Worst President Ever

[ysabetwordsmith]

Abraham Lincoln best U.S. president ever, Donald Trump worst, historians say in poll

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Abraham Lincoln’s reputation is holding up well nearly 160 years after he served as president of the United States.
As for Donald Trump, it’s been just over three years since he left office ... and his legacy is lacking.
That’s according to the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, which asks U.S. historians to rank the nation’s presidents. More than 150 historians participated in the survey.
[---8<---]
As for Trump, he finished last, behind such notorious presidents as James Buchanan and Andrew Johnson (the first president to be impeached). Trump did finish first with historians in one category ... most polarizing president ever.


That is some seriously stiff competition. Let's not forget Franklin Pierce, another complete ignoramus who once ran over a woman with his carriage (possibly while drunk); and William Henry Harrison, who went out without a coat, caught pneumonia, and died. Yet Trump beat them all in the race to the bottom!

This is the man America is perfectly willing to let run again, and the Republicans have failed to find any better candidate. People. Seriously. You could drag a random citizen off the street and do better.

The stupid, it burns like hydrogen.

Comments

[siliconshaman]

No.. the stupid it burns like White Phosphorus. Burning hydrogen is mostly invisible and it's combustion product is harmless. This is visible for miles and leaves a toxic aftermath.

And Trump predictably is being a Karen about this.

[see_also_friend]

I could do better, and that job would likely give me a nervous breakdown.

But at least I wouldn't mock people on the news, or lie all the time!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

I'm sure most people would do better. Unfortunately it goes to people who like politics, and statistically speaking, they tend to be nutjobs.

I actually have a science fiction colony that solved that problem by randomly selecting citizens to serve in office as one part of their government. You can decline if it's too unfeasible for you, but most people accept because they want to make a meaningful contribution to their society.

Common Ground is awesome in a lot of ways. They do have elected politicians ... almost all of whom keep fish and compete to raise the most delicate ones, because managing the tiny ecosystem of an aquarium is great practice for managing a planet. Hence why I sometimes say of L-American politicians, "That guy could kill goldfish."

Re: Yes ...

[see_also_friend]

>>I actually have a science fiction colony that solved that problem by randomly selecting citizens to serve in office as one part of their government. You can decline if it's too unfeasible for you, but most people accept because they want to make a meaningful contribution to their society.<<

Government by jury duty. (I hope they got a living stiped, or cultural equivalent therof.)

Also, look up Athenian democracy; I think they did something similar (though only male freedmen were eligible).

>>They do have elected politicians ... almost all of whom keep fish and compete to raise the most delicate ones, because managing the tiny ecosystem of an aquarium is great practice for managing a planet. Hence why I sometimes say of L-American politicians, "That guy could kill goldfish."<<

I figure aquarists would be good at designing space habitats.

Re: Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Government by jury duty. (I hope they got a living stiped, or cultural equivalent therof.) <<

They do. It has to be voluntary, and paid, or else it is forced labor and not legitimate. Also, they want people to get excited over being chosen, because resentful people could cause all sorts of problems.

>>I figure aquarists would be good at designing space habitats.<<

Exactly.

Re: Yes ...

[see_also_friend]

>>Exactly.<<

...that would actually make a pretty good competition-reality show on the scifi channel.

"Okay everyone, this week we have to make a bottle terrarium with at least five plants and three animals. The three species still have to be extant in the ecosystem at the end of the week, and the ecosystem should be relatively stable."

"We're doing a challenge round! X part of your life-support system failed, so let's hope you built a backup failsafe!"

[chanter1944]

To say nothing of Andrew First-Nations-killer Jackson. :( I need to click over and see exactly where his sorry butt ranked.

[greghousesgf]

ugh. that guy was totally racist even by the standards of the time he lived in!

[chanter1944]

No argument here; he totally was. Blehrgh, says I> :(

[thewayne]

I work at a university library. I had one very uncomfortable interaction with a patron over His 45ness.

A woman came in one evening, it was just me and a student worker. She didn't look like a student, staff or teacher. And she asked if we had any books about Trump. The student turned to me for help. I told her we did not and went on to explain that our collection is mostly to support the university's curriculum and that he is current events. Given a few year or so after he leaves office after scholars and historians have time to analyze his presidency and produce scholarly books about him, then we may have books on him as he is not yet a historical figure. Then I suggested the public library as they'll have many more current events books than we can carry.

