Unquestionably Abraham Lincoln. While the others you listed had defining accomplishments and are of undoubted historical importance, none was as decisive and significant as Lincoln, who not only saved the Union in its darkest hour, he defined its very nature.
Indeed, some years back a group of historians rated Lincoln and Churchill not just as great national leaders, but as the greatest leaders in all Western civilization. They earned the accolade - to be sure an accolade not without controversy - because they recurred to very wellsprings of Western civilization to define their statecraft and preserve their societies.
To some degree, this is an observation with a speculative cast. We can only imagine how the Western world would have looked had the United States not survived its civil war. (Ditto had Britain not stood alone and survived in 1940-41.) However, even in a contemporaneous context, Lincoln stands out.
At the time Lincoln became President, it was not just that the country was divided on the question of slavery - with all of its implications for how man viewed his fellow man. The country was, significantly, divided over its very nature. The question of whether or not it was single national community, or instead a confederation of separate and distinct communities, each with their own identity and, in extremis, sovereignty.
Lincoln answered the question not just through military victory - which by itself would not have been enduring - but by summoning the nation to the philosophical essentials of its birth. He defined the nation by common attachment to a specific creed - "a nation dedicated to a proposition" - and in the fullness of time defined the nation.
No President - not even Washington nor Jefferson - answered the question of what the United States was, and thus what it is now, as permanently and definitively. By summoning "the mystic chords of memory," i. e. to a keener sense of its animating principles, Lincoln turned the country into a nation. Something much more essential and elemental and thus enduring.
Not perfectly or completely to be sure. There is no perfection in this mortal veil of tears. However, it is undeniable that had their been no Lincoln, there would have been no America, and had there been no America, the history of Western civilization going forward - with all of its promise of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law - would have looked very different and likely would have taken a far darker turn.
I don't think any President deserves to be described as "greatest", since every one of them has done some pretty horrible stuff, especially by modern standards. If we're talking about which President did the least amount of evil, Jimmy Carter might be a good pick, since he at least tried to pursue a humanitarian foreign policy and seemed like an all-round decent guy. If we're talking about which President did the most good for the country (while ignoring all the bad stuff), I think that Washington and Lincoln would probably be at the top for, y'know, creating the country and keeping it united, respectively.
The problem with this question is that it pretty much immediately gets bogged down wth everyone's own political views. For instance, I think that FDR's New Deal did a whole lot of good for the average citizen, but others would argue that it was a step towards socialism or something along those lines. Likewise, I would say that Regan's economic policies, imperialist views, and refusal to do anything about the AIDS epidemic would put him near the bottom of the list of presidents, but others would praise him for pretty much the exact same things*.
*Maybe not the AIDS epidemic, although the more virulent homophobes might still be convinced that it was some sort of divine punishment and Reagan did nothing wrong.
I pretty never paid much attention to politics. I can't even name all of our presidents. I can't even tell you what number we’re on
Which Roosevelt? There have been two.
Jefferson and Reagan were both good.
Opinion
51Opinion
u To which Roosevelt do you refer, Theodore or FDR?
Donald T... LoL nah I’m kidding! I think George Washington by far has the greatest story and served the country the most.
“Washington turned down a crown... a lot of history books talk about how many powerful people and the military itself wanted to make him king after the war was over But he refused it. Then after serving as president twice he refused to run again because he believed it was to much power for a single person to have. Not many people that become better once you give them power”.
Fuck Roosevelt, he is a traitor and a criminal for milions of lifes.
BEST PRESIDENT OF US WHAS:
1. Woodrow Wilson
He win the WW1
Create the Leag of Nation
He suport the idea of USA been a part of that league
He wanted to unificate Europ in a federal country whit no more diference
Didn't suport the sever punishment to germany.
And demand to Europ to accept this list:
He wanted to educat thous brats and stop any future war forever and creat an aliat of USA of the same level of power.
Which Roosevelt?
Teddy Roosevelt was okay. Someone like him would never get anywhere in US politics today or in the last 20 years, but he gets a lot of credit solely for his own image, which is a pretty common theme in popular US presidents.
Franklin Roosevelt is probably the single most overrated president in US history. I would rank him in the bottom ten for sure, not so sure if I'd put him in bottom 5.
You must be referring to Theodore not his more famous cousin Franklin.
I find it difficult to to select one. Most did the best they could under the conditions which they served. Some were not up to the task. And a few worked to undermine the importance of the idea of the office and the document which created it. Which has already begun under the current administration.
I would have to select the idea of president and not any man. The office of The President of the United States of America which is still unique in the world. Those who served in that position were just men
I dont know an awful lot about the US presidents but i would go with JFK on the basis that he tried to stand up to the mob and other darkside forces etc and it cost him his life and he must have known that at the time.
Im sure there are skeletons in his closest too, there aren't any perfect people but it takes a lot of courage to put yourself on the line and try to do the right thing by other people.
https://vimeo.com/338863157
I would say Lincoln, but the weird ass liberals are telling us that Lincoln didn't do enough to end slavery. So I'll just go with Trump. Biggest thing he did was expose the decades of hidden corruption in the political system. When the 2 party system decided to be each other's controlled opposition, rather than truly working to help the American people, Trump shattered the program and showed everyone what was going on behind the velvet curtains. And for all the foreigners who bitch about America messing around in other countries every day on here, Trump brokered historic peace deals and started NO wars for the first time in...60 years? Y'all should be thanking the man.
President Donald Trump was the best President in the last 150 years or so. He was a president that was elected by the people to clean up the corruption in Washington and that's what the left couldn't deal with. They fought with his ideas the whole 4 years he was President because he tried to stop the Bullshit, Lifetime Politicians. I love my Country, I just don't like the new Government. We are headed down a dark stretch in the history of this great country, The United States of America. God Bless America Again.
Washington or Lincoln. Washington, because he could easily have become a dictator, and instead, set America on the course to be a democratic republic, where the people chose their leader. And Lincoln, who brought us through slavery and the civil war, to become a better nation, and the prospect of freedom for all Americans.
Power doesn't make someone Great, doing the right thing makes them Great.
Lincoln is the Greatest President because he did the right thing regarding ending slavery.
None of them. Each had their hand in doing really fucked up stuff, from native genocide, war crimes, manipulation of other countries that came back to bite us in the ass causing another war, causing a war for money, breaking a peace treaty with Hawaii and genociding the people for a tourist spot, continuously opressing and attacking the African-American people, manipulation of the government for financial gain, putting drugs in poor neighborhoods and in native reservations,.. etc.
Except for one big misstep, I agree - Teddy Roosevelt. A great leader, a badass, but also a very smart man.
Thomas Jefferson. But not just for what he did as President. I'm picking him based on his entire life.
(Yes, I know he cheated on his wife. I'm just ignoring that part for now. I'm sure over half the presidents did the same thing. Including Clinton, Trump, and probably Biden.)
George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, without George Washington there would be no America, and one could easily argue that Abraham Lincoln was the first BLM supporter.
George Washington because he voluntarily left office, something unheard of at that time.
Abraham Lincoln because he fought to preserve the nation, and worked to free fellow human beings living in bondage.
I think Ronald Reagan and jimmy carter. Jimmy carter is still helping people to this day and he’s like 90 something. I only know what they did post presidency since I was too young to know what they did in office.
Washington was offered King of America. He turned it down and created the presidency.
JFK i don't think i need to really explain why for him.
Probably FDR, helped us out of the great depression with the new deal, helped us win against the Nazis.. what more do you want?
From "ancient" history: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln & Theodore Roosevelt.
From "not-so-ancient" (or modern) history: Franklin Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan & Bill Clinton.
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