Transcription
I have been asked a million times who I think the top presidents were. So today, we're going to tier rank the most notable presidents in American history. Before we jump in, this video is sponsored by Ring. On this tier list, we have five tiers. We have s, which I suppose stands for superior since it's at the top of the list, and then we have a, b, c, and f.
Now I'm really missing the letter d here. I will admit to you because there are a bunch of presidents here who I think are actually d, but because they are d, I'm gonna put them in the f category. We'll get to those in a moment. So let's start with the presidents who are at the very tip top of the list, the best presidents in the history of The United States. Obviously, on the top of the list, George Washington, our first president, kept the country together, left office peacefully.
The father of the country, a great man, easy pick. Right? George Washington as number one. And then everybody knows that the other president there are only two presidents in this top tier. There are not three.
Okay? I know the left thinks FDR is in that top tier. I know some people on the right think that Reagan's in that top tier. Neither one of them are Washington or Lincoln. Lincoln is the other guy in that top tier beyond simply leading America through the Civil War and, to a new birth of freedom.
It was Lincoln who, as a as a thinker, helped to revivify the idea that the Declaration of Independence was an inherent part of the constitution of The United States, that the two were inseparable. The ideas of liberty were not restricted to the Declaration of Independence as a nonoperable piece of legislation, but actually infused the constitution of The United States and that liberty principles were supposed to be extended to all people of The United States, not merely white Americans. So for that reason, Abraham Lincoln is top of the heap along with George Washington. So that's the easy part. Right?
That's that's what everybody does. Washington and Lincoln are the best presidents. There's very little debate about this. Then things start to get kind of interesting. So I'm gonna sort of do this in, reverse order.
I'm gonna start with the people who I think are just the worst presidents, like people who just were terrible. So let's begin with the president who I think was pretty easily the worst president of The United States without much of a question, Woodrow Wilson. Woodrow Wilson is a clear f. Woodrow Wilson is a garbagio. Woodrow Wilson was a vicious racist who was in favor of radical expansion of the federal government.
He believed that the state should have no limits on it. He was effectively a socialist. He believed that the administrative government of the United States should be run top down by the elites. He not only got us into World War one, he then used World War one as a pretext to basically go after his political opponents with the Sedition Act. Woodrow Wilson was a horrible, horrible, horrible president.
And the fact that for a long time, he was considered one of our better presidents speaks to how dumb America's historical class is. The reason a lot of America's historical class likes him is because they, again, like the administrative state. The administrative state, for those who don't know, that's the idea. The executive branch really should run the government, that the legislature sort of a vestigial organ. The president should be, as Woodrow Wilson says, as big a man as he can be, as big a man as is capable of filling the office.
He was a big fan of of how German government was run. He was a big fan of the idea that the the government was sort of the be all end all. Was Woodrow Wilson awful, awful person, awful president? He is definitely in the f category. Other presidents are in the f category.
So this is where I really wish that there was, like, a a a d category right here in in what would be the d category, but we're going to have to push him into the f category because we really have no other choice. There is no d category here. LBJ definitely goes in that category in that f category. So LBJ, awful president. The sole bright spot in the LBJ administration was a bright spot, and that was the Civil Rights Act.
The Civil Rights Act, which is exactly right on banning all sorts of state practices of discrimination, is wrong when it comes to encroaching into private rights of association, and and is wrong in some of its its broad outlines as far as how to deal with the private sector. Everything else is garbage. The the extension of the welfare state is garbage. The Vietnam War and his strategy in pursuing the Vietnam War graduated equilibrium, horrible, horrible garbage. Right?
So LBJ, terrible president, he definitely goes in that bottom tier along with Woodrow Wilson. Other people who belong in that bottom tier, and the much beloved FDR goes in that bottom tier. Despite historians attempts to paint FDR as a wonderful president, it's pretty obvious that he lengthened the Great Depression by as much as eight years according to a study from UCLA Anderson Business School through his horrific economic policies. He basically portrayed anybody who was not under his thumb as a quote, unquote malefactor of great wealth. He was a class warrior in the extreme.
