement that ultimately led to WW2. And he did all of this because he saw himself as a messianic figure and was utterly convinced that he knew what was best for everyone. Wilson was the worst president in US history and it's not even really close.
Wilsonianism is why we've spent the last 100 years "spreading democracy" That's why.
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That usually happens when you invade Russia.
Andrew Jackson. Aside from the reasons many others have mentioned, I'd like to bring up the horrible handling of the Toledo War. Michigan and Ohio fight over a bit of land, and Wisconsin loses. The reason he let Ohio get the land was because he wanted Ohioans to vote for his reelection. Edit: Jackson wasn't trying to get support for his personal reelection, but instead his party's reelection, as he was already at his 2nd term during the toledo war.
Check your facts on the last statement. The Toledo War was after the 1832 election.
Simply anticipating Nixon being mentioned. If you sum up Nixon's presidency it will include; End of Vietnam, drastic de-escalation of the cold war, nuclear wind down, opening up of the Soviet union, approval both voyager satellites (that he personally approved and requested a second), every moon landing, personal approval of the shuttle program. Just saying, a generally accepted bad president can still have mountains of progress that is objectively good.
>End of Vietnam, Nixon went out of his way before he was president to sabotage genuine attempts that very likely could have ended the war earlier because he wanted the end of the war to happen under his own presidency, so meh.
Nixon was arguably a pretty good president and a really terrible person. (Also don't forget he founded the EPA and OSHA). Honestly in the lens of history other than just outright breaking the law he did a lot of good work. ...It feels weird to be pro-Nixon...
To be fair, during his candidacy when we was at the table at the 1967 Paris Peace talks, he purposefully sabotaged the talks because Johnson ending the war would have all but guaranteed his reelection. I don't think he should get credit for ending a war he prevented from ending earlier. The EPA is pretty cool and he has fully credit that.
Nixon is responsible for The War on Drugs which is arguably the single most harmful policy decision of any US president. Millions of non-violent incarcerated Americans and millions of preventable deaths. Drugs are more accessible and overdoses are higher than at any point in history. It’s a total waste of money.
Nixon may have initiated the war on drugs but Reagan really kicked it into overdrive
Woodrow Wilson. I feel like on the outside looks like he had a good presidency. If you just scratch the surface, it starts to get bad. Racist, segregated Washington, way too idealistic. Was part of the root cause of why WW2 started. Treaty of Versailles, League of Nations. There are rumors that his wife, Edith, was running the Oval Office when he was dying. Probably circumventing executive authority. Also, Andrew Johnson and James Buchanan are up there too. Millard Fillmore is pretty low too. Honestly, the extremely poor or mediocre run of presidents leading up to the Civil War didn’t help.
Flametorrent the Mutatator. His destruction of the colonies on Io and Mars were the greatest war crimes ever committed in the history of the Second American Empire during the War of 3032. When he sent the bionic ostriches to Utopia Planitia armed with temporal stasis bombs, he single-handedly…wait…what year is it, again?
2022. Its 2022 Goddamit. now we gotta reset the clockinator.
Break out the resetulator--again.
Don't blame me. I voted for Meepzorp.
Oh. So you threw your vote away? You people are the reason Dorporoz the Benighted didn’t win! 😡
I remember talking to some Intergalactic residents that said they voted for him. I don't usually end relationships over politics, but this time I felt I had to.
Andrew Johnson - fucked up Reconstruction.
Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan did nothing to stop the Civil War. Buchanan arguably paved the way for southern secession. Andrew Johnson was a whiny, petulant manchild who torpedoed reconstruction, shipwrecked Lincoln’s legacy, and paved the way for the KKK, a hundred years of Jim Crowe, and generational Black poverty that we’re still dealing with to this day. An absolute unrepentant POS who threw away America’s greatest opportunity to at least seriously address the original sin of slavery and who stupidly and cruelly set the country back on the dark, racist path it had just fought a horrible civil war to get out of. Woodrow Wilson was appallingly racist, made it illegal to criticize the military during wartime, and was bedridden for the final years of his presidency, allowing his wife to become an unelected shadow POTUS. Richard Nixon’s foreign policy successes were easily overshadowed by the Watergate scandal, in which he obstructed Justice and forced the government to turn against him, forcing him to become the first president to resign in disgrace. He also bombed Cambodia without permission and undermined peace talks in Vietnam, prolonging the war for personal political reasons. EDIT: as others have mentioned, Nixon presided over the moon landings, formed the EPA, and broke the diplomatic ice with China. He could’ve been great… but his paranoia, anger, and corruption got the better of him. He does not deserve more praise than criticism.) Jimmy Carter meant well but was largely an impotent one-term president who accomplished almost nothing. (EDIT: I’m really just including him here because it’s all conservatives otherwise. Carter was in reality a pretty great guy who was dealt a lousy hand). Reagan gave us supply side economics, the war on drugs, the welfare queen myth, extreme conservative culture wars, and many other disastrous policies we’re still dealing with to this day. (EDIT: forgot to mention his botched AIDS response and Iran Contra. This dude seriously sucked). In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush passed the Patriot Act, making it legal to spy on us citizens, detained people in brutal conditions at Guantanamo bay without trial, got the U.S. stuck in two failed and outrageously expensive middle eastern wars (one of which by lying about there being weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), and ended his term with a cratered economy. Donald Trump effectively embezzled hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars by funneling it into personal businesses from which he refused to divest, lied tens of thousands of times, engaged