Ten Worst Americans In History

Captains Quarters ^ | 12-29-2005 | Ed Morrisey

[rcocean]

At first, this attorney-cum-supercop only wanted to make America safer, but in short order, this bureaucrat re-enacted every Machiavellian nightmare while transforming a backwater investigative office into the free world’s most effective police force. He became the closest thing America has ever known to an emperor and managed to die before his empire came crashing down around him. The tragedy of his life can be seen in his contradictions: a gay man who persecuted homosexuals; his undeniable love of country getting consumed by his thirst for power; his desire to enforce the law giving way to his paranoid domestic-espionage activities designed to derail political opponents, such as Martin Luther King and others he deemed dangerous.

For the unfettered power he garnered through his Orwellian efforts and his reflexive use of blackmail to maintain that power -- a power which cowed presidents and Congresses alike for decades -- Hoover is, I believe, the obvious choice of worst American in national history.

[The Sons of Liberty]

Hoover is, I believe, the obvious choice of worst American in national history.

Hoover's not even close! Selling secret ICBM guidance technology to the Red Chinese in return for campaign contributions is a despicable act of treason and puts BJ Clinton all alone at the top!

[Protagoras]

I'm starting to question how conservative Ed really is. His other choices include Nixon, McCarthy, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and John Wilkes Booth.

Conseratives embrace those people?

[ToddBush]

Nixon and McCarthy were demonized by the left, and still are. So yeah, I think conservatives should embrace those people. As for Forrest, I think the KKK thing is too emphasized, and his incredible war record should be the focus. He was a great commander, loved by all the men who served with him.

Booth was just an a-hole.

[Hegewisch Dupa]

If you think Forrest belongs on that list, you either don't understand Forrest or you only know 10 Americans

[Ditto]

I guess I'd have moved Jimmy Carter a lot higher on the list than #10, (like into the top five) and with all due respect, the Captain got Stephen Douglas's role in "starting" the Civil War all wrong. Starting a war was not his intention with the Kansas-Nebraska Act. He saw it as simply another in the long line of compromises between the North and the South that began with the compromises written into the Constitution. Douglass, and many others, saw it as a way to reduce tensions that were already near the breaking point. They did not understand that this latest 'compromise', coupled with the horrendous Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, only made the situation even more tense. If anything, Douglas, while a very ambitious politician with no real "core" actually ruined his health and died an early death in 1861, trying to prevent that awful war, which IMHO, was an inevitable conflict that could only be delayed, not avoided.

And for those who still think that J. Edgar Hoover did a "good job" of protecting America, I'd point out that the Hoover's FBI seldom if ever caught any Soviet on Nazi spies of saboteurs on their own, although they always took credit. And Hoover, while more than willing to devote major resources to capturing common street thugs like Dillenger (and turning them into folk heros in the process) avoided going after big time organized crime like the plague, even to the point of insisting the Mafia didn't exist. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to "win" going after the mob and he didn't want to look bad in failure. Hoover's only talent was in promoting and protecting the power and position of J. Edgar Hoover.

[Doohickey]

No, you're questioning how Republican he is. Big difference, since Nixon was Republican but hardly conservative.

[Protagoras]

Nixon and McCarthy were demonized by the left, and still are. So yeah, I think conservatives should embrace those people.

So conservatives should do what liberals do? Knee jerk opposition to anything the other side embraces?

Nixon was one of the biggest liberals of our time. AND he was an immoral slob.

Tail gunner Joe was a frickin drunken psychotic.

I'm glad we agree that the person who murdered a President in a cowardly way was an a-hole.

[ToddBush]

Tail gunner Joe was a frickin drunken psychotic.

Read Slander.

[mcshot]

pissant knows and I find fault NOT.

[Nonstatist]

Carter's got to be 3rd or 4th. I can't see how he's only 10th. This whole Islamo-Fascist War thing is almost entirely his fault. (not to mention 18 % inflation and mortgage rates, etc., Afghanistan invasion and etc., in only 4 years !!))

[Nea Wood]

Ted Kennedy should be on that list.

[Blzbba]

"Harry reid, Nancy pelosi, John Murtha, John Kerry, Howard Dean, The Clinotns and Algore should be on the list."


None of these (well, maybe Willy Clintax) has been as damaging as Teddy 'The Gut/The Drunk/The Murderer' Kennedy. Think of how long this whale/jackass has been in Congress, doing his best to ruin America. Longevity of Sucktitude should be a factor here.

[Blzbba]

"Nixon and McCarthy were demonized by the left, and still are. So yeah, I think conservatives should embrace those people."


