U.S. President Historical Rankings

You take that back right now son

I just read a little bit about him and to me it seems he was good enough to sit back and not ruin what the country had going, as well as a decent record on things like civil rights. Am I missing something?

t. Dixiecrat

Why is Polk so high

Johnson's the man with a big Johnson.
Also effective governance and political leadership.
And gud reforms.

>FDR #2
At least Teddy is in the top 5

>fdr in 2nd place
>jfk in top 10
>truman not in top 5

> he was good enough to sit back and not ruin what the country had going
Doing nothing isn't an accomplishment and while he was 'doing nothing' the greatest economic depression in modern history was brewing. Even presidents vested with less executive authority like Jefferson and Adams would execute their duties in a way that left a profound legacy for their successors, Jefferson would leave a lasting ideological vision for his countryman, Adams demonstrated the peaceful transition of power--In both cases they treated the office as a solemn and important responsibility endeavoring to do the most good for their country. Coolidge on the other hand treated the office with the flippancy of a sinecure--he was most notable for playing pranks on the white house staff and taking naps every day while income inequality was reaching historic levels and the country was careening towards The Great Depression.

FDR was a socialist bigot who slowed down the growth of the economy with government interventionism.

>Kennedy ahead of Johnson
should be switched, since Kennedy is more thanks to dying early if we're being honest
t. Dixiecrat or eternally buttblasted Libertarian
he got shit done, though Vietnam ruined him

>Woodrow Wilson any place other than last
Fucking garbage

>lincon at 1
this kills the southerner

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

Why is Lincoln so high? Shouldn't failing to defuse a bloody civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of Americans at least put him under Washington?
Not American, just wondering.I always thought that Lincol was somewhat controversial.

youtube.com/watch?v=bxgoajDI1WQ

He's high because he preserved the union. It's controversial because there are some who believed at the time (and there are still some who believe today) that states had a right to leave the union.

Lists like these are always shit. The top 10 people in that lists had competing ideologies and would have hated each other desu.

Jefferson would have hated Lincoln, but loved Teddy. Jackson would have hated Wilson, etc.

>But those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.

hmm...

>Still believing the FDR meme

If he stopped the great depression it would only last for 5 years

What an absolute fucking joke.

>Andrew Jackson that high
Whoa, when did America become this cool.

>FDR
>T-Roo
>Truman
>Wilson
>Obama in the top half
Shut list

>Reagan above Carter
>Reagan not dead last

Shit list

>Coolidge on the other hand treated the office with the flippancy of a sinecure
>"Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity."

He's high because he 'freed the slaves', that's literally it.
In nearly every other area, he was pretty shit.

He stopped farmer subsidiaries and decreased Federal income taxes to a point where only the rich paid them. That's it. He's the go to idol of Conservatives after Reagan because he was against more regulations.
Johnson was literally the best President we have.
he did everything he said he was going to do.
and you're a nigger.

>Southerner
This kills the Lincoln

He literally decided not to run for a second term because he had achieved everything on his agenda in the first.

t. Roosevelt

That doesn't dispute my post. A president's conduct and his public approval, especially in an age before mass-media, aren't exactly commensurate especially when he had the good fortune to ride a wave of economic exuberance and get out before crash his 'adoring public' didn't know was coming.

>Overrated
TR, JFK, Obama, Lincoln

>Underrated
Polk, Nixon

This is a meme. He didn't run for re-election because 1. He agreed not to at the Democratic Convention in order to get nominated in the first place and 2. he was dying
Look at when Polk left office and then look at his death date.

1. He was an incredible writer and orator, which are necessary qualities for an inspirational leader
2. He wasn't stopped by shitty generals, he kept searching until he found good ones and adapted his strategies without insisting on failing ones
3. He never put his ego into his work, didn't fire generals for ridiculing him, only for failing to win battles
4. He freed the slaves, which doesn't need quotation marks, because it was an inevitable and necessary development in our country's history and he did it well
5. He preserved the Union and buttblasted Dixiecucks forever, then double cucked them by letting his party become the party of the south so that every Republican politician calls the GOP the "Party of Lincoln"

>Roosevelt above Washington
>Anyone above Washington
>Anyone any the greatest leader in history since cinncinnatis

Sometimes memes are true user

ayy

This. He's a sacred cow that can't be questioned. Seward would have been a better president. Honestly Lincoln bungled the war more than helped it.

>Nixon
>literally had to resign because he committed a crime and dishonored the office of the presidency
>Underrated
Apart from that, I guess he did normalize relations with China

It's literally not in this case. You're regurgitating a cracked.com-esque narrative. He made the agreement not to run for re-election before he was even formally nominated to break the stalemate at the Democratic convention so the idea that 'oh he did everything and gracefully stepped down' is some post-hoc baloney.

