Depending on how the next four years go I'm on the fence between Bush Jr. and Trump but I'd like to hear from you

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    ·
    1 hour ago

    George Washington. This thing should have been nipped in the bud.

  • KurtVonnegut [comrade/them]
    ·
    5 hours ago

    Woodrow Wilson was so racist that he was quoted in an epigraph for "The Birth of a Nation." You know, the 1915 movie about how awesome the KKK was, which became the first true "blockbuster" film and which led to a huge resurgence in KKK activity. Not only that, but Woodrow Wilson also personally invited the filmmakers to screen the movie in the White House - the first movie ever screened in the White House, by the way. Honorable mention!

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation#/media/File:Wilson-quote-in-birth-of-a-nation.jpg

    • TheLastHero [none/use name]
      ·
      38 minutes ago

      As well as hating black people he also hated Slavs too and laid the foundations for anti-soviet US foreign policy

  • Yeat [he/him]
    ·
    4 hours ago

    If we’re talking strictly the neoliberal era would it be too out there to say 1. Bush Jr 2. Reagan 3. Biden? All time though probably Andrew Jackson

    • Chulk@lemmy.ml
      ·
      1 hour ago

      While i abhor Bush Jr, I would put Reagan as #1. He paved the way for Bush Jr. And Biden. IMO Bush Sr is tied for the #3 spot simply for pardoning members of the Iran-Contra affair.

      Nixon is one of the worst presidents we've ever had though, and I would put him higher than any of the others. The "war on drugs" caused so many rippling horrors domestically. And those horrors don't compare to what he did abroad.

    • Yeat [he/him]
      ·
      4 hours ago

      Wilson and Nixon are definitely up there with Jackson too

  • TheDrink [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    7 hours ago

    Andrew Jackson and it's not even close. Not to downplay the horrible crimes committed by many of our other presidents but I don't think anything rises to the level of the Trail of Tears.

    Remove Jackson from the running and it's a more interesting conversation, however thinking about it reveals just how interconnected all of this stuff is. While the current genocide is occurring under Biden, we can't forget that the conditions that lead to Oct 7 were created under Trump. For that matter so were the conditions that lead to the escalation of the war in Ukraine.

    I think the worst in my lifetime by a mile is Dubya, but while his wars were massive and consequential we can't forget that George Senior also killed scores of people in Iraq, and Clinton carried out the sanctions regime that killed scores more. Clinton was also the one who broke Labor's influence within the Democratic Party - but it was Obama who was swept into power on the promise of a working class revolution only to smother it in its crib.

    But yeah my top two are Jackson and Dubya but beyond that I'm not sure there are a lot of crimes in the history of America's presidency.

    • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
      ·
      7 hours ago

      What's wrong, snowflake, are you triggered by this conversation? Don't worry, if his cabinet succeeds in their plans to eliminate vaccines and shut down life-saving agencies such as NWS, you'll get to see genocide at home. And even though he hasn't eliminated the department of education yet, there's a chance you may already be one of the victims of the conservative agenda.

      • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]
        ·
        2 hours ago

        In addition to what everyone else has said to point out how absurd it is to put Trump in the top 5 worst presidents, there's also the fact that almost every significant Trump policy was continued or worsened by Biden. Even the ones that democrats pretended to care about when it suited their agenda like kids in cages, building the wall, and increasing fossil fuel extraction. So if you want to talk about all the ways Trump is an evil piece of shit (which he most certainly is) to put him in the top 5 worst, then you had better make sure Biden is even higher on that list.

      • CloutAtlas [he/him]
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Trump's not even bad by republican standards, he's just vulgar and baffoonish. Replace him with Jeb! or Ron DeSantis or your garden variety Republican and you'd get the same defunding, same deregulation and same enshittification as him, just more subtle.

        Come back when he's killed a million Iraqi civilians over fictional WMDs or getting several million people addicted then dead over opioids by deregulating prescription.

        He didn't commit war crimes in Vietnam, spill over to Laos and Cambodia. Come back when he pardons the perpetrators of My Lai. Come back when he interns Japanese and nukes civilians. Come back when he Manifests Destiny.