Not a good enough reason for me to embrace a paranoid crook (Nixon) whose actions allowed for Jiminy Carter to be elected, nor is it a good enough reason for me to embrace a paranoid "Commies in every closet" lunatic like McCarthy. Just because "the left" hates something doesn't mean I lockstep like it.


" As for Forrest, I think the KKK thing is too emphasized, and his incredible war record should be the focus. He was a great commander, loved by all the men who served with him. "


Please. Forrest is the white equivalent of Tookie (Mr Crips founder), except that Forrest's gang of KKK thugs killed FAR more people than Tookie's gang of racist drug dealers. He was, indeed, a fierce commander and fighter, loved by his men...but so was that Union terrorist William Sherman.

[rcocean]

I found thinking that Ed either doesn't know history very well, or is such a Lincoln worshiper that he loses perspective.

The list is supposed to be the "worst Americans". Douglas was not only NOT a "bad" American, he was one of the few good politicians of his era. He was a Unionist, but he was always trying to keep the South from Seceding.

When the CW started he put aside all party considerations and was working with Lincoln to save the union. If he lived, he probably would have been the V-P in 1864, not Johnson.

The "worst" Americans of that time were the Southern fanatics like Davis, who loved slavery and wanted no compromise and Northern Fanatics, like Sumner, who WANTED a civil war because they knew it would mean the destruction of slavery (noble) and Northern domination of the union (not so noble).

[Ditto]

The "worst" Americans of that time were the Southern fanatics like Davis, who loved slavery and wanted no compromise and Northern Fanatics, like Sumner, who WANTED a civil war because they knew it would mean the destruction of slavery (noble) and Northern domination of the union (not so noble).

I'd have to differ with you there. Davis was not a "fanatic" by any means. He was a "honor bound" romantic (the most dangerous people on the planet, IMHO -- see Jimmy Carter) who found himself in a position with no romance and no honor. Davis was not a Southern fire-eater like Wigfall, Rhett, Calhoon or the others who drove secession. It was his hide-bound, over-the-top "code of honor" that compelled him to go along with it, even though he knew from the start it most likely end in disaster for the south.

Likewise as to Sumner, a moralist who put his well placed morality on the issue of slavery above the reality and political possibilities of the day. I'd have to check, but I believe that Sumner was one of the many staunch abolitionists who also opposed going to war to save the Union. He was content to have the south and slavery out of the Union even if it meant breaking the union and all the future consequences of that. I wouldn't even put the civil war fire-eaters on the list of the worst. At least they were fighting for a way of life that they had been born into and believed in, as wrong as we see it today.

At the top of the list, I'd really have to put people like Alger Hiss, Jane Fonda, and others who were blessed with the best that American freedom and liberty can provide yet betrayed those blessings in the service of inhumane tyrants. They are evil people, IMHO.

[SunkenCiv]

Perhaps having a list of just Ten Worst is too limiting. The Google cache is all that's left of this. Even the DNC wouldn't leave it up. :')

Posted by joppa @ 7/12/04, 07:37 PM

the FreeRepublic website is encourging right wing extremists to stage a terrorist attack just before the elections so that Bush can declare marshall law and stop the elections. When I went back to copy and save the material they has already removed it from their website.

We all know the goal of your Neoconservatives is to achieve world domination through pre-emptive strikes.

What these fools dont realize that they are placing America on the chopping block for all of your Muslim world to execute us.

Of course, the "worst" status has to take into account the level of power and influence wielded...

[teenyelliott]

Hey, if it weren't for Algore, I never would have met you!!!

[jjmcgo]

You are absolutely right and you put forth a point a lot of people, liberal and conservative, usually miss.
While Nixon was a Republican and an anti-Communist, he was not a conservative. As president, he presided over the greatest expansion of the welfare state and transfer of money from working people to non-working people in this nation's history.
He had a lot of help from Dem Speaker of the House Carl Albert.
Essentially, we voted for the Republican presidential candidate and got the policies of the Democratic congressional leader.

[SunkenCiv]

Ed's explanation:

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006027.php

"For my consideration, I decided that the status of American had to be part of their 'crimes'. In other words, simply picking someone like Ted Bundy or Charles Manson would be too easy. Their evil, though real and in most cases worse than what you'll read on this list, doesn't have to do with their innate American heritage. I went looking for the people who sinned against America itself, or the ideal of America. Otherwise, we'd just be looking at body counts."

Dissent from another 'blog Ed links to:
http://johnnorrisbrown.com/blog/2005/12/americas-bottom-ten.htm

[SunkenCiv]

Ping!