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America tends to forget its leaders relatively quickly. How do you think recent presidents (say, past 50 years) will be remembered in 100 years?
Here's my best guess:
Lyndon Johnson- LBJ is already fading from popular memory. Baby Boomers remember him well, but how many millennials (of which I am one) could tell you who came up with Medicare? He'll be talked about in the history books for sure, but once the Baby Boomers die off, he'll be one of those historical figures who people have heard of but can't seem to picture.
Nixon- Watergate will still take up a few pages in the history textbook as it forever tarnished America's perceptions of the government. Nixon will still be credited for opening up China to American trade, but then again Millard Fillmore helped open up Japan and is the most forgotten in history. Nixon will still be relatively well-known in 100 years, probably in a way similar to how Warren Harding is remembered now.
Ford-He'll be a footnote for being the only (or first-who knows what will happen before 2118) president never elected president or VP.
Carter-Will hold a similar place in history as Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison or most other one-term 19th century presidents.
Reagan-Will still be talked about and highly regarded for his role in ending the Cold War more so than for his economic policies. Harding and Coolidge had similar policies and few remember them for it.
Bush 41-Another one-term wonder. He'll be a piece of trivia for throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister and for being part of a father-son pair of presidents. Otherwise, he won't be remembered for much.
Clinton-He may seem prominent now but other than perhaps the impeachment, he might get a page at most in the history books, mostly for NAFTA. But about as many average Americans will be able to name Clinton as can name William McKinley today.
Bush 43-He'll be far more remembered than his father. His response to 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars (the latter of which could still be going on in 100 years) and the Great Recession all ensure he'll be talked about pretty extensively in future history classes and books.
Obama-First black president. This alone ensures he will be remembered for several centuries, including a monument in DC at some point. However, his handling of the Great Recession will also cause him to be a major historical figure in a century.
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America tends to forget its leaders relatively quickly. How do you think recent presidents (say, past 50 years) will be remembered in 100 years?
Here's my best guess:
Lyndon Johnson- LBJ is already fading from popular memory. Baby Boomers remember him well, but how many millennials (of which I am one) could tell you who came up with Medicare? He'll be talked about in the history books for sure, but once the Baby Boomers die off, he'll be one of those historical figures who people have heard of but can't seem to picture.
Nixon- Watergate will still take up a few pages in the history textbook as it forever tarnished America's perceptions of the government. Nixon will still be credited for opening up China to American trade, but then again Millard Fillmore helped open up Japan and is the most forgotten in history. Nixon will still be relatively well-known in 100 years, probably in a way similar to how Warren Harding is remembered now.
Ford-He'll be a footnote for being the only (or first-who knows what will happen before 2118) president never elected president or VP.
Carter-Will hold a similar place in history as Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison or most other one-term 19th century presidents.
Reagan-Will still be talked about and highly regarded for his role in ending the Cold War more so than for his economic policies. Harding and Coolidge had similar policies and few remember them for it.
Bush 41-Another one-term wonder. He'll be a piece of trivia for throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister and for being part of a father-son pair of presidents. Otherwise, he won't be remembered for much.
Clinton-He may seem prominent now but other than perhaps the impeachment, he might get a page at most in the history books, mostly for NAFTA. But about as many average Americans will be able to name Clinton as can name William McKinley today.
Bush 43-He'll be far more remembered than his father. His response to 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars (the latter of which could still be going on in 100 years) and the Great Recession all ensure he'll be talked about pretty extensively in future history classes and books.
Obama-First black president. This alone ensures he will be remembered for several centuries, including a monument in DC at some point. However, his handling of the Great Recession will also cause him to be a major historical figure in a century.
Trump-TBD.
I actually think Bush 41 will be remembered as one of our most adroit foreign policy presidents. In one four-year term, he had to handle the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the subsequent power shirt, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and its subsequent liberation, and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Any of those three could have resulted in a major shooting war, yet Bush 41 managed to guide the United States deftly through those crises.
Nixon's courting of China was a huge geopolitical move, in no way comparable to the opening of Japan. It shifted the long-term balance of Cold War power to the United States. Once the Soviets shot their wad in Afghanistan in the early 80s, thereby ruining an already moribund economy, it was pretty much Game Over. Meanwhile, he bowed to the inevitable in Vietnam.
Speaking of Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson will be known for one unqualified good, the Civil Rights Act. But his patchwork of entitlement programs have proved unsustainable and actually did little to erase poverty, demonstrating the limits of Keynesianism. The poverty rate in the United States today is unchanged after 53 years of the Great Society. Plus his idiotic management of the Vietnam war is almost a case study in incompetence.
Clinton was actually a pretty good president had he kept his willy in his pants.
Bush 43? I think the Iraq invasion was a catastrophe for the United States, regardless of the low casualty figures. It was monumentally expensive and accomplished little except to destabilize the region. Plus it squandered a great deal of goodwill that we had painfully accrued in the 80s, 90s, and after 9/11.
Obama? Too early to tell.
Last edited by MinivanDriver; 03-22-2018 at 05:59 PM..
Reagan will not be remembered for any positive reason once historians are finished with him and that’s how it should be. Bush41 will probably have a better record...not saying much. LBJ is sort of a Greek Tragedy - it would be hard to concoct a fictional story to rival his time from start as VP to finish. Nixon will always be a crook and his overtures to China will be forgotten because no one will remember what China was back then — a different animal. Clinton will have a footnote regarding his impeachment but the rest is still up for grabs...too soon. JFK seems to be something of an enigma... sometimes a scapegoat and sometimes a hero but tarnished now by changing popular values. No one recalls the rabid controversy about having a Roman Catholic president. He is a martyr of unfulfilled promise. Ford and Carter are occupiers of the presidency with some unique factors— Ford was never elected and pardoned Nixon. Carter will be remembered as an example of a good exPresident. The entire bunch, from JFK down to the present occupier of the Oval Office will be likely be under the shadow of earlier presidents.
I agree with the last couple of posts that suggest Bush 41 will end up with a stronger legacy than Reagan. Reagan's foreign policy will be seen as a relatively minor factor in the break up of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, and his domestic borrow-and-spend and anti-labor approach may well be seen as bringing on the start of an economic evolution in America, one that (I think) will ultimately be seen as a negative.
150 years after the fact, the Vietnam War may be seen in American history as less consequential for its impact on foreign affairs and more for what it did to help erode American confidence in government. Johnson's role in the Gulf of Tonkin affair and Nixon's torpedoing of the peace process right before the 1968 election were major blots on their legacies. Nixon will also forever be linked with executive overreach.
Clinton accomplished little of historical consequence but will of course be remembered for being only the second president to be impeached. Ford and Carter will be seen as short termers who served in a difficult climate.
America tends to forget its leaders relatively quickly. How do you think recent presidents (say, past 50 years) will be remembered in 100 years?
Here's my best guess:
Lyndon Johnson- LBJ is already fading from popular memory. Baby Boomers remember him well, but how many millennials (of which I am one) could tell you who came up with Medicare? He'll be talked about in the history books for sure, but once the Baby Boomers die off, he'll be one of those historical figures who people have heard of but can't seem to picture.
Nixon- Watergate will still take up a few pages in the history textbook as it forever tarnished America's perceptions of the government. Nixon will still be credited for opening up China to American trade, but then again Millard Fillmore helped open up Japan and is the most forgotten in history. Nixon will still be relatively well-known in 100 years, probably in a way similar to how Warren Harding is remembered now.
Ford-He'll be a footnote for being the only (or first-who knows what will happen before 2118) president never elected president or VP.
Carter-Will hold a similar place in history as Rutherford B. Hayes, Benjamin Harrison or most other one-term 19th century presidents.
Reagan-Will still be talked about and highly regarded for his role in ending the Cold War more so than for his economic policies. Harding and Coolidge had similar policies and few remember them for it.
Bush 41-Another one-term wonder. He'll be a piece of trivia for throwing up on the Japanese Prime Minister and for being part of a father-son pair of presidents. Otherwise, he won't be remembered for much.
Clinton-He may seem prominent now but other than perhaps the impeachment, he might get a page at most in the history books, mostly for NAFTA. But about as many average Americans will be able to name Clinton as can name William McKinley today.
Bush 43-He'll be far more remembered than his father. His response to 9/11, the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars (the latter of which could still be going on in 100 years) and the Great Recession all ensure he'll be talked about pretty extensively in future history classes and books.
