I never thought, in my life time, Franklin Pierce would go from the Gold of worst presidents ever

[Feeling the Bern]

to the Bronze.

Shit, I never thought Chimpy McPlasticTurkey would go from the Gold to the Silver.

[LWolf]

1. You left someone off that list.

Trump may knock him off the gold platform, but that's yet to be seen.

Ronald Reagan.

[Feeling the Bern]

2. From most lists I've seen. . .Reagan is in top ten, but not top three

Traditionally, it's been Pierce, Buchanan, and either Coolidge or Hayes.

Now it's

Trump
Bush Lite
Pierce
Buchanan
Coolidge
Hayes
Grant
Benjamin Harrison
Taft
Hoover

Even Teapot Dome Harding will be off the list in this historian's opinion.

[StevieM]

8. I personally think that Harding, Coolidge and Hoover were all pretty terrible.

And in some ways you could argue that Coolidge was the worst of all.

Why isn't Andrew Johnson on your list?

[LWolf]

15. Did you live through the Reagan administration?

I did. As a matter of fact, he's the only POTUS I've ever seen in person. He was my governor when I was growing up, before he became president.

Of course, I could have some personal bias; those Reagan Democrats that helped elect him also, imho, helped bring neo-liberals to power to the detriment of the Democratic Party and the eventual election of Donald Trump. I'm a bit bitter. But I saw what was happening around me during his tenure, and what the constant eroding of liberal and democratic gains led to.

I agree that Trump may become the worst ever. Because I don't want to see it happen, I won't judge that until it does.

As a pro-slavery and pro-expansion (although what president in that era WASN'T pro-expansion) president, Pierce was certainly a bad president, but I don't feel he reaches the level RR did. Of course, I'm just a person, not a committee. I haven't sought consensus.

[Feeling the Bern]

20. So did I. What's your point?

[LWolf]

24. My point is that,

in my opinion, Ronald Reagan was the worst so far, with the possibility of being toppled into second place by Trump.

[oberliner]

17. How can lists put Trump #1 before he even takes office?

Can you link to one of those?

[StevieM]

5. Reagan was horrible. I always thought that he was worse than George W. Bush. (eom)

[LWolf]

13. He was much worse.

GWB was a disaster because some of Reagan's thugs were directing him.

[malchickiwick]

3. Buchanan is still the gold medalist, in this history prof's opinion. Shrub Silver. Nixon Bronze.

I rank these in terms of harm inflicted on the country and our institutions of democracy. Thus, for Trump to surpass J.B. he would have to allow a crisis to develop that leaves some 8 million Americans dead, the equivalent percentage of the population that perished in the U.S. Civil War. So, needless to say, I hope that the orange presidential shitstain is unable to knock Buchanan from his ignoble post.

By the way, by my calculations Reagan and Jackson are close runners-up.

[Feeling the Bern]

4. Buchanan didn't understand the problem. His handling of Dred Scott stunk too.

I believe Jackson is right up there with the damage he did during and his BUSA crap that led to the seven year depression of The Panic of 1837.

Mine are, as I taught before I retired:

Gold: Jackson
Silver: Buchanan
Bronze: AWOL McFlightsuit

But, Trump may go up there. He's not starting out well.

I'd say the removal of voting restrictions started this. John Q. Adams could have been one of best presidents we had, but the commoner couldn't relate to his cold demeanor. So they turned to the Trump of their day.

[StevieM]

6. I agree about Andrew Jackson. But I think Reagan was worse than George W. Bush.

I also think that Andrew Johnson needs to be remembered as one of the worst ever, possibly the worst.

[malchickiwick]

9. Excellent Points

No question: Jackson was a disaster in terms of lives lost, economic rupture, and the balance of powers within the government. If you want to put him first-worst, I'll not argue. I


Also, that is a very interesting point regarding JQA and Jackson and our current situation vis-a-vis the shitgibbon-elect. Thanks for making that analogy, I hadn't thought of it before.

[StevieM]

7. I think your list is respectable but why is Andrew Johnson not on it? (eom)

[malchickiwick]

10. Johnson was neutered from the outset, and never really had the chance to do as much damage, imo.

The Radical Repubs in Congress were basically running the show at that point, and Johnson never really had the power to muck things up -- although he certainly tried. And keep in mind, his plan for Reconstruction was originally Lincoln's plan...

[Feeling the Bern]

12. The 1876 Corrupt Bargain killed Reconstruction of any plan, which is why Hayes is there

When the troops left the South, they left the Freedmen defenseless. Enter Jim Crow, KKK power and the road to Plessy.

[malchickiwick]

19. Sad, but True Dat.

Gore Vidal wrote a pretty good novel about the election of 1876, not as good as Burr, in my opinion, but still a pretty good read.

[treestar]

14. Interesting, but then shouldn't a factor be

the history of the time?

How would Trumpy handle it if he had to deal with Buchanan's situation? Probably a worse disaster.

Fortunately he inherits a good economy and no wars. Compared to that base line, what he does could be worse in relative terms.

Flighty McFlightsuit inherited a good economy and messed it up and started wars that weren't necessary.

You know more about Buchanan than I do at this moment, but I'm wondering if what he walked into wasn't a big mess already.

[malchickiwick]

18. Sure, things were already starting to go bad in 1857, but...

Buchanan was firmly in charge when the economy faltered, when the Scott decision came out, when Harper's Ferry occurred, and, of course, when the first seven states seceded. It's hard to see how he could have responded any worse to those crises than he did.

And it's hard to imagine how the Trumpuppet would've responded to any of those scenarios, because there was no such thing as Twitter yet.

Still, you are absolutely right that very few presidents have been as lucky as the Cheeto-elect in terms of the health of the economy inherited upon inauguration. I expect the ferret-wearing one to destroy it pretty quickly, as Repubs are wont to do.

[treestar]

21. Haha, true!

[KamaAina]

11. Where is the love for Millard Fillmore?

[malchickiwick]

16. I think he was more of a Hot Mess after being president, than during his admin.

And he does have a podunk town in the middle of Utah named after him; if that's not love, what is?

[KamaAina]

23. Not to mention a street in SF that once had a famous auditorium on it.

[treestar]

22. He even got a tv fiction junior high named after him

The Brady Bunch attended Fillmore Junior High!