Coolidge looks great compared to everyone who followed him. Of the rest, Reagan is the only one who ranks better than a strictly neutral rendering of “not bad.”
But the post I was responding to held that Trump is the greatest American since Washington.
You are correct. I hope that we are returning to the type of media that the founders were used to, where every outlet was expected to have an opinion and an agenda, and everyone understood it, and accounted for it. I think it does a better job of “leveling the field”.
“Mass Media” did not really exist until the 1880’s.
It completely changed the dynamic of elections. It is no coincidence that the “progressive movement” did not take off until well after 1900.