Thursday, December 30, 2021

Woodrow Wilson

Part I

Part II

If you're a fan of Mr. Wilson, I suggest you skip this. Or, take a valium before watching. FTR I don't rank him as the worst president. But he is definitely in the bottom tier. I think he did a lot more harm than his much maligned successor, Warren Harding.

5 comments:

unreconstructed rebel said...

If I understand the man correctly, then the idea of The Ugly American & our several fiascos including Korea, Vietnam, & Afghanistan can be laid at Wilson's feet.

Not sure what is the source of the man's anger is. Has Wilson really been the worst president ever or the most dangerous? Unlike poor Harding, Wilson sure has left quite a wake. I cannot imagine poor Biden being remembered for very much & or providing much influence on successive politicians.

John (Ad Orientem) said...

I don't think he is the worst. Libertarians tend to put him in that category. But I do think he was a net negative as a POTUS. I tend to grade presidents using a letter grade system after giving up on trying to rank them in order of greatness (badness) which I found too subjective. My grade for Wilson is D (poor). By contrast, Harding gets a C- (below average).

unreconstructed rebel said...

Let me try again. Not at all sure why the young man feels the need to flog Wilson (he is after all, long dead) unless it has to do with the state of things today. If the "Wilson effect" is still with us, what do we need to do about it?

I have very little use for whiners.

James the Thickheaded said...

Not terribly interested in Wilson, nor do I have strong feelings about him... and those that I do have tend to be unfavorable.

BUT fairly, I'm reading Grant's Memoirs. What stands out is how sanguine the guy was, and apparently all the corruption within his Admin is currently under for review in terms of how historians view his accomplishments. So we're never as able to measure men - even dead ones - as much or as fully / fairly as we think. It's a fallen world, and I'm a struggling sinner, yada yada yada.

unreconstructed rebel said...

“The evil that men do lives after them;
The good is oft interred with their bones.” ― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar