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Worst 20th Century President

Worst 20th Century President

  • Total voters
    112
Chappy said:
While Ronald Reagan violated his oath of office and subverted the U.S. Constitution in the Iran-Contra scandal it was another GOP president, Richard Nixon, who threatend the foundation our system and way of life with his conspiracies to use the U.S. government and its agencies to attack his political enemies and take revenge upon those who crossed him.
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Welcome to DP.

What parts of the Constitution were subverted by Reagan and Nixon?
 
bicycleman said:
… What parts of the Constitution were subverted by Reagan and Nixon?
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Reagan created his own treasury (funded by the illicit proceeds obtained from the illegal transfer of military spare parts to Iran [you know, the Arms for Hostages scandal]), his own secret foreign policy (war on Nicaragua) with his own private army (the contras) and his own secret air force (re-flagged former C.I.A. cargo aircraft [remember Eugene Hasenfus, a member of that air force, who survived the shoot down of his plane when he disobeyed orders and wore a parachute).

Effectively Reagan created his own secret government within the government unaccountable to anyone but him. There can be no doubt that these actions subverted the Constitution. Reagan would have been impeached, convicted and removed from office but for a congressional leadership at the time that felt the country would be ill served by another failed presidency so soon after Nixon's. [Compare the quality of their judgment with that of the congressional leadership a decade later that impeached our president over a private, personal matter even as he was addressing the imminent threat posed by militant Islamic extremism.]

Nixon of course created the Plumbers, who performed illegal break ins, illicit surveillance and other dirty tricks against his political enemies. Nixon used I.R.S. audits to punish people who crossed him. And, he actively directed the cover up when his crimes were about to be exposed. There is no doubt that Nixon subverted his oath and the Constitution in his actions and only his resignation prevented his impeachment, conviction and removal from office.
 
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Chappy said:
Reagan created his own treasury (funded by the illicit proceeds obtained from the illegal transfer of military spare parts to Iran [you know, the Arms for Hostages scandal]), his own secret foreign policy (war on Nicaragua) with his own private army (the contras) and his own secret air force (re-flagged former C.I.A. cargo aircraft [remember Eugene Hasenfus, a member of that air force, who survived the shoot down of his plane when he disobeyed orders and wore a parachute).

Effectively Reagan created his own secret government within the government unaccountable to anyone but him. There can be no doubt that these actions subverted the Constitution. Reagan would have been impeached, convicted and removed from office but for a congressional leadership at the time that felt the country would be ill served by another failed presidency so soon after Nixon's. [Compare the quality of their judgment with that of the congressional leadership a decade later that impeached our president over a private, personal matter even as he was addressing the imminent threat posed by militant Islamic extremism.]

Nixon of course created the Plumbers, who performed illegal break ins, illicit surveillance and other dirty tricks against his political enemies. Nixon used I.R.S. audits to punish people who crossed him. And, he actively directed the cover up when his crimes were about to be exposed. There is no doubt that Nixon subverted his oath and the Constitution in his actions and only his resignation prevented his impeachment, conviction and removal from office.
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You forgot to include President Obama's illegal appointment of his many czars. Let's see Clinton routinely used IRS audits against conservative news media outlets who started publishing the real scoop on Clinton's governance, or lack thereof. Who could forget the IRS audits of the women whom he dallied with, scaring them into silence?

Clinton Misogyny - Sex
Juanita Broaddrick (AR)- rape
Eileen Wellstone (Oxford) - rape
Elizabeth Ward Gracen - rape - quid pro quo, post incident intimidation
Regina Hopper Blakely - "forced himself on her, biting, bruising her"
Kathleen Willey (WH) - sexual assault, intimidations, threats
Sandra Allen James (DC) - sexual assault
22 Year Old 1972 (Yale) - sexual assault
Kathy Bradshaw (AK) - sexual assault
Cristy Zercher - unwelcomed sexual advance, intimidations
Paula Jones (AR) - unwelcomed sexual advance, exposure, bordering on sexual assault
Carolyn Moffet -unwelcomed sexual advance, exposure, bordering on sexual assault
1974 student at University of Arkansas - unwelcomed physical contact
1978-1980 - seven complaints per Arkansas state troopers
Monica Lewinsky - quid pro quo, post incident character assault
Gennifer Flowers - quid pro quo, post incident character assault
Dolly Kyle Browning - post incident character assault
Sally Perdue - post incident threats
Betty Dalton - rebuffed his advances, married to one of his supporters
Denise Reeder - apologetic note scanned
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Feel free to read the rest. It's ugly, probably belongs in the Basement.

CLINTON'S ROGUES GALLERY:

How much of that was done on tax payer money and time? Yeah, it would be nice to elect one President, who respects the Constitution. They are all guilty of deceit in one form or another.
 
bicycleman said:
You forgot to include President Obama's illegal appointment of his many czars. Let's see Clinton routinely used IRS audits against conservative news media outlets who started publishing the real scoop on Clinton's governance, or lack thereof. …
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Obama is a twenty-first century president so critiques about his presidency are irrelevant in regard to this thread about the worst twentieth century president.

With regard to Clinton, you're entitled to your opinion as to the quality of his presidency; as for me, I think he lead the nation into the largest economic expansion in human history, balanced the budget and protected the nation; not a bad record at all.

But, none of the allegations against Clinton were remotely within the vicinity of the very real threats to the Constitution posed by the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. There simply is no equivalency at all.
 
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For me, it's either Hoover, Nixon, or Reagan. I'll give the nod to Reagan.
 
