Mirror mirror on the wall
Who was the greatest president of them all?
A 1956 Gallup poll asked, “What THREE United States Presidents do you regard as the GREATEST?”
The pollsters planned to contact a sample of approximately 1,800 respondents. It never really got off the ground.
The report was incomplete and remained unpublished until Stanford University historian Thomas A. Bailey uncovered the results in his 1966 study, Presidential Greatness.
The bungled data is nonetheless telling. Eleven presidents—ranging from the Washington to Eisenhower administrations—made the top 3 amongst respondents.
Franklin D. Roosevelt — 69%Abraham Lincoln — 64%George Washington — 47%Dwight D. Eisenhower — 34%Harry S Truman — 16%T. Woodrow Wilson — 14%Theodore Roosevelt — 9%Thomas Jefferson — 5%Herbert Clark Hoover — 4%J. Calvin Coolidge Jr. — 2%William McKinley Jr. — 1%“I don’t know” — 8%What about the numbers, exactly? “This poll was probably abandoned when evidence mounted that the workaday American does not know enough about our past to give a meaningful response,” wrote Bailey.
The average American is not bright, and neither is he curious.
At least the 8% who claimed ignorance were honest.
Some of us actually read, however. From critical examination, we can derive opinions of our own, but such uppityness is frowned upon by our societal betters.
In Bailey’s work, he uses the “Schlesinger Surveys” as his baseline. Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger Sr. polled 55 historians in 1948 and 75 in 1962. Surprisingly, Bailey notes that among the “experts” that “Democrats outnumbered the Republicans slightly more than two to one.” Sixty-ish years later, this would likely be around a 10-1 ratio.
So take all the official “ratings” with a grain of salt.
There are major problems with the Schlesinger rating system.
Schlesinger rates Abraham Lincoln as the greatest American president. Lincoln was, in reality, a failure.
An anecdote from about 2005: I was standing in line at a Portland bookstore to get a book autographed by a famous novelist who was born and raised in the South, but one with Yankee political tendencies after having gone off to college and “coming of age” in the Great Lakes region. The fellow in front of me knew of the writer’s politics and said something favorable—propaganda we all learn as school children as I recall—about Abraham Lincoln.
The writer looked up from signing his book and said, “The more you read about Lincoln, the worse he becomes. He wasn’t a good guy.” I was probably more shocked than the Lincoln fanboy in front of me. Well, when one prosecutes a war against his own people, I can’t count you amongst the greats, either.
FDR is ranked as a “Great” president. The historical evidence, on the other hand, renders FDR a failure. To wit: Locking fellow citizens in cages and removing them from their own homes for years on end simply because they were of a certain ethnic background is not what a great man does. No wonder Roosevelt got along famously with “Uncle Joe” Stalin.
Woodrow Wilson—recently cancelled by wokesters as “racist” as well as other unspeakable crimes against humanity—should have been cancelled years ago because of his abject failure as a Chief Executive. In no way is Wilson “great” as the Schlesinger survey deems him to be. Though Bailey is still a Wilson apologist, he does knock him down a rung to “no higher than Near Great.” It was a start.
Warren G. Harding was ranked as a total failure, as the worst president in U.S. history until then. Yet, Harding was a successful president whose term—and life—were cut short. Bailey cuts Harding some slack, ranking him “at least temporarily, low in the Below Average category.” It’s at least worth a re-examination of the Harding administration for anyone who is interested.
Coolidge, Pierce, and Tyler were ranked “below average.” Coolidge and Pierce, however, were indeed above average presidents, while John Tyler was likely the best president in American history.
John Tyler? Who the…? What the f….?
Indeed.
Of course, I was aware of the much maligned Tyler by virtue of reading such court histories as Bailey’s Presidential Greatness and others. The academy historians never thought he was a great president, so I reflexively carried that judgment with me.
But I also had not been exposed to Professor Brion McClanahan at that point.
I don’t agree with all of McClanahan’s presidential rankings/ratings, but he at least has a rationale on how and why he arrives at his rankings.
How did [so-and-so president] defend his oath of office?
This is the criteria. It is the only criteria that should matter, after all, and for that, I salute Dr. McClanahan.
What of John Tyler?
McClanahan claims that President Tyler defended his oath of office better than any other president in United States history. When the facts are examined, it becomes a tough point to argue.
The most remarkable thing about John Tyler to regular ol’ Americans, however, may be his legacy, one that lives on to this day.
Tyler was the 10th president of the United States, born in the George Washington administration and served his term well before Lincoln, the 16th president.
Yet, as of this writing, President Tyler has a grandson that lives amongst us. Yes…you read that correctly: a grandson.
Most of us do the math on this one and we find out that we are not that good at math after all.
More remarkable is that Harrison Ruffin Tyler is several years younger than any of my late grandparents, born in 1928.
With that digression over, McClanahan lays out a great case for Tyler in his book, 9 Presidents who Screwed Up America: And Four who Tried to Save Her …
But you get all that and more with McClanahan’s course, “The 10 Worst and 10 Best Presidents” at Tom Woods’ Liberty Classroom.
Liberty Classroom?
Yes, it is a “dashboard university” created by the great benefactor of mankind, Tom Woods, that one now has the ability to “attend” while sitting at his computer or driving in the car.
Liberty Classroom gives one access to stimulating, thought-provoking lectures, and discussions on the key principles of political philosophies such as libertarianism and conservatism, capitalism, and free-market economics.
Loads of history as well.
The monthly cost is about the same as two lattes from Starbucks…right around 8 smackers. Twenty-four cents per day. Rattle a Styrofoam coffee cup at the corner—make sure to do it only in states where Styrofoam cups are legal—and you can get on board.
Affordable, in other words.
The library of classes within Liberty Classroom—in both audio and video format—include 30 lectures on conservatism and libertarianism … 59 lectures on the history of political thought … 31 lectures on what’s wrong with textbook economics … 20 lectures on logic … and much more—hundreds in all.
Representative courses include:
The American Revolution: A Constitutional Conflict
Austrian Economics Step by Step
The History of Conservatism and Libertarianism
Freedom’s Progress: The History of Political Thought
Introduction to Logic
John Maynard Keynes: His System and Its Fallacies.
U.S. Constitutional History
U.S. History to 1877
U.S. History since 1877
Western Civilization to 1500
Western Civilization since 1500
Trails West: How Freedom Settled the West
The History of Economic Thought
… Plus, the aforementioned The 10 Worst and 10 Best Presidents
Liberty Classroom is designed for “adult enrichment,” but it is easily accessible for “advanced” middle school and high school students if parents are looking to augment their education with some sanity that one cannot get inside the government’s education monopoly.
I was on the fence for ten years or so, ever since Tom first opened the program, but I’ve now been a member for almost a year.
It’s an invaluable resource.
Plus, Tom has a sale going on right now … a big one.
See for yourself until it is too late.
Brian O’Leary