With 45 Presidents to choose from, it can be difficult to decide who are our best Presidents, and who are our worst Presidents. The world has changed dramatically since we sent our Declaration of Independence to the British King in 1776. We told him that we were now our own sovereign Nation; as you might imagine, that didn’t go over well in his castle. He sent his army and navy to “explain” to us how he expected us to behave.
That launched us into our first real war. We had armed civilians, colonial militias on our side. Before any of Britain’s major adversaries, Spain and France, would join with us, we had to prove ourselves up to the task. And, we did.
On September 3, 1783, the Treaty of Paris was signed by all parties, and our first war was over. But, the real nation-building work, already started during the war, had to continue.
For our first effort, the colonies ratified the Articles of Confederation on March 1, 1781. It soon became clear that the Articles were totally inadequate. Since we went to war because we needed to be free from a tyrant, the King, the Articles didn’t grant sufficient powers to the Federal Government to really be called a “government”.
A team of very highly educated men of that time, led by James Madison, drafted our Constitution. They studied all forms of government that were recorded, and actually used some ideas from the Magna Carta, the British charter of English liberties written in 1215. It seems that even the Brits had a problem with tyrannical Kings and Queens.
Our Constitution was signed on September 17, 1787. George Washington, responsible for our victory over the Brits, was unanimously elected President by the Electoral College.
Thus, starts our National journey from 1776 to 2020.
It would be easier to pick who are our best Presidents if we lived in the same “world” for the last 244 years. Technological advances such as railroads, communications, automobiles and trucks, aviation, space exploration, and all sorts of both light and heavy industry have changed the way everyone on the world lives.
The world still has to deal with tyrants. Most confine themselves to their own countries, where they prey upon their own people. But there are still tyrants who pose an economic or territorial threat to their neighbors, as well as more distant countries.
With that as the background, I’ve selected what I consider to be our five best Presidents , and our five worst Presidents.
The Best Presidents
George Washington (1789-1797)
Because of his great performance as the General of our Colonial Army, we were successful in driving the Brits from our soil. He was given the title “Commander in Chief”, even though we didn’t have a President at that time.
Some of his greatest accomplishments took place on the colonial battlefields during the Revolutionary War.
• Led the Siege of Boston and drove out the British.
• Led the Battle of Trenton.
• Led the capture of the British at Princeton.
• Forced the British surrender at the Siege of Yorktown.
While President of the United States,
• Established the operational structure of the Executive Branch.
• Established the federal judiciary.
• Established the first Bank of the United States.
• Maintained our neutrality during the French Revolutionary War in Europe.
• Negotiated treaty resolving border differences with Spain.
Abraham Lincoln (1861-1864)
President Lincoln served at our Country’s most challenging time since the Revolution. The southern slave states seceded from the Union, and attacked Fort Sumter. President Lincoln preserved our Country by defeating the southern forces. After the south’s surrender at Ft. Appomattox, he tried to restore a sense of normality in the south, but was assassinated on April 15, 1865.
• Preserved the Union by defeating the southern secessionist states.
• Freed the slaves in the territories by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation. This later led to the 13th Amendment which outlawed slavery throughout the Union.
• Planned a reconstruction of the south, and pardons for those who made an oath of allegiance.
• Established the Republican party as a strong, National organization.
• Started the Transcontinental Railroad project to connect east and west.
Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953-1961)
Dwight Eisenhower established himself as a Nation figure while serving as the Supreme Allied Commander during World War 2. Experience while managing a multi-national military organization gave him unique credentials. At the end of President Truman’s final term, he ran for and was elected the President of the United States. He would serve two terms.
• Achieved an armed truce with North Korea to end the Korean War.
• Built our military capabilities to a level that potential enemies would know the futility of armed conflict with the United States.
• Created our National Aeronautics and Space Administration to counter USSR space-based initiatives.
• He enforced desegregation in southern states that prohibited minorities from attending state schools.
• Established the first balanced budget since the Truman Administration.
• Promoted the use of uranium for peaceful purposes, such as electric power generation.
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
For a man with only eight years of high-profile service as the Governor of California, and a background as an actor, President Reagan has an incredible record as President. He was not only a master negotiator in the foreign relations area, but handled negotiations with an often-hostile Congress smoothly. He is known as the “Great Communicator”.
