Worst President Ever?

Apr 9, 2008 at 12:45 PM
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Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine at least acknowledges the folly of assessing the success or failure of a president *while he/she is still in office* but writes off the responsibility of historians to distance themselves from the fury of the times and claims that President Bush is a "special" case because he is disliked so much by the citizens.

I'm sorry, but that is not a sufficient excuse for Historians to discard their obligation to hold off judgement until the actual impact of a Presidents term can be assessed.

As much as I don't like President Bush (and I don't like him at all), I can't endorse this article like so many people have done today. It seems to me that people so willing to dislike President Bush (in my view for good reason) that they want to discard academic integrity. I think this is wrong.

Whatever your feelings of Bush, history requires some distance before we can truly weigh in on Bush's successes or his failure.

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If the Iraq war turns out to be a huge success, he deserves all the credit...

that, however, doesn't change the fact that he is completely immoral. and that to me, is the danger of judging someone on practicality alone, which is what it seems like that is what matters when looking in the past.

"sure, people may have hated him at the time, and he did order the deaths of thousands upon thousands innocent Iraqis... but how can you fault him for these results?"

It's like how a lot of historians look back and praise FDR, when in fact he was an absolute bumbling fool who increase state power exponentially and through all the regulations he put in place, prolonged the great depression much longer than it should have lasted. I'm not sure if that ties into my point, or even if i had an original point...

i think what i'm getting at is that i just think that the age on consent laws should be lowered to 14.

that, however, doesn't change the fact that he is completely immoral. and that to me, is the danger of judging someone on practicality alone, which is what it seems like that is what matters when looking in the past.

I think there needs to be a lot of discussion about what specific acts that you consider immoral, what Bush's attitude towards them are privately, etc. etc.

There has to be some sort of historical reflection. Should we look back and reject all of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington's accomplishments because they held slaves? Does their private views on the matter count? The context of the times? Morality definitely has a voice on history but to paint an accurate portrayal of someone requires that a lot of questions be asked.

Hell, the question if George Bush was the worst President or not might not even make sense. How do you compare Presidents whose terms of office are separated, in some cases, a hundred years or more? And even at that, what would George Bush's reaction have been to a different historical context?

Christopher replied to Stephen’s comment:
Apr 10, 2008
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Should we look back and reject all of Thomas Jefferson and George Washington's accomplishments because they held slaves?

Reject all of what they've contributed? No, I'm not saying that, but I would definitely hold it against them and call them corrupt leaders that did not challenge the conventions of their own time. Jefferson even changed Locke's concept of "life, liberty and property," to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." I have heard arguments saying that this was because of the paradox of owning a slave. But I digress.

I will agree with the point you raise about about it not making sense to compare presidents. It's a silly notion to begin with, but I don't think I could adequately explain my point effectively without turning this comment in to a large AnCap propaganda thread, and I don't feel like this is a real appropriate forum for that. But I will say that I have a very hard time judging any leader as 'good' when they are the head of an organization that has a monopoly on the use force.

I can't quite say that Bush XLIII is the worst President of the United States, but certainly the worst in my life time. More certainly, and infamously, I regard him as the last President of the United States. The Cheney Administration has effectively terminated the institution, with disrespect to the constitution. He and all future will be stooges of the private powers behind politics in America. Obama is already making Double-U look like the worst Stooge of the formerly-United States...

As George put it in his most pithy statement in office, "fuck the constitution: it's just a piece of paper!".

[this is good]

I noted the date on 'worst president ever'-I could not believe the shaky beginnings of that administration. I do agree that 'historians' should wait-The rest of us have to live here. Personally I like to be able to believe someone. That is hard to do with someone who sees duplicity everywhere. That isn't just me. I am glad no one did anything to make horribly worse.it I am sad that people allowed themselves to be intimidated.

Worst President Ever?

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