Who was the Worst Anti-Liberty American of All Time? (Fun Poll)

[RevolutionSD]

All bad people and anti-liberty. I voted Woody Wilson but cases can easily be made for Honest Abe and FDR.

 

[NYgs23]

As for the War of 1812, it was really the Second war of Independence....during the 5 years previous to the war, over 1000 American ships were seized on the high seas, and over 7000 American men were kidnapped.

The British Parliament had ended the impressment policy before Congress declared war, but the news didn't get across the Atlantic until after the war was declared. If it had, it probably would never have been declared since the vote was rather narrow as it was.

The other two ostensible grievances were were that Britain was arming the Indians against settlers in the northwest and that it was interfering with American trade with France (this was during the Napoleonic Wars). But Americans shouldn't have been trying to take Indian lands in the first place--we know how that worked out--and, at the same time, France was trying to interfere in American trade with Britain. So why side with a brutal dictator like Napoleon over Britain, which was arguably the most liberal country at the time other then the USA? So there was no adequate cause that I can see, and it's not surprising it generated such widespread antiwar sentiment, perhaps even more so than Vietnam.

The war also eliminated the big government Federalist Party for good.

It led to the deaths of thousands, conscription in certain states, a failed invasion of Canada, the expansion the navy and the standing army, and war debt, which further led to inflation, the formation of the Second Bank of the United States, and the Panic of 1819.

What were the gains? Impressment had ended before the war had begun. The trade wars had ended with the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1814 (before the end of the War of 1812). And Americans got to continue strong-arming the Indians off their lands. Other than that, there was a return to the status quo before the war. It eliminated the Federalist Party, but all the Federalists came into the Democratic-Republican Party and war fever and nationalism enveloped the mindset of the Democrats more than the Federalists, so the war also eliminated the Democratic-Republican Party as the party of Jeffersonian anti-federalism, turning it into a party of squishy "consensus." President Jefferson had made not be as liberal (in the classical sense) as he should have been, Madison and Monroe were even less so, and JQ Adams was a Federalist in all but name. Then the Party split again into the Democrats and Whigs.

The War of 1812 was a bad war, like all the others I can think of since the Revolution. It certainly was not a just war, under the traditionally high standards of that term.

 

[NYgs23]

btw - if you don't like the War of 1812, remember that Calhoun was the biggest war hawk of them all. Calhoun was a notorious flip-flopper.

I don't know about the biggest, but he was certainly a war hawk. All I said was that he tended to favor limited government, especially later in his career (i.e. the 1830s and 40s). I'm not a big Calhoun admirer, but I do appreciate his stance on such things as tariffs and nullification.

 

[talkingpointes]

Where is the cowboy neil option?

 

[Vessol]

Woodrow Wilson

 

[erowe1]

Andrew Jackson should be on the list.

 

[Mandrik]

Lincoln was bad but Wilson was way worse. Someone else already said it, but if he didn't get us involved in WWI, there never would have been a Treaty of Versailles. No Treaty, no Hitler/WWII. That alone makes him worse than Lincoln. Throw in all the other terrible things mentioned in the original post and he can cleary be defined as the worst. This is the guy who put the US on the path to being the policeman of the world. He really is his own league.

 

[rprprs]

I can't quite decide between Lincoln and FDR.

I think affronts to liberty should not only be measured by the damage done in office, but also by the admiration and reverence they continue to enjoy among large segments of the American populace.

 

[catdd]

I think of LBJ's role in the Gulf of Tonkin, the attack on the USS Liberty and his possible involvement in the JFK assassination and I rate him the lowest of all times. But I'm not sure which would be the worst anti-liberty... give Obama time and he just may win that title.

 

[Original_Intent]

I finally settled on Lincoln. I don't think he was the worst exactly, but so much that came later under Wilson, FDR, LBJ and others and Lincoln opened the door, so he gets some of the blame for everything that followed.

I think Lincoln was probably a "well-intentioned" guy, something about the road to hell being paved keeps coming to mind. So much has gone wrong when well intentioned people got power and in order to accomplish something that they considered good they were willing to skirt the rules to "get 'er done".

Sorry, Abe, but you ARE the weakest link.

 

[Epic]

Lincoln, Wilson, FDR are far and away above all others...

I put Lincoln #1... 600,000 americans died... Yankee leviathan started...

 

[getch36]

Wish I could vote for more than one. I picked Woodrow Wilson,but god do I hate that no good Fuck Cheney.In my opinion he can't die and go to hell soon enough.

 

[Brett]

Voted Cheney. Was close between him, Lincoln and FDR.

 

[Galileo Galilei]

The British Parliament had ended the impressment policy before Congress declared war, but the news didn't get across the Atlantic until after the war was declared. If it had, it probably would never have been declared since the vote was rather narrow as it was.

The British ended the orders of council, not impressment.

Madison had ambassadors in Britian from the beginning of the war with instructions to end the war if impressment ceased. The war would have ended before it started if the British ceased their aggression.

You've received some bad information.

 

[PBrady]

Dick Cheney

Darth Vader, along with his sidekick Donald Rumsfeld, planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks and planned two wars of aggression. Also involved in the murder of Pat Tillman and the Jessica Lynch fraud.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[klamath]

I would call this a push poll. Tells people who the bad people are using the pollster's own opinion then tells them to vote on the choices he made for them to vote on.

 

[newbitech]

I went with WW. He signed over the country to a few men.

 

[sofia]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

In addition to murdering Pat Tillman, Cheney and co. also murdered Senator Wellstone, the DC Madame, and Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto

 

[aravoth]

I voted for Benedict Arnold. The united States may never have been formed, and our founders would have been lynched if this dude had his way.

 

[sofia]

Teddy Roosevelt should at least be on the list of choices.

Remember, had it not been for Teddy running as a deliberate 3rd Party spoiler in 1912, Wilson would never had beaten William Howard Taft.

As Secratary of the Navy, TR surely must have had a hand in blowing up the Maine in order to get us into Spanish-American War.

As President, he fomented revolution in Columbia, and brutally suppressed the Phillippinos...he was the FIRST Globalist president.

The Globalists assassinated Vice President Hobart so that TR could be installed. Soon after, they killed President McKinley so TR could become president.