He really didn't know much about economic policy. Like, I'm glad that he was great on the radio, but aside from his pursuit of World War two, that's pretty much it. Now this is why, again, that d category would have been good because FDR as a World War two leader was good except for, you know, the whole unfortunate imprisoning a hundred thousand Japanese Americans in, in camps. That that that was not so good. But other than that, his World War two pursuit was good.
I wish that he were in that d category just like I wish that that LBJ were in that d category so we could at least recognize the good things they did alongside all the bad things. But some people have FD on, like, the top tier presidents. No effing way. No way. Okay.
Other presidents who belong in that bottom tier of presidents. I'll put Richard Nixon in that bottom tier of presidents. I think Nixon was a terrible president. I know that a lot of Republicans have sort of a warm spot for Nixon mainly because, he was not George McGovern. But putting aside Watergate, which again is, like, the least of his sins, considering that LBJ bugged Barry Goldwater's headquarters in 1964, he instituted price and wage controls.
He did not dismantle the vast government apparatus that was built by LBJ. In fact, he exacerbated that. He pursued the opening of China, which has resulted in the rise of a dictatorial empire, that that now threatens American power in Southeast Asia. So not not a big Nixon fan. I know there are a lot of people who are.
I'm not. You could plausibly put them in the c category, but, I'll put them in the f just to be evenhanded. And, finally, as the last person who goes in that f category, I well, no. So there there are two more for the f category. One is going to be, Barack Obama.
So so Obama goes in the f category. I think he was an awful president. I think he did horrific work mainly with regard to his rhetoric. But in terms of his legislation, I think Obamacare was an atrocity, and I think that his spending plans with with stimulus and raising us to $4,000,000,000,000 budgets, it's helped destroy the the economic future of The United States. That's bad enough.
But between 02/2008 and 02/2012, Barack Obama morphed from a president who sort of campaigned on almost a Clintonian third way as a guy who wasn't for red states and not blue states, but The United States. And in 2012, he went just hardcore intersectionality. Anybody who opposes me is a racist. America can be divvied into various victimized groups that can be cobbled together in a new rising ascendant majority against the old America is extremely damaging. And, I think that that is going to be the future of American politics for quite a while.
I think the Democratic Party never quite got over the Obama coalition of 2012. They've been trying to pursue it ever since, and it has broken American politics in ways large and small. So Obama goes in that bottom category. And then finally, last guy who goes in that category is, of course, James Buchanan, who is, the the president just before the civil war. Now to be fair, I'm not sure the civil war happens because of James Buchanan.
I don't think he does much to stop it. And so you have a bunch of events that are happening outside of Buchanan's control. Doesn't mean he was a good president, he was a terrible president. Okay. So now we've got your top category, and we've got the, the f category.
Now we're gonna do some people who are in the middle. So in the a category, which is just below s, we'll put Calvin Coolidge. So Calvin Coolidge, really underrated president, because Calvin Coolidge is the last president in American history to truly understand that the presidency should not be a major factor in your life. And Calvin Coolidge was famously taciturn. They used to call him silent cal.
There's a famous story about Calvin Coolidge where he was at some sort of dinner party, and a reporter came up to him. And she said to him, you know, president Coolidge, I've just made a bet with somebody. And she said, my bet is that I can make you say more than two words. And he said, you lose. And that that was sort of how Coolidge was.
But Coolidge also had a a wonderful understanding of the constitution and declaration of independence. He gave a speech on July 4, and it's one of the great orations in American history about what America means and and why the foundational principles of the Declaration of Independence had led to the prosperity of The United States, how the freedoms and liberties guaranteed to individuals had led to the prosperity of The United States, that we were created by the declaration. We were created by the constitution. We do not get to create it. It's really, really good stuff.
One of the tragedies of American history is that Coolidge stepped down and Herbert Hoover took over, and Herbert Hoover was, in fact, quite a bad president. Who else do we have here? Well, I'll put Reagan in that a category. Now Reagan's big problem as a as a president was, of course, that he didn't get the spending under control. He was also saddled with the Democratic senate for for part of his term.