Obama-First black president. This alone ensures he will be remembered for several centuries, including a monument in DC at some point. However, his handling of the Great Recession will also cause him to be a major historical figure in a century.
Trump-TBD.
Why? There are already historians evaluating and posting results for ALL Presidents for as long as I can remember.
Your personal remembrances of each president may be shaded by your own biases. Let the historians and the general polls speak.
I think we need at least a generation - maybe as much as 3 or 4 decades, to really historically evaluate a president and put it into historical, not political, context...particularly with today's polarized politics. That is way I was wary of this thread on the second post.
Anything past Nixon, forget it....
And it really makes no sense to evaluate what your interpretation or evaluation of a president will be in 100 years because, in the end, you are still giving your current interpretation.
JFK...Didn't accomplish that much in office, but his presidency was cut tragically short so we will never know what his complete record would have been. He was a hugely inspirational figure. What makes me think he will be remembered is that when presidential polls are taken among the public, JFK always gets high marks. He may have been the most charismatic president ever when it came to public speaking. His speech writer, Ted Sorenson, though, does not get as much credit as he should for those speeches. Ted was tremendous writer.
LBJ...Because of the Vietnam War he gets black marks from many. I think he was hugely transformational President who was responsible for the passage of three major civil rights laws dealing with housing, voting, and access to public accommodations. I know few who would voluntarily give up their Medicare which has remained in place now over half a century. He is also responsible for student loans, Head Start, the Job Corps, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He won't be among the top ten greatest presidents, but he will just outside that range.
Nixon..A tragic figure. If it were not for Watergate, he would be credited for opening up China, a SALT Treaty with the USSR, and withdrawing our forces from Vietnam. Unfortunately, Watergate was a huge blight on his presidency and he will rank among the ten least popular presidents.
Gerald Ford...not President long enough to fully evaluate. However, Gerry Ford did much to put this country back on a good path after Watergate. His pardon of Nixon was best for the country. I rate him above average.
Jimmy Carter....A man overwhelmed by events. Jimmy was a bright man who had the potential to be a good president. Unfortunately, the economy spun out of control during his time in office and inflation and unemployment reached totally unacceptable levels. Than, whatever remained of his presidency was damaged by the hostage crisis in Iran. The truth is that Jimmy had very little control over either event and was largely blamed for things he could do little or nothing about. Still, one could only give him average ratings as a President. He will probably be best remembered for what he did after he was president.
Ronald Reagan. I struggle with this one because I don't like hard right conservatives. However, one cannot deny that under Reagan the economy got better and the Cold War came to an end. He also made Americans feel much better about themselves. He rates above average as a President, but not among the truly great.
George H. W. Bush. A great foreign policy President with tremendous background for the job he was elected to do. Unfortunately, he did not understand the need to focus on the economy and he did not understand the desire Americans had for change after eight years of Reagan and when they realized the Cold War had ended. This lead to his defeat in 1992. He rates average or slightly above average as a President.
Bill Clinton. The economy boomed under his presidency and he played a role in it by obtaining proper changes to tax rates and by partnering with the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, to keep interest rates low. The assault weapons ban is unpopular among NRA supporters, but probably did some good. He spoke well and set the right tone for the time. His presidency was diminished by the Lewinsky Scandal and his response to it. He ranks above average as a president though.
George W. Bush. On a personal level, I found him to be a very likable man. It doesn't please me to criticize him. However, the Iraq War was clearly a strategic blunder that has made the Middle East a less stable region than it was before Saddam Hussein was eliminated. I lay part of the blame for the emergence of groups like ISIS upon him. The US spent between $1 and $2 trillion tax dollars in Iraq and we have little to show for it. He also continued a pattern under Clinton which was instead of trying to reach consensus with his political opponents, he sought only to satisfy his base of supporters. This process has done much to divide America. He ranks well below average as a President.
Barack Obama. Just the fact that he was the nation's first black President will gain him some positive approval. He took measures to pull our economy out of a very deep recession. Those measures worked, yet did so very slowly. Today we are witnessing the fruit of what was done eight years ago. Some give the credit to the current President. His Affordable Care Act was controversial and we do not know yet what ultimate reforms may take place with health care. We do know he started the process.
Trump. To soon to say.
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