Ranking the Presidents

Siena College in New York sets out every eight years to rank the Presidents, and this year is no different. But in an attempt to throw us a curve, there's been movement at the top of the list. Teddy Roosevelt has passed Abraham Lincoln into the number two spot. Franklin Roosevelt has held the top spot since 1982.

Any such surveys must be held suspect, especially when academia and the intelligentia is involved. That FDR has remained number one for so long is surely little more than a reflection of the leftist control of our scholarship. Let's face it: he attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court, proposed myriad acts and agencies which are clearly unconstitutional, and was an underhanded leader interested in only his own power and prestige. He does not deserve the praise he gets, and Americans are slowly beginning to understand that.

It is interesting to see his distant cousin rated second. This has to be merely on his persona, for he did not do all that much as President. Unless, that is, you rank the national parks and supposed conservation efforts of Teddy as important. If that then we again face an instance of liberalism among professors clouding their judgment.

No survey which does not rank George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as the best and next best Presidents is worth its salt. Without Washington, quite frankly, we have no United States. He was the only one trusted enough by everyone to have any chance of holding the nation together. Lincoln held the nation together during its toughest trial. If your survey does not put them first and second, your survey is seriously flawed.

That Thomas Jefferson ranks fifth is another example of liberal bias. That Jefferson was a great and influential man in our history is beyond argument. Yet even he would agree that his Presidency was a disaster: the Embargo Act of 1807 alone nearly killed the young American nation. He did not even want the fact that he had been President etched onto his grave marker. He knew, which an inspirational writer, he was a poor leader. Academia needs to accept that fact.

Recent Presidents are also ranked clearly according to liberal beliefs. George W. Bush is ranked 39th while Barack Obama is placed 15th. Absurd. But, to be fair, it is our belief that anything in the last two generations is not true history as yet. We are too close to the persons and events to have that general objectivity which history requires for any rational analysis. Perhaps history will vindicate him, but the admittedly very early returns on his Presidency display only a man bent on change for the sake of his own vainglory. Ramming health care through casts an image of raw power, not genuine concern for the wants and needs of the nation.

When all is said and done, these things are mere beauty pageants without true historical reference. How else could a man only in power a year be ranked 15th? We don't have enough history behind him to know what his real effect shall be. But that's liberalism for you. We're the best because we say so. Yet remember that the Washingtons and Lincolns and, we'll say it, Reagans let their actions speak for them. Tooting your own horn emits but a sour note.