In terms of breaking the back of inflation in The United States through his fed chief, Paul Volcker, in terms of radically lowering taxes in The United States and leading to two decades of growth in terms of escalating defense spending, particularly on Star Wars and breaking the power of the Soviet Union. Ronald Reagan goes near the top of the heap. So he ends up with Calvin Coolidge, who was one of his heroes, by the way, in that a category. Other presidents who end up in that a category probably have to put Thomas Jefferson in the a category for his his Federalist view of American government. Well, what we would call Federalist now, meaning he wanted to devolve more power to the states.
Also, the Louisiana Purchase, which is one of those weird moments in American history where he saw a good deal, recognized he didn't have the constitutional authority to make it, and then went ahead and made it anyway. But Jefferson is widely regarded as one of our better presidents. I'll put Ulysses s Grant, I think, in this in this category. So there's been a a great sort of revision about how Ulysses s Grant is portrayed in American history. Ulysses s Grant originally was portrayed as sort of a drunken sock, lucked his way through the civil war and then into the presidency and then was responsible for the rise of pork politics and sort of gilded era corruption.
That's not really accurate. If you're gonna remember Ulysses s Grant's presidency for anything, remember it for the fact that he presided over Reconstruction. And one of the great tragedies of American history is that Reconstruction ends with Ulysses s Grant's term in office. And, Jim Crow really begins and and gains a serious hold, and the KKK basically becomes a powerful force in the South after Ulysses s Grant leaves office. Revisionist historians are now now kind of looking back on the the Grant era and realizing that he was a a stalwart defender of, freedoms being extended to newly freed slaves in the South.
B presidents. So people who are like, okay. You know, kind of okay. So I'll put JFK in well, no. You know, I'm putting him as a c.
JFK goes as a c. One of the more overrated presidents in American history. Obviously, history has been more kind to JFK because of the assassination than it otherwise would have been. The man was responsible for a wide variety of debacles during his first couple of years in office, including the Bay of Pigs debacle. However, he was a fervent anti communist who did cut taxes.
But as far as him being, like, one of our better presidents, I don't see any evidence of that. By the way, our our engagement in Vietnam begins with with JFK. It does not begin with LBJ. Let's see. Grover Cleveland, we'll put in the the b category.
So Grover Cleveland, the only president to serve twice nonconsecutively. Grover Cleveland, was responsible for making sure that the federal government did not outgrow what it was supposed to be. He, famously rejected a stimulus package directed at, Texas drought relief saying that there is no constitutional warrant for this, which is something you would never hear from a president today. He goes in the b category. I'll put William Howard Taft in the same category.
William Howard Taft was a far more conservative figure than Teddy Roosevelt. We'll get to Teddy in just one second. William Howard Taft, was a a sort of retrenchment of traditional Republican values. He went on to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States. So sort of a figure that's been lost to history because and people make jokes about him because he was extremely fat.
But the truth is that he was actually a pretty good president, and if it had not been for Teddy Roosevelt and his ego trips, then William Howard Taft would be more fondly remembered as the person who, defeated Woodrow Wilson in 1916, which in 1912 rather, which would have, changed the course of American history for the better in a lot of ways. Harry Truman is a is a b president. He tends toward the c. I would say that he's a b president because of his cold warrior nature, because of his handling of the end of World War two. I have a personal fondness as a Jew for Harry Truman as is virtually all American Jews do because of his willingness to, signal American support for the establishment of the state of Israel.
The reason he he doesn't rank higher on the list is because he had some dictatorial tendencies with regard to, unions. There there's a a famous steel case in which he intervened in a fairly illegal way. And then not only that, his policy toward China was really bad. He should have provided significantly more support to Shanghai Shek in the face of, the Maoist revolution in China. His failure to do so was instrumental in the rise of communist China.
Also, his handling of the, his handling of the Korean War left us some things to be desired. President Trump, I think, is is a b president. Now I think in terms of policy, he'd be closer to an a. I think in rhetoric, the problem is that he's really been self defeating, that the president I think most people understand this. So he's had some real rhetorical highs.
