Posted on 05/28/2017 3:23:09 PM PDT by blam
I am a sucker for lists.
A few weeks ago, sparked by reading yet another claim that Donald Trump is the most "fill in the blank" in American history, I Googled "the worst American in history." I thought there was a list for everything some where in Googleland, but there was no decent list for this.
So I decided to construct a respectable ranking of the five worst Americans in history. I surveyed a group of about 30 academic and popular American historians, political scientists and law professors, asking them to nominate five figures from American history. Contemporaries were eligible, but had to earn their place against over 200 years of stiff competition.
I purposefully sketched only loose criteria for being the "worst." I asked that nominations include only people who held positions of public responsibility or power -- elected officials, business magnates, judges, polemicists, generals and so forth. I was not looking for the most evil people such as serial killers and sex criminals.
Lists are fun but also edifying. They reflect both the times in which they are made and the stories, not always the truths, that endure. You can be the judge of what this list suggests.
The list is not mine. It reflects the results of my little highly unscientific survey.
--Richard M. Nixon: Nixon was the clear winner (or loser). His nominations often included remarks such as "obvious" or "of course." However, several people noted they didn't include Nixon because he had many redeeming accomplishments (opening relations with China, domestic initiatives that are now considered liberal).
(snip)
--Donald J. Trump (tie for second): I tried and failed to steer the survey panel away from contemporary figures. As one historian wrote, "No, it is not too early to tell." We'll see.
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at arcamax.com ...
I think you are right.
General Benedict Arnold tops the list by far. Selling the plans to the the British for the Fort at West Point almost ended the United States before it got started.
The Berrigan Brothers, Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, Boss Tweed, Saul Alinsky, George Lincoln Rockwell, Donald (Cinque) DeFreeze , Aaron Burr (conspiracy), John Wilkes Booth, John Brown (insurrection), are at least a few others to consider.
President Nixon is not on the list at all.
1. The Rosenbergs
2. Alger Hiss
Interesting that your top two compared to Nixon as this hacks number one worst American. Heck - Nixon even tried to keep the “Pentagon Papers” (a dismal report on LBJ’s running of the war) out of the public eye. One would think a sly politician like Nixon could have used that for his own purposes. But instead he tried to bury it - keeping our country in mind.
“...which led to the banning of DDT and resulted in the deaths of millions from malaria.”
A YEAR! Estimated deaths are a million a year still - mostly children. (Both Sanger and Carson had a similar agenda). If it would make you feel better, you can donate $20 to Bill Gates for netting to cover a bed.
You have to give Nixon credit here. When he was Vice-President, he made sure Hiss was going to be prosecuted. Ike was going to look the other way due to Hiss’s worldwide popularity after setting up the UN. There is speculation that the Libtards were gunning for Nixon ever since.
Edward Bernays has to be here somewhere:
http://www.naturalblaze.com/2016/12/edward-bernays-father-american-propaganda.html
Finally someone brought up Soros. It’s easy to forget he’s a citizen now.
He bought and paid for obama and the clintons plus who knows how many others so it’s good you put him at the top of your list. Satan is the only being besides Hitler, Stalin, and Mao who are worse than Soros.
Oswald WAS an assasin.
While he may not make the Top 5 list, the person I most often mutter deprecations about is...
Ralph Nader!
Father of the Consumer Protection Agency, OSHA, EPA, the “Design by Tort Avoidance rather than Engineering Excellence” movement, etc.
Heir to Rachael Carson (I guess she really gets credit for the EPA).
Herbert Marcuse, Alfred Kinsey, Margaret Sanger, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton.
Oops! I forgot David Rockefeller.
W sure was forgotten in a big hurry.
Can I put uncle Walter on that list of journalists?
Really? No Andrew Jackson, the petty genocidal tyrant who dismantled American democracy birthing the modern two-party hate-fest?
No LBJ, the klan wizard and kleptocrat who put blacks back on the plantation?
How about Albert Pike, the man who reinvented freemasonry, previously a benevolent professional organization, into a Satanic cult that birthed the Ku Klux Klan and consigned most of Latin America into tin-pot dictatorships?
For that matter, how about William Simmons, who created the 2nd Ku Klux Klan, the terrorist wing of the Democrat party?
Ted Kennedy, murderer and founder of the party of death?
Joseph Cardinal Bernadin, the man who sowed a network of pedophiles throughout the American Catholic Church, conducted a black mass in the Vatican, did unspeakable desecrations I can’t even bring myself to write, and created ACORN and Barrack Obama?
Satanist Saul Alinsky, who created the science of turning people’s good intentions to evil?
Ted Bundy? John Wayne Gacy?
You win by mentioning Hugh Hefner. How many people have lost their souls because of the if it feels good it’s OK philosophy?
The list isn’t long enough. It should include 95% of Hollywood.
>> The list could be extensive <<
Well, sure.
For example, who were those Americans whose policies led to the greatest number of deaths, injuries and depredations among their fellow citizens?
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. U. S. Grant
3. W. T. Sherman
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee don’t even come close.
Moreover, much of the American South still suffers economically today from the destruction and havoc wreaked by Union forces during the War and Reconstruction.
>> John Dewey, Eugene Debs, Gus Hall, Franklin Roosevelt, Alger Hiss, Lauchlin Currie, Harry Hopkins, Walter Duranty <<
Good additions. John Dewey may have had a greater long-run impact than most of the others combined.
And while we’re on the subject of the Progressive Movement, we might also include Herbert Croly and Dr. Woodrow Wilson.
For example, who were those Americans whose policies led to the greatest number of deaths, injuries and depredations among their fellow citizens?
1. Abraham Lincoln
2. U. S. Grant
3. W. T. Sherman
Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee don’t even come close.
Stupidest list on here - congrats. Maybe they didn’t consider themselves Americans since the south left the Union.
Totally agree about Dewey. Nobody had a greater deleterious effect on virtually every American than he did. Today, the collective power of all communists (enabled by Dewey) is causing a horrible and rapid destruction of the concept of America and freedom.
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