        Top 5 my ass

      • Balefirex [he/him]
        ·
        6 hours ago

        You have grossly misread the intent of that comment, chief. She's saying that putting Trump in top 5 worst (atm) downplays America's historical atrocities such as invading Vietnam, killing 20% of the population of North Korea, Iraq war, Afghanistan war, etc

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
          ·
          5 hours ago

          Sorry, I wasn't looking at it in terms of just the senseless loss of lives, but also how much damage was being done at home. Yeah there's a lot of hard lines there to cross but Trump has made a policy of tearing the nation apart instead of trying to bring people together, and that weighs a lot to me.

          • MF_COOM [he/him]
            ·
            4 hours ago

            Imagine it being a bad thing to tear apart an evil empire

          • barrbaric [he/him]
            ·
            edit-2
            5 hours ago

            If it's about domestic damage, then every president who owned slaves or supported segregation still beats him.

            E: Also every president who was involved in the genocide of the indigenous peoples of America to an extent more than Trump (IE he probably ties Biden and Obama on this).

          • Balefirex [he/him]
            ·
            5 hours ago

            critical support to Trump collapsing the genocidal American empire

      • Alaskaball [comrade/them]A
        ·
        edit-2
        6 hours ago

        uh lets see,

        1. Andrew Jackson
        2. Harry S. Truman
        3. William McKinley
        4. George W. Bush
        5. Woodrow Wilson

        pretty easy if you actually read a book

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
          ·
          5 hours ago

          I'm still on the fence about W. just because he didn't really do anything on his own, he just took the excuse to continue his daddy's war. I think if Sr. had gotten another term in office he would have ramped things up, but either way I think the family as a whole pushes up there on the list.

          For the rest of the list... yeah it's not hard to find a lot of presidents who have killed a lot of people. However the original question was about the worst president overall, which to me includes the damages done here at home. Trump is high on my list simply because of how far back he has set us in terms of equal rights, moving beyond the pettiness of racism, dealing with important things like the unfolding climate disaster, and his nonchalant attitude that Palestine and Ukraine need to just surrender because being in the news cycle is inconvenient to him. Looking at Trump's agenda of just how much he wants to destroy things here, I find it concerning that the only thing stopping him is a few Republicans that still have a moral compass.

          • QuietCupcake [any, they/them]
            ·
            2 hours ago

            his nonchalant attitude that Palestine and Ukraine need to just surrender because being in the news cycle is inconvenient to him.

            Motivations aside, if he really does want Ukraine to "just surrender" (which remains to be seen beyond rhetoric) then it's one of the only good positions he has. Ukraine 100% needs to surrender. Absolutely nothing good comes from it continuing to fight. It only means more death and emisseration of working people and more profits for the military industrial complex. It's honestly rather repulsive when people lump Palestine and Ukraine together like that as if they're even remotely the same thing. One is fighting a deeply asymmetric struggle of survival against their own genocide by a settler colonial ethnostate that seeks to eradicate them from the earth, the other is a nazi coup government fighting a proxy war for imperialists that uses their own working class as cannon fodder in a conflict that could have been resolved years ago with no loss of life.

          • sammer510 [none/use name]
            ·
            edit-2
            5 hours ago

            Republicans that still have a moral compass

            Lib status confirmed. They don't have a moral compass lmao they just don't like him saying the quiet part out loud

          • MF_COOM [he/him]
            ·
            4 hours ago

            He single-handedly launched the war on terror tf are you talking about

          • shreddingitlater [he/him, comrade/them]
            ·
            4 hours ago

            I'm still on the fence about W.

            Don't worry, if his cabinet succeeds in their plans to eliminate vaccines and shut down life-saving agencies such as NWS, you'll get to see genocide at home.

            So it's ok when it's happening to the browns? Fucking racist shit heel, liberals are all the same under whatever facade they're mouthing off about.

            • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz
              ·
              4 hours ago

              Do they? I wouldn't know, the only racists I've ever met were conservatives. Dems at least try to pass laws beneficial to everyone and not just rich white folks. But Liberals? No clue, I don't pay much attention to them.