And I was very relieved when she accepted my explanation in good grace, thanked us, and left the library.

I was very concerned we were going to have an incident, but nothing happened and a sigh of relief came from me and the student when that door closed behind her!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Good answer.

You can always point people toward your library's search options (e.g. look up a person as the author or subject of a book) or something like, "If we have any, they will most likely be in (list 2-3 topical sections)." If your library is one that offers study guides or other topical guides, you can suggest checking those. They're often on a bulletin board or webpage, and it's one of the likely places to find a list of recommendations for current events. All of those options help a guest find the book(s) they want if the library has any, and none require you to make a personal statement about said book(s).

Re: Yes ...

[thewayne]

At that time, we didn't have a public search computer.  We do now.  And it's possible that main campus might have had some books on Trump, but I knew we did not.  And still do not.

[greghousesgf]

I'm old enough to remember Nixon! He was a terrible president but I think Trump is actually worse. I sure can't picture Nixon getting grabby with women and bragging about it. And they didn't have Twitter in Nixon's day but if they did he wouldn't have gone on there and had hissy fits about people criticizing him, he would have ignored it.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Nixon was typically in the bottom quarter, but rarely the bottom handful.

[acelightning73]

What about Richard Nixon? He's got to be on the "really terrible presidents" list. This is why we hippies managed to force him to resign,to avoid being impeached. and we wound up with Gerald Ford. He wasn't a bad President, he just wasn't familiar with the subtleties of Washington. Another one who was a bit out of his depth was Jimmy Carter, who turned out to be very good when he got up to speed.

My husband bought a book called "The Trump Survival Guide" by Gene Stone just after the election. My son the clinical psychologist points out that Trump is a classic example of narcissistic personality disorder. Narcissists can't tolerate the word "NO" - to be thwarted in their unreasonable demands sends them into a frothing destructive rage. They have to get what they demand, or their entire world falls apart. They can't cope with not receiving the obedience appropriate to The Chosen One they believe themselves to be. You can see this in the way he talks back to the judge.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>What about Richard Nixon? He's got to be on the "really terrible presidents" list.<<

He's always been in the bottom quarter or so, but rarely the bottom handful.

>>My son the clinical psychologist points out that Trump is a classic example of narcissistic personality disorder.<<

It bothers me a lot that mental professionals are banned from pointing out when someone is acting in ways that are not sane and potentially dangerous; they're only allowed to do it for their own patients in private. But you don't have to diagnose anything, or even be a professional, to take the publicly available list of signs and compare that to someone's public behavior citing quotes and photos as hard evidence. More of that might cut down the rate of nutjobs in office.

Re: Thoughts

[acelightning73]

I'm not even going to try to unravel what George Santos was up to, lying about his schooling, his finances, his ancestry, and his sexuality, trying to get elected to Congress. Talk about nutjobs!

If a person is a convicted of being a child molester, they are not allowed to have jobs where they will come into contact with children. People who are demonstrably non-functional on some other axis ought to be similarly limited in their activities. (It's difficult to do this by means of the law.)

And some degree of narcissism is necessary for a person to decide, "Oh, I'm going to get elected President of the World! Everybody has to adore me!" - anyone who runs for office has a little narcissism in them.

Re: Thoughts

[see_also_friend]

Encourage them to armchair-diagnose fictional characters.

There are a ton of them with psychological disorders, the portrayals are getting better and better over time, and I think there are a few people doing therapy-analyses of popular movies.

Point out the patterns in popular movies, and people can match those patterns to Real Life scenarios fairly easily.

>>But you don't have to diagnose anything, or even be a professional, to take the publicly available list of signs and compare that to someone's public behavior citing quotes and photos as hard evidence.<<

I figured out that a certain movie villain probably had NPD and serial killer-for-personal-profit tendencies based on their behavior. ('Tendencies' only because they have zero confirmed kills during the film, and technically a serial killer must have three or more. But I don't really see them stopping by personal choice...)

The NPD might have been intentional by the writers - and dramatic cluster personality disorders are a popular choice for media villains (though APD is more popular), but I doubt the potential serial killer bit was intentional.

[rosefyre]

As I said to a friend the other day, if Trump were running unopposed, I would write someone in. That guy will never ever get my vote.

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Me too.

I do not consider unopposed elections to be legitimate, even with a write-in option, because there isn't another volunteer to give people a real choice.

Re: Yes ...

[rosefyre]

Truth.