>then double cucked them by letting his party become the party of the south

5D chess nigger

Tldr lol

Additionally, the narrative that "He literally decided not to run for a second term because he had achieved everything" paints him as a kind of beloved Cincinnatus stepping down at the height of his glory and popularity but he wasn't even a popular president. First of all the Mexican-American war was, by congressional vote, the most unpopular war in American history (i.e. the vote to declare war passed congress by the slimmest margin of any declaration of war in American history). Thousands of Americans were dead in a war many of them never wanted and the new land greatly exacerbated the sectarian tension over the slavery question in the new territory. Additionally he pissed off Northern democrats in the way he handled the Oregon crisis and was widely seen as a pliant tool of southern interests. On top of all this he was accused of sabotaging his own general Zachary Taylor out of partisanship.

If he DIDN'T already agree not to run for a second term and he WASN'T dying there was a strong possibility he would have lost the election to the same war hero whose glory he tried to smother.

Why was Taylor so unpopular then huh

Taylor wasn't unpopular he died a year into his presidency

But presidents who die get a popularity bump

I believe he was popular in his own time but historians don't care for him because his presidency was practically inconsequential.

>Obama
15 is pretty reasonable, got us out of the great recession

>t. Howe
Neowhigs are fucking cancer. I can't believe they actually try and argue that conquering the west coast was bad for america.

The land from the Mexican-American war was without a doubt the biggest catalyst for the Civil War. After Polk political lines would increasingly be drawn entirely on the question of slavery and the North-South fissure that resulted would become impossible to mend.

Bush appointees Bernecke and Paulson got us out of the recession with complete support of Congressional republicans. The initial bailout happened under bush with the second bigger stimulus happened within a month of Obama taking office and he had little to do with it's crafting.

>Polk shrewdly maneuvers his way into getting Texas and the West Coast, two of our current richest states and access to the Pacific
>"OMG JUST TERRIBLE HE LITERALLY CAUSED A CIVIL WAR THAT HAPPENED DECADES LATER WHY DID HE INCREASE REGIONAL TENSIONS"

>Lincoln runs on an inherently sectarian platform even after threats of secession and manages to get almost every slave state to secede starting the civil war
>"omg our greatest president"

>Polk shrewdly maneuvers his way into getting Texas and the West Coast
he literally just sent american soldiers across the border to commit an act of war and get killed so he could use their corpses as a pretext to initiate a shameless war of conquest.

You can draw parallels between that and the resupplying of Ft. Sumter I guess, but Lincoln was at least a first rate mind, a first rate politician and the war he fought was unavoidable as opposed to Polk who started a completely unnecessary conflict on purpose for spoils

Polk gained some of the most prosperous land of our nation. Lincoln fought the other half of our nation. Do neowhigs actually think the US would be better off without the western third of the lower 48?

>the war he fought was unavoidable
huh really? because the prior four presidents managed to avoid it.

>only last 5 years
U wot m8

Was he supposed to completely end it a year into his term?

>LBJ anywhere but DEAD LAST

>no commiefornia
>no vegas (thus no vegas jewish-mafia controlled politicians)
>no mexicans
>no brutal civil war over who gets to divvy up the new mexican clay

>-no gold

Face it, we should've stopped at Texas.

>because the prior four presidents managed to avoid it.
because the prior 4 presidents were all southerns who tip toed around the explosive issue of slavery and did everything they could to placate the slave states. The states seceded while Buchanan was still president--he just dumped the issue of maintaining the Union of Lincoln's plate because unlike Lincoln, Buchanan was unable to rise to the occasion and put the issue of slavery, the most intractable political problem of US history, down once and for all.

i'm not saying America didn't benefit from the Mexican-American war. I'm saying it was a totally unnecessary conflict waged entirely for territorial gain and which carried (i'd say 'unforseen', but lots of people at the time including congressman lincoln, calhoun, and clay saw the potential danger) enormously disruptive political ramifications.

>because the prior 4 presidents were all southerns
only Taylor was a southerner and he died a year in. come on...

>The states seceded while Buchanan was still president
because of the election of Lincoln and only the 7 weakest ones did. Lincoln managed to get the other 4 to secede (3 being the most populous southern states).

>Buchanan was unable to rise to the occasion and put the issue of slavery, the most intractable political problem of US history, down once and for all.
Lincoln was 100% willing to enshrine the protection of slavery in the constitution if the border states didn't secede, let's not act like he was attempting to rid the US of slavery until it became crucial to do so. Fuck even Andrew Johnson was calling for the end of the slavery by the time Lincoln pushed for it.

>i'm not saying America didn't benefit from the Mexican-American war.
but you are understating it. It was incredibly important for the later growth of the US and America most likely would not have become the world superpower without it.

youtube.com/watch?v=H9SvJMZs5Rs

Alright I made mistakes--Fillmore, Piece and Buchanan weren't southerners but they did bend over backwards to appease the slave states.