• Made National Defense our first priority.
• Worked with Congress to restructure our tax code.
• Produced the longest peace-time economy without a depression or recession.
• Negotiated nuclear arms treaty with the USSR, with a space-based means of verifying compliance.
• Attacked rogue nations that attacked US assets.
• Openly supported anti-communist activities in friendly foreign allies.
• Efforts during his administration led to the peaceful collapse of the Soviet Union.
Donald J. Trump (2017-2021)
While coming from a background in business, and not politics, President Trump has brought an understanding of what makes a National economic system function for the benefit of everyone. In spite of 24/7 disruption of his efforts by the Democratic Party, he just moves on, doing all that’s needed to keep our Nation strong enough to defend ourselves, while improving our daily lives.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic struck in January, 2020, and a major health issue has interfered with the normal operations of all countries. It’s been over 7 months (as this is being written) since this problem began. We are now in a recovery period, and at least 3 vaccines are in FDA Phase 3 testing.
Our markets are close to their historic highs as they recover. Employment and unemployment are both recovering, and may take several more months before we’re back where we were in late 2019.
I make these comments to describe unusual factors that President Trump has been facing that are totally out of his control. Even the virology experts on the President’s task force do not fully agree with each other.
With all the COVID-19 issues on the side, I will explain my choice of President Trump in terms of what he accomplished earlier; I expect him to restore, and even exceed, the high points he reached late in 2019.
• Re-established our military dominance that was lost by the prior administration.
• Used tariff policy changes, with treaties, to balance our export-import activities.
• Driven by the “America First” motive to regain respect for us throughout the world.
• Put tight restrictions on both legal and illegal immigration.
• Encouraged Mexico to put new border walls on its southern and northern borders.
• Pressured NATO Allies to pay their fair share of our mutual defense costs.
Who are the Worst Presidents of the United States?
The worst Presidents (https://foundershope.com/) , are easier to identify. They typically followed a pattern of not making decisions they should have known to make, or in making decisions they should have known not to make. They sometimes failed to veto bills that they, or their Executive Branch staff attorneys, should have known were unconstitutional.
Either way, the Country as a whole suffered. In most cases, such flawed legislation remains, and the legal theory of “stare decisis” continues to propagate the errors, generation after generation.
Several Presidents, with terms before the Lincoln Presidency, were trapped by the South’s abject unwillingness to give up their slaves. Resolving the issue required nothing less than war. When the southern states seceded, and attacked Fort Sumter, President Lincoln declared war on the southern states. It was a decision that none of his predecessors were willing to make.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
He failed to realize the importance of reconstruction, and didn’t dispatch Federal troops to the south to restore order.
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
His administration created a blizzard of economic legislation. The McKinley Tariff placed extremely high tariffs on imports. This resulted in a loss of imported products, and contracted US economic activity. His support for the McKinley Tariff and Sherman Silver Purchase Act resulted in the economic collapse of 1893, and the greatest depression of that time.
Herbert Hoover (1929-1933)
President Hoover is credited with causing the Great Depression, which started in October, 1929, and continued until the Lend-Lease Act (March 11, 1941) was passed during the FDR Administration. President Hoover’s role was to put forward the Tariff Act of 1930. While it wasn’t actually passed until the FDR Administration, our international trading partners immediately raised their tariffs accordingly. This turned the “roaring 20’s” into the Great Depression. The Lend-Lease Act finally put a portion of our economic machine to begin producing products of value, and not just “sweat”.
Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933-1945)
His “New Deal” legislation was a major failure because it simply paid people for carrying out totally unproductive work. One story is that crews were told to move a pile of dirt from one side of the road to the other, and then move the dirt back to where it started!
Productive use of our industrial capability resumed full-force after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Barack Obama (2009-2017)
Nothing of the legislative bills passed during his Administration, DACA and the Dream Act, remain intact; most significant portions of these two bills has been declared unconstitutional, and legal challenges for what remains will likely be dropped by the Supreme Court.
He has been a national embarrassment by all by having surrendered to our competitors in international trade.
