Bad President of the United States

[frigidmagi]

Alright, pick one President of the United States and explain why you think he was/is a bad President of the US.

Note: You may not compare any President to Hitler, Stalin or Mao it's just a tired gimmick now poeple.

[Rogue 9]

Buchanan let the country literally fall apart around him. Case dismissed.

[LadyTevar]

Bush.

Look in the papers, need I say more

[SirNitram]

Andrew Johnson. No contest.

He's a traitor. He gave power back to traitors. He hung the freedmen out to dry.

Wilson comes close; sorry, while you Johnny Come Lately's needed to get your asses in gear, this guy outlawed criticism of the war he was in, on top of everything else.

Bush might make 4th worst. But he's got Johnson, Wilson, and Buchanan to beat, and how he might do that is hard to fathom, short of declaring the '08 elections on permenant hold and donning a crown.

[Comrade Tortoise]

Wilson comes close; sorry, while you Johnny Come Lately's needed to get your asses in gear, this guy outlawed criticism of the war he was in, on top of everything else.

I have to agree here, though Jackson is pretty damn bad.

WIlson created our proboems in Iraq by helping to create the country in the first place and allowing it to be placed under brittish occupation/administration. He created the do-nothing precursor to the do-nothing UN and allowed France and England to assrape germany by treaty, thus causing WW2 (if it hadnt been hitler, it would have been someone else)

I can keep going...

Jackson... well, one quote says it all

"It is there ruling. let them enforce it" when referncing the SCOTUS calling his proposal to kick the Cherokee off their land and send them on a death march unconstitutional.

[frigidmagi]

Andrew Jackson, hands down.

Ladies and Gentlemen I give you proof that the founding fathers would recoil from Jackson as President.

"I feel much alarmed at the prospect of seeing General Jackson President. He is one of the most unfit men I know of for such a place. He has had very little respect for laws or constitutions, and is, in fact, an able military chief. His passions are terrible. When I was President of the Senate he was a Senator; and he could never speak on account of the rashness of his feelings. I have seen him attempt it repeatedly, and as often choke with rage. His passions are no doubt cooler now; he has been much tried since I knew him, but he is a dangerous man."

In the war of 1812 the Cherokee nation allied with the US against the British and Creek indain nation. Cherokee troops played a large role in winning the battle of horseshoe bend. Cherokee volunteers would fight under Jackson in the First Seminole War. Our reward was to be forced out of our homes at bayonet point in an action decree illegal by the highest court of the land and marched over 14 of a continent. Our homes, our livestock and even our personal possessions were left behind for Jackson's white southern supporters to loot. This was a cold, pre-mediated betrayal of loyal US and personal allies to win white southern votes and an victory for the emerging southern racism that would mar the nation for many generations.

Jackson also stands accused of beginning the spoils system, the system that has newly elected governments firing people from their jobs and staffing them solely with supporters.

He assualted the 2nd bank of America, an instution that was critial to economic growth, he did so in order to cripple industry in the name of the "agricultural republic" and due to personal dislike of the bank's president. A move that was opposed in sucession by no less than 2 securities of the treasury.

Throughout his entire Presidental career I find only one act of note in the nullification crisis where he acted to preserve the union.

Here stands a traitor, a man disliked by at least one founding father, a man who estblished a corrupt pattern for dealing government jobs, a violent, brutal man who ignored the law and the constitution itself for tactical advantage on a scale that makes Jr look like a misbehaving child.

[Dark Silver]

I gotta go with frigid on this

Andrew Jackson is the worst president we've ever had.

I don't even need to list any other reasons.

[SirNitram]

Did I mix up Andrew Jackson as a Johnson? We are talking about the post-Confederacy guy who played nice-nice with the traitors who lost, right?

[Dark Silver]

yeah, that's the same guy

your probably thinking about the later President, Lyndon Johnson, I think he was president during the "Pork Barrel" crisis just before the Great Depression.

[Rogue 9]

Eh. As distasteful as I find Johnson's failure to hang the entire Confederate government along the road from Richmond to Washington, he did what he had to do to prevent an insurgency in the South. There's still lingering resentment from Reconstruction today; how bad do you think it would have been had the South simply been treated as conquered territory?

[Josh]

Most American presidents have been fair to mediocre. One not mentioned would be Kennedy, but his betrayal of the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs as well as his covert compromise that gave Khruschev dirt on him for the rest of his presidency. (Of course, the Missile Crisis was a spectacularly bad example of statesmanship on both sides.)

While he doesn't touch Jackson or Wilson, he was pretty shitty, a prime example of the style over substance presidency of the TV era.

[Something Awesome]

Did I mix up Andrew Jackson as a Johnson? We are talking about the post-Confederacy guy who played nice-nice with the traitors who lost, right?

No, I think you were right. Andrew Johnson took office after Lincoln was assassinated, and he was rather soft on the seceeded states.

Andrew Jackson was elected in the 1820's, and frigidmagi did an excellent job describing him.

[frigidmagi]

The bitterness of being treated as a defeated enemy by who you thought was your friend and ally is something that does not go away easy.

[Mayabird]

Andrew Jackson was elected in the 1820's, and frigidmagi did an excellent job describing him.

I agree, although I have read a much shorter and still very accurate description of him. It went something like:

"Andrew Jackson was probably our only truly evil president."

On a side note, one of my profs described his military prowess as, "It doesn't say much when you'd have to be an idiot to not win the Battle of New Orleans."

[frigidmagi]

On the flip side his military skills were impressive when fighting the Creeks. He managed to keep a motley collection of troops under control and fighting the enemy instead of each other.

He even fooled a number of free blacks and indain allies into believing he wasn't a fucking racist bastard.

One should note that Jackson was also the first "imperial" President.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

One should note that Jackson was also the first "imperial" President.

The what?

[SirNitram]

At present, Imperial Presidency refers to a President seizing power beyond that which is assigned to the Executive, expanding his powerbase. Bush II is a prime example, so is Richard "When the President does it, that means it's not illegal" Nixon, who inspired most of Bush's administration to restore the rightful power lost when Nixon got rightfully shitcanned.