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Washington, he set the standards and created a Nation from nothing, held it together after the revolution and started the Great American Experiment. He could have been a king, but prefered to be an American.
Lincoln, "A house divided against itself cannot stand". He preserved the union and the nation. Opened the west through the transcontinental railroad, the Homestead act, and setting the stage for the United States to come together again after the Civil war by not persecuting the confederacy, but accepting them back as American Citizens after the war.
Reagan, brought the country back from the brink of financial ruin, set up the scenario to bring down the soviet union and bring about the end of the cold war. Reinspired a country that had lost it's way, gave hope to a nation, made the country realize what it could do and inspired greatness once more.
Honorable Mention: Teddy Roosevelt, (Panama Canal among others) Andrew Jackson, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Harry Truman, John F Kennedy,(although his short presidency did not have time to accomplish much, his "Meet every challenge, fight every foe" speech did inspire a lot of people), Andrew Johnson for standing up to congress even to impeachment for upholding Lincoln's plans to reunite the country. George HW Bush for the coalition that destroyed Iraq's occupation of Kuwait, and even George W Bush for the way he held the country together after 9/11. FDR did well during WWII, but his socialist agenda during the depression only served to lengthen it and set about huge defict spending that is still going on to pay for that agenda.
Nearly every president has done something good, many have only held the office, some were just puppets of other intrests, or only promoted their own ideology over the welfare of the country.
The truly great presidents are the ones that inspire us as individuals to rise above our differences, to strive against evil, to stand honorably against those who would destroy this country, and to unify the country beyond ethnic/financial/cultural lines, and make people proud to be Americans. They can inspire us to reach for the stars by finding the better angels of our nature inside us, and working for the betterment of everyone and our nation.
Last edited by MTSilvertip; 02-20-2012 at 09:14 AM..
The three I mentioned did great good for the United States at their own expense.
Andrew Johnson held the states together and brought the states together after the Civil War.
Gerald Ford kept the states together and brought back peace after Nixon was impeached.
James K. Polk expanded the holdings of our nation.
All three were unsung heroes. Unsung heroes are the real heroes. They asked not what their country could do for them but did what they could for our country.
That's quite a list. I think we should sand blast Mount Rushmore and put the faces of these luminaries up instead -- and let's include GWB too shall we? His very costly and totally unnecessary two-front war certainly deserves to be remembered for hundreds of years as a fine example of the impact a single president can have.
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