Chappy said:
Reagan created his own treasury (funded by the illicit proceeds obtained from the illegal transfer of military spare parts to Iran [you know, the Arms for Hostages scandal]), his own secret foreign policy (war on Nicaragua) with his own private army (the contras) and his own secret air force (re-flagged former C.I.A. cargo aircraft [remember Eugene Hasenfus, a member of that air force, who survived the shoot down of his plane when he disobeyed orders and wore a parachute).

Effectively Reagan created his own secret government within the government unaccountable to anyone but him. There can be no doubt that these actions subverted the Constitution.
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Assuming for the moment that your characterizations are accurate:
What parts?
 
Chappy said:
Obama is a twenty-first century president so critiques about his presidency are irrelevant in regard to this thread about the worst twentieth century president.

With regard to Clinton, you're entitled to your opinion as to the quality of his presidency; as for me, I think he lead the nation into the largest economic expansion in human history, balanced the budget and protected the nation; not a bad record at all.

But, none of the allegations against Clinton were remotely within the vicinity of the very real threats to the Constitution posed by the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. There simply is no equivalency at all.
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What sections of the Constitution did Reagan and Nixon violate?
 
bicycleman said:
What sections of the Constitution did Reagan and Nixon violate?
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I'm no constitutional lawyer but I would suggest you examine Article I, Sections 7 and 8 to start with. I think Reagan's most brazen subversion of the Constitution of course was the expenditure of public funds outside of a Congressional appropriation for bankrolling his secret war in Latin America. But I would also suggest Reagan usurped the power to declare war, raise armies, among many other things.

And, you can start with Nixon's subversion of the Fourth Amendment by his illegal surveillance of political opponents and use of I.R.S. audits against his perceived enemies. Really, there seems to be no end of material with regard to Nixon; the man's paranoia knew no bounds.
 
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Why does Hoover have only a few votes? The man started the Great Depression through inaction, and incompetence. It's like Reagan with the deregulation of sub-prime mortgage markets, except 100 times worse
 
repeter said:
Why does Hoover have only a few votes? The man started the Great Depression through inaction, and incompetence. It's like Reagan with the deregulation of sub-prime mortgage markets, except 100 times worse
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Mostly because none of this is even the least bit true.
 
Dav said:
Mostly because none of this is even the least bit true.
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Without doing any bit of a fact check whatsover, I can tell you the Great Depression started under his watch. The stock market crashed, people lost all confidence in the banking system because enough banks failed that it was thought to be unstable. I also know that the Great Depression ended under FDR during WWII. Now, these facts in and of themselves would constitute Hoover being one of the worst if not the worst POTUS in the 20th Century.
 
repeter said:
Without doing any bit of a fact check whatsover, I can tell you the Great Depression started under his watch. The stock market crashed, people lost all confidence in the banking system because enough banks failed that it was thought to be unstable. I also know that the Great Depression ended under FDR during WWII. Now, these facts in and of themselves would constitute Hoover being one of the worst if not the worst POTUS in the 20th Century.
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That doesn't mean that Hoover started the Great Depression, or didn't act. In fact, he did act, and it only made things worse.
 
Why am I not surprised that people who argue that FDR ****ed with the constitution have no problem defending Nixon?

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Anyhow, worst president. Probably a tie between Reagan and Carter. Carter for being a *****. Reagan for being the physical impersonation of "AMERICA! **** YEAH!".
 
Dav said:
That doesn't mean that Hoover started the Great Depression, or didn't act. In fact, he did act, and it only made things worse.
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Well, since you put it that way, he is the worst :)
 
Hatuey said:
Why am I not surprised that people who argue that FDR ****ed with the constitution have no problem defending Nixon?

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Anyhow, worst president. Probably a tie between Reagan and Carter. Carter for being a *****. Reagan for being the physical impersonation of "AMERICA! **** YEAH!".
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Double standards and politicians come hand in hand.
 
repeter said:
First, okay, wrong action, I'll give you that.

Second...wikipedia?
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What's wrong with Wikipedia? For general information there is no website better.
 
Well Hoover started a giant trade war, raised taxes, tried to get businesses to raise wages, increased spending, and had the Federal Reserve choke off the money supply
 
Dav said:
That doesn't mean that Hoover started the Great Depression, or didn't act. In fact, he did act, and it only made things worse.
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Well...depends how you look at it.

Hoover turned a recession into a depression. He did not start the recession.

Raising taxes and cutting spending dramatically was pretty boneheaded.
 
phattonez said:
What's wrong with Wikipedia? For general information there is no website better.
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Yes, but my friend saved the world from giant bugs by exploding them with his mind. He's listed on the famous biologists list. That experience alone shakes the majority of the credibility of wikipedia...whats completely fine, however, is to use links from wikipedia to support your arguement though.
 
DrunkenAsparagus said:
Well Hoover started a giant trade war, raised taxes, tried to get businesses to raise wages, increased spending, and had the Federal Reserve choke off the money supply
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Which is a good example of awful management. It is interesting how people in the past 30 years accuse any president of trying to kill the economy without first looking at what Hoover did.

Back in the 1920s, as a percentage of our GDP, international trade was higher then it is now. Trade War = Suicide Pill.
 
repeter said:
Yes, but my friend saved the world from giant bugs by exploding them with his mind. He's listed on the famous biologists list. That experience alone shakes the majority of the credibility of wikipedia...whats completely fine, however, is to use links from wikipedia to support your arguement though.
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Wikipedia is worthless. :roll:
 
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