I mean, he gave a great speech in Mount Rushmore, for example, that I talked extensively about. He gave an excellent speech in Poland talking about the defense of western civilization. He has said many great things in the culture war that I think are worthy of saying. He has also said some incredibly wild and irresponsible things over the course of his presidency. He has led to less support for his agenda items that should be wildly more popular.
I mean, the fact is that heading into the election, over 55% of Americans said that they were better off than they were four years ago, and then he performed at, like, 46% of the popular vote. There's only one reason for that, and that's because he was so rhetorically irresponsible. Again, on policy, he gotta put Trump up with with people like Ronald Reagan and Calvin Coolidge. In terms of rhetoric, you gotta put him much further down the list, and so he ends up on average being in that b category. He is not an f as so many people keep saying that.
That's ridiculous. He is not even close to in the same category as, as people like Woodrow Wilson, for example. I did forget one f, by the way. Jimmy Carter was enough. Jimmy Carter was a garbage president.
So as always, like all historians, I forget Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter was, not a a good president. Maybe slightly better than people recall in the sense that he actually did try to bring down inflation in the latter years of his administration. Yeah. Did so unsuccessfully.
But slightly better does not mean good. He was still a horrible, horrible president, so horrible that he got himself blown out by Ronald Reagan, who is largely considered, by the media to be the the sort of sort of jokey figure. We are going to jump into that c category, but first, let's talk about our sponsors over at Ring. It's pretty important to know who's at your door, whether you are home or not. It is doorbell season.
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Again, were there a d category? He would be in the d category. Teddy Roosevelt was the first progressive president. He foreshadowed Woodrow Wilson believed in the rise of the administrative state and this this massive federal infrastructure. He pursued trust busting, which was really an irresponsible policy driven by, populist need to break up big companies for no actual legal reason.
I I don't think that Teddy was a particularly good president. He did have expansionist tendencies that that definitely maximize the, territorial holdings of The United States or at least protectorates of The United States. But overall, not a big Teddy Roosevelt fan. James k Polk, is an often neglected figure. He was responsible for widening the borders of The United States into Oregon and and, the beginnings of of places like California in in in recognizing the Texas Republic, the Mexican American War.
He probably goes in the b category. Also, the the only president in American history to run for one term, and then win and pledge at the beginning. I'm only gonna be a one term president then leave, which, honestly, that that'd be more of that would be good. Calvin Coolidge ended up doing that, but I don't think he pledged to do that at the very beginning. Dwight Eisenhower, a lot of people would put him in, like, the a category.
I I put him I would even put him as a c. I'm not a big fan of Dwight Eisenhower's foreign policy. I think that Dwight Eisenhower's foreign policy, which was supposedly realist, actually, in many ways, effectuated many of the problems that we see today in places like The Middle East. He supported the wrong side in the Suez Canal crisis. He basically did nothing as the Russians steamrolled the Hungarians during the Hungarian revolution in in, in '56.
Yeah. I'm I'm actually not a huge Dwight Eisenhower fan. Overrated. And then finally, in c presidents, I'm gonna put George w Bush as a c level president. And that's largely because of the last three years of his administration.
He started off as a sort of compromise figure, and then he became the the guy who led us through 09/11 in what I think was truly heroic fashion. And then by the end of his term, when he was, you know, saying that we had to step in and save capitalism by by destroying capitalism and when he was not taking on the subprime mortgage crisis, I think, in a responsible way. The the big problem for for Bush is that Bush was never capable of explaining himself and sort of assumed that history would explain him for him, and I I I just don't think that's ever a good strategy. Okay. So there you have 22 presidents.
There are a few who, on in retrospect, I wish that I had listed here. Andrew Jackson should be on this list. He probably ends up being a b president mainly because of his policy with regard to Native Americans who would rank higher if it were not for his rather nasty policy, to say the least with regard to Native Americans, fighting back the nullification crisis, ensuring The United States did not break apart. B president, probably historically speaking, ten years ago, you would have said he was an a president. There are a couple other presidents that that we could rank here.
But, there you have it. There it is. What do you think? What did I get wrong here? Did I get any of them wrong?
Of course, I didn't. But let us know down in the comments what you thought. And while you're at it, hit that subscribe button. We will see you here next time.