              • shreddingitlater [he/him, comrade/them]
                ·
                3 hours ago

                Dems, you mean the ones that were willing to throw immigrants in the trash and give Republicans everything they wanted wrt the border so they could fund a war directly leading to ww3? The ones also willing to throw as much money as possible and ignore the most popular position in their own constituency (permanent ceasefire) to allow Israel to keep killing Palestinians? The ones that intentionally barred Palestinians from speaking at their conventions? The ones that immediately turned to blaming Muslims, Mexican immigrants, and black people when they lost the election? OH YEAH THEY DEFINITELY TRY FUCKING MORON

  • shreddingitlater [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    7 hours ago

    I think I have Trump derangement syndrome but for Bush Jr. instead cause very few people make my blood boil just by seeing their face like that scum.

  • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    9 hours ago

    I'd probably say someone like Andrew Jackson before even thinking about Trump being the worst. Jackson did a literal genocide with the Indian Removal Act

    • Zyratoxx@lemm.ee
      hexagon
      ·
      32 minutes ago

      Touché. His first term wasn't that horrible (although it wasn't good either). I'm still mad they organised a meeting with Kim just to tell him to go fuck himself. That character development could become spicy. On the other hand would we even have had a meeting with Clinton in power?

      But hey, he still has four years and a lot of plans to claim a podium place.

  • MF_COOM [he/him]
    ·
    8 hours ago

    How is it even close between Dubya and Trump like honestly Bush started the war on terror, killing and displacing millions.

  • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    ·
    edit-2
    8 hours ago

    lol trump is bad but not like Andrew Jackaon bad.

    Probably

    1. Andrew Jackson - Crimes against native people
    2. Andrew Johnson - Fucked up reconstruction
    3. Ronald Reagan - Trickle down economics
    4. 45/47 🤮 - We all know why...
    5. Richard Nixon - The Infamous Crook

    Might have some memory gaps, but these are what I can remember from the top of my head.

    • MF_COOM [he/him]
      ·
      8 hours ago

      If you think Trump is worse than no-oil you're telling everybody that you think norms are more important than a million dead brown people

    • Frogmanfromlake [none/use name]
      ·
      6 hours ago

      Woodrow Wilson? He’s the founder of modern US imperialism and a part of the reason most people are on this site due to the legacy of US imperialism.

    • reaper_cushions [he/him, comrade/them]
      ·
      7 hours ago

      Y’know, Nixon was also ultimately responsible for the extensive bombing of Cambodia and the extension of the Vietnam war, both of which killed millions (the former by laying the ground work for the rise of the Khmer Rouge) BUT the important part was that he spied in Democrats! Not to defend Trump, he’s a vile removed that would serve the world best as fertiliser, but his legacy doesn’t even remotely hold a candle to the likes of Nixon, Dubya, Truman/Eisenhower etc.

    • P_P@lemm.ee
      ·
      edit-2
      7 hours ago

      Don't forget that the SCOTUS appointed by 47 ended the American experiment since Presidents are now effectively kings. Thanks to Presidential immunity, we no longer get to say nobody is above the law.

      • barrbaric [he/him]
        ·
        edit-2
        4 hours ago

        By this analogy, where does Biden, the American Paul von Hindenburg, land? Like obviously it's worse to actually abolish democracy, but surely working with those doing it and doing nothing to stop them is also evil?

        E: As a disclaimer about my political views, I believe that Trump and every other US president should be executed for crimes against humanity.

      • ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        ·
        6 hours ago

        Elected Temporary Dictator with small restrictions.

        They still have to get rid of elections to make thing permanent, and time will tell if they actually managed to do so.

        The federal government doesn't run elections, states do. Whether or not states decide to resist the tyranny of the federal government will decide if we will have legitimate elections.

        Swing States do not all have a republican trifecta.

        Also remember there are non-maga republicans, like Brad Raffensperger.

        And president does not yet have unlimited power, only immunity from breaking laws. The president still have to find those yes-men to do their bidding.

        He cant just say "Kill all Democrats" on day one. That aint happening. The military isnt maga yet.

        It takes time to purge the military. Not every non-maga military member is gonna announce their beliefs. You cant find them all and purge them all in 4 years. Hitler already had a majority of loyalists in the military when he became chancellor. trump does not. Not yet.

        When the federal government becones tyrannical, states can declare federal actions unconstitutional and use their state national guards. Then our country's fate is up to the military and national guards.

        The US can totally become a dictatorship forever if we don't change course, but there is still time to reverse course.