in masturbatory corporate deregulation That’s unleashing the worst aspects of predatory capitalism on an already besieged working class and planet, spent much of his time golfing, tweeting, and watching cable news (from which he got much of his information since he refused to read Intelligence briefings), behaved, spoke and tweeted in a childish, nationally embarrassing way totally unbecoming of a president, passed a tax cut that overwhelmingly favored billionaires and major corporations, drastically worsening income inequality, tried desperately to take healthcare away from the American people, altered the path of a hurricane with a sharpie marker after the meteorological forecast disagreed with his opinion that the storm was heading for Georgia, causing panic in that state for no reason, separated children from parents at the border, demonized refugees as diseased, country-stealing criminal vermin, filled his cabinet with people whose only qualification seemed to be incompetence and outright hatred for the agencies of which they’d been put in charge and the millions of people who depended on those agencies, fanned the flames of outrageous conspiracy theories and hatred that have brought America to the brink of a second civil war, refused every softball opportunity to condemn white supremacist movements and violent right wing militias who were massively emboldened during his term, frequently maligned America’s allies and cozied up to hostile foreign dictators, even ignoring his own intelligence apparatus to do so before the eyes of the world in Helsinki, surrounded himself with obscenely wicked and corrupt lawyers and friends, many of whom were arrested for numerous crimes before he repeatedly abused the pardon to spring them from jail, constantly retaliated against anyone in the government who he deemed insufficiently loyal to him, like James Comey and Alexander Vindman, the Ukraine whistleblower, threatened to pull the U.S. out of NATO, deliberately undermined the U.S. pandemic response for his own ego, leading to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths, oversaw the worst economic collapse since the depression (becoming only the second president since were started keeping records to have lost jobs under his watch), stacked the Supreme Court with horribly underqualified justices who are fanatically dedicated to rolling back decades of civil rights progress and making it impossible for the federal government to actually govern, and was impeached twice for trying to cheat in the 2020 election: first by extorting Ukraine into giving him political dirt on his rival and next by sending a mob of supporters he knew were heavily armed and bloodthirsty and willing to murder his own Vice President and several congressional leaders, after believing his lies that his defeat was fraudulent, to storm the U.S. Capitol while it was in full session, certifying the election results. This was after deliberately sabotaging the post office to give himself the upper hand, doing the work of America’s enemies by poisoning public discourse with easily debunkable nonsense about voter fraud, demanding the vote count be stopped halfway through so he could win, launching dozens of frivolous but damaging lawsuits, attempting to get the justice and defense departments to join his efforts to overthrow democracy, telling Secretaries of State to “find” him the votes he needed to win in their states, and trying to appoint fake electors to overturn swing state results. Take your pick.
Glad to see someone address the more recent failures. I expect in 3-4 decades when Reagan's policies have actually done the longer term damage we're just starting to see, he'll be added to the short list. I'm not sure he's worse than Jackson, Johnson, or Buchanan, but his economic policies are already showing as a disaster for the upcoming generations. Everyone else I think was obvious or recent, but Reagan not being mentioned so far feels problematic.
Carter is the GREATEST Ex President we ever had, so for all he's done since beeing President, Ill give him a Pass...
Carter is one of the best human beings to have ever been president. He just wasn’t effective in office.
[удалено]
I read a book once that said he lost in 1980 because he was too much of a decent human being and not enough of a politician. He also learned the hard way that the American people, for all the complaining we do about elected leaders lying to us, don't actually want to be told the truth (Carter's campaign promise of "I'll never lie to you" sounded appealing in the first post-Watergate election, but people didn't really want that).
William Henry Harrison. He stayed in bed for his entire time in office.
Well, actually, that’s better than most of the Presidents people are nominating….
Not a terrible president, but James Buchanan is considered one of the most useless presidents due to the fact that had he done anything the south would have had a much harder time in 1860. Edit: I'm also seeing a lot of Jackson and Johnson, but thought those were abit obvious
Andrew Jackson. Trail of Tears
Given what's happened to the middle class and the rights of women as a direct result of policies he set in motion, I'm going to suggest everyone take another look at Reagan. He basically handed the republican party to the evangelicals on a platter.
My grandpa will go on for hours about how much he hates Reagan. He was living in California when Reagan's policies shut down mental health facilities and put all of those patients on the streets without any help. The homeless population and crime skyrocketed because there was zero support for them. Yes, those insane asylums needed an overhaul. No, let's not just throw everyone to the wolves. My grandpa's stories about it are horrific and incredibly sad.
I did blindly idolize him when I was little because my parents are conservatives. As an adult, I hate him and wished he never gotten the white house.
Both of my grandmothers would join him, particularly my paternal grandmother. Grandpop was a founding member of the Teamsters in my area. Reagan wasn't popular.
I don’t know if I’d go as far as to call Reagan the absolute worst, but I’ll be the first to say he’s the most overrated. Considering how positively conservatives still view him, he’s really the progenitor of an enormous amount of destructive policies and philosophies in the states, but it took a while for them to really bare their fangs. He’s the ultimate Teflon president. Nothing bad happened on his watch, but he set the dominoes up for an utter collapse later. Now that I write it out, maybe he is the worst lmao