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However, if that's the worst thing he did I can handle it.
Jailing people for passing out anti-war pamphlets, just a minor misstep? To me it is antithetical to the very foundation of the U.S. But at least you're upfront about it, unlike most advocates of leviathan gov't. At least we know where you stand.
I do agree that Wilson was a dividing line. In many ways he defined the nation we have today.
1. Wilson - architect of much of the misery we have today
2. Jackson - inventor of the "spoils system" - friend to the bottom of the barrel, as demonstrated at his inauguration - ignored the rule of law when he hanged a noncombatant in his Florida "expedition"- betrayed the Native peoples to reward his backers
(delighted to see him fall so much in stature in recent years)
3. R B Hayes - the "ultimate functionary"
4. L B Johnson - power-broker and snake-oil salesman of the first magnitude - promised everything to everyone, left everyone to pay for it via 15 years of inflation
5 Buchanan - useless as the crises mounted
6 Tyler - a compromise candidate for a Whig party with good ideas, but no resolve to govern
7 T Roosevelt - adventurer and jingo who couldn't leave well enough alone
And the only reason I'm not including the present occupant of the White House is that he's still in office; he borrows heavily from many of those above.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 12-04-2013 at 03:48 AM..
Good points about Jackson. He once said something like SCOTUS has made their decision, let them enforce it, then went on to completely ignore the law. We see some of that today.
Another overlooked failure was Madison, who was maybe the most learned and brilliant of all, but was completely unsuited as commander in chief. Led us into war against Canada/Britain, and ended up having to flee the WH to save his skin, and nearly lost the fledgling country within decades of its founding.
1. The graduated income tax. 2. Direct election of senators
3. Women suffrage
4. The eight hour work day.
5. Laws against child labor.
6. The League of Nations (forerunner of the UN)
7. The Federal Trade Commission to protect consumers from fraud and unsafe products.
8. Tougher anti trust laws (Clayton Act)
9. An end to machine politics and party bosses.
10. Was willing to stand up to Germany when it tried to tell us if we traded with Britain it would sink our ships.
A few of these are questionable, like #4 and #9. Not many people today work an 8 hour day and machine politics are still with us today.
The biggest offender is #2: that should never have happened and it's the source of many of our current problems. The USA was set up as a representative democracy, not a democracy, for a good reason.
Woodrow Wilson would definitely be on my list of 7 worst. Started the federal income tax, which of course was only supposed to apply to the super rich. Started the war on drugs (Harrison act of 1914). Started us down the path of America as police force for the world w/ WWI. Created the FBI, historically one of the most deleterious federal institutions. especially under Hoover. On his watch, people were jailed just for printing and distributing anti-war pamphlets (Schenk case). He was an outright bigot against blacks, and resegregated the federal work force, including the military.
I think the real reason Wilson is not fondly remembered is not so much the domestic agenda but probably the way he brought the USA into World War 1.
I mean he ran for reelection in 1916 with the peace slogan "He kept us out of war" and just a few months after the election he brought the United States into the war! This was to avenge the death of a few hundred American who died from U-Boat attacks while traveling to England in war time, but eventually cost the lives of over 100,000 young American soldiers.
And our soldiers died for what? So our Allies at the time (Britain, France, Italy, Japan) could be like a bunch of jackals and hyenas at the peace table as they divided the territories of their former enemies? So much for the "Fourteen Points".
Incredibly Wilson was not even able to get the US to join his own creation, the League of Nations. Disenchantment with the war and the Treaty of Versailles hoped lead America back into a period of isolationism. Unfortunately this happened when Hitler was gaining power in Germany, a man much worse then the Kaiser ever was.
Not really, this list could be easily be interpreted as reflecting a wish for rule of law, and a federal government restrained from overstepping its bounds to trample on states and/or individuals. Each of those 7 took major steps to loosen the bonds restricting Washington D.C. They got us to where we are today, where the D.C. area is now the richest region in the land, and people who speak their mind can expect to get audited by the IRS.
Anyway there is no need to try to read the poster's mind as to whether she/he had in mind a 'rejecting the modern world,' wish for rule of law, or whatever. We could just ask the poster what he/she had in mind with this list.
thanks ... yep... tried to give you a plus point
but it says i have to spread the points around to others.
anyway, i am a paleoconservative, mostly, although i do condone state
intervention and even state control or ownership of some facets of the economy,
the strange thing is that none of them have ever been tried here.
for example i believe utilities should be owned by the state, yet i am against public education.
I'm very non-interventionist, and i take the constitution literally.
Economically I am a trade protectionist and anti-Keynesian.
I tend to agree with the ideology of people like Pat Buchanan and G.K. Chesterton.
A few of these are questionable, like #4 and #9. Not many people today work an 8 hour day and machine politics are still with us today.
The biggest offender is #2: that should never have happened and it's the source of many of our current problems. The USA was set up as a representative democracy, not a democracy, for a good reason.
I doubt many other people here believe they should give up their right to vote for U.S. Senators and hand that right over to the legislature. Most people still work something approximately and eight hour day. If they are not management and they work more than 40 hours a week, they are entitled to time and a half for over time. Machine politics will never totally disappear. However, Wilson fought it voraciously as Governor of Jersey after he was elected in 1910. I'm just saying he did his part.
All in all, Wilson can put together a pretty good list of achievements that most people agree with.
World War I is tough. However, the crux is this: Wilson tried and tried to keep America out of it. The reason we ended up getting into in 1917 is that Germany announced it was resuming unrestricted submarine warfare against our merchant ships. In essence, they were telling us we couldn't choose who we wanted to trade and do business with. That was an enormous affront. When it couldn't be resolved by negotiation, war simply became inevitable. On top of all that, Germany tried to induce Mexico into an alliance to make war on the United States.
We entered the war in April of 1917 and the war ended in November of 1918. This was approximately nineteen months. Few Presidents have ever ended a war as quickly and as successfully as Wilson did.
Wilson had some bad qualities and could often be very imperial and unwilling to negotiate. Had he been more willing to compromise, the senate would have approved the League of Nations Treaty.
On the whole, though, he accomplished a great deal. I don't count him among my best presidents because of the League of Nations business and the fact that he--to some degree--suppressed free speech during the war by prosecuting those advocating resistance to the draft.
Wilson threw that overboard, but didn't even compensate by trying to improve the lot of blacks, as some later liberal/progressives did. Instead he was a bigot who bought into eugenics (like most academics of the time) and moved us backwards. As prez. of Princeton U., he barred blacks, and as POTUS he resegregated the federal work force.
I don't have links at hand but many economists believe FDR's programs actually lengthened the Great Depression.
True DAT!
-- Posted with TapaTalk
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Wilson - "He kept us out of war"