Lincoln did initially and primarily fight the war over preserving the union but that shouldn't discount from how he used his political acumen in the time of crisis to finally deal with the issue of slavery.

>It was incredibly important for the later growth of the US and America most likely would not have become the world superpower without it.
Demographics was on the side of the US in this case. I'm not going to conjure some alt-history justification and say the US was destined to control the territory no matter what, but given the penchant of americans for organizing filibusters in the antebellum era and mexico's weak control its not unthinkable the territory would have been acquired other than undisguised conquest.

>Fillmore, Piece and Buchanan weren't southerners but they did bend over backwards to appease the slave states.
how?

>US was destined to control the territory no matter what, but given the penchant of americans for organizing filibusters in the antebellum era and mexico's weak control its not unthinkable the territory would have been acquired other than undisguised conquest.
I disagree. Filibusterers couldn't even hold nicaragua, I doubt they could take on the Mexicans. I'm mad that Polk wasn't able to get all the land he wanted, if the senate listened to him we would have an american Cuba and Yucatan.

>how?
Millard would sign the fugitive slave act which was a total capitulation to the demands of slave states and would become one of the most intolerable laws in the north.

Pierce would sign the Kansas-Nebraska act, another victory for slave states

Buchanan personally lobbied for more stringent slaver rights in the Dred-Scott case and urged Kansas to be voted in as a slave state.

There is no reason for Reagan to be that high on the list.

>Woodrow Wilson
>That high
>When he shafted Italy so hard
>When he hardened his stance on Germany and was a complete fucking hypocrite
>When he contributed to the causes of the Second World War

>if I'm elected I'm gonna settle border disputes and lower tariffs
>does exactly that
>leaves
Honestly, as far as "achieving goals" goes he's pretty much #1 as far as Presidents go.

>Taft so low
wat

>LBJ
>gud reforms
what is the black community being destroyed by the "great society"

t. doesn't know shit about Roosevelt
He was a well known fiscal conservative and only followed Keynes's advice because Hoover's fiscal conservative approach didn't work at all.

He was a hypocrite was not going hard enough on Germany, if anything.

Germany should have been completely dismantled the way that AH and the Ottoman Empire were.

>committed crime
has no bearing on what he did in office.
As you said he normalized relations with China.
He got us out of Vietnam (lied along the way and increased bombing campaigns but got it done)
He started the EPA.
OSHA.
Clean Air Act.
Ended the gold standard and lowered America's high(ish) inflation.
He dabbled in civil rights and healthcare.

The worst thing he did was the war on drugs.

>Millard would sign the fugitive slave act which was a total capitulation to the demands of slave states and would become one of the most intolerable laws in the north.
The return of fugitive slaves was a right of slave states outlined in the constitution. Obeying the constitution is not a capitulation.

>Kansas-Nebraska act, another victory for slave states
North gets transcontinental railroad going through the midwest instead of the south in exchange for popular sovereignty for the territories. That's called a compromise.

The bailout was not what he's crediting to the Obama administration.

he's a fucking le funny reddit meme.

Truman needs to be in the top 3.

Where do you think he will end up in that ranking once his presidency ends?

>George Washington isn't 1
Scholars are full of shit. Washington should always be first in every poll except bad president at which point he is the lowest ranking one by default.

Bottom 5. He made a joke of the presidency, regardless of whether his policies succeed or not.

Mid-tier. He'll probably fulfill a good amount of his campaign promises, though he certainly won't be an amazing president.

Lel he's a joke to everyone except the mindless drones who would follow him either way. He's worse than anyone except maybe Nixon to the institution as public image.

Lmao @ lincoln

>He made a joke of the presidency
every election someone says that

There's honestly no way he gets something other than dead last. It's professors at universities who make these lists, all extremely liberal. Even if he was accomplishing the things he set out to do, the hate people have for him will prevent him from getting a good spot.

But this time it's for real. Bush II looked like a deer in front of headlights so you kinda fel sorry for him and Obama was popular because he was a very good orator. Trump just acts like a clown and everyone is laughing at his fratboy antics. He's a joke to everyone.

>has no bearing on what he did in office
It disgraced the office itself and is a slippery slope to more stupid shit. He is lucky to not go to jail

>Obama above Reagan
Pure shit. Reagan is by far the best US president since Lyndon at least.

He was shit. Carter brought down the Soviet Union and stabilized the US economy, Reagan took the credit.

>first lady posed for a nudie mag
>has vocabulary of car salesman

Russian Manchurian Candidate.
He'll be remembered as a traitor alongside Benedict Arnold. (Except the latter was never President)

Reagan changed the world economy forever for the best. The most essential US president since WW2. He did nothing wrong.

>Van Buren that high

Literally just a proxy for Jackson to dump the long term effects of his bank fuckery on.

>Money wasted is on billions, not trillions
>people actually got in jail for wiretapping a building
Good old time.