Anonymous #2 9w

But I think the bottom 3 and the top 3 are pretty similar level

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Anonymous #1 9w

He did the interstate highway system

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Anonymous #1 9w

Agreed I would replace him with Grant. Although his presidency had its own problems

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Anonymous #1 9w

His expertise from military supply lines came in handy when designing interstates to large logistical and (somewhat) intuitive sense

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Anonymous #2 9w

FDR was doing hella stuff similar to Trump in regards to making the executive branch more authoritarian. Like yeah he helped us through WWII and the end of the depression, but there’s a reason that the after he died congress almost unanimously approved the 2 term limit amendment

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Anonymous #3 9w

He also maintained one of the highest top margin tax rates in history while presiding over a very strong economy

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Anonymous #3 9w

This is true, but honestly with practically every president you gotta think of them more as whether or not they are a net positive and whether other people at the time might’ve done or felt the same

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Anonymous #3 9w

And yes I’m happy with the 2 term limit, but I also think him keeping the post for the time being was probably the right thing to do

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Anonymous #3 9w

the interstate highway is why we’re overreliant on cars and are lacking public transit

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Bout to say. Although its debatable if that was completely Eisenhowers fault

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Anonymous #1 9w

Cause even his admin had better public transportation

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Anonymous #1 9w

it sure as hell compounded it

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Anonymous #5 9w

The lack of funding for public transit is the reason we don’t have good public transit. The interstate highway system is incredibly important for goods shipping between cities. Not to mention civilian traffic across the country. Do I wish we had more trains, busses, trolleys, etc? Fuck yes. But (as far as I know) Eisenhower did nothing to deincentivize public transit, that had more to do with other legislation and corporate margins

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Anonymous #5 9w

Small fish to fry compared to many of our presidents, but to me his worst things were his immigration policy and accelerating the stockpiling of nuclear weapons / doing jack shit to de escalate Cold War tensions, not that many of his peers did any better really. He also planned the Bay of Pigs, though it was carried out under Kennedy, but still something to think about

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Anonymous #3 9w

i concede. very good points here

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Anonymous #2 9w

It could have been, I’m not an FDR hater by any means. Just personally speaking, anyone who tries to amass too much executive power while removing the existing checks from other branches, is someone who is inherently against our constitution. Can they do good with that? Absolutely. But, if your basis for judging them is how well they upheld the law (which is often overlooked for good presidents), then FDR would be towards the bottom

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Anonymous #2 9w

That said his new deal and his role in winning WWII I do applaud him for

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Anonymous #3 9w

The scariest things about fdrs actions isnt what he did, its what he couldve done. Easily could’ve been Stalin

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Anonymous #1 9w

Exactly, well said

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Anonymous #1 9w

But he wasn’t Stalin. Why should we evaluate someone for what they could’ve done but didn’t?

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Anonymous #2 9w

Honestly, yes cause this isn’t just some power they happened upon. These were political acts he orchestrated. We were just lucky he was well intentioned. We should be able judge a leaders adherence to the rules that keep that leaders from growing too powerful

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Anonymous #3 9w

Idk at least that’s my way of looking at it. Genuinely, if hypothetically someone was completely authoritarian but used it for good in the end, then they just did good things. The reason why we should restrict executive power in my opinion is because people tend to use it poorly, but I think it’s the actions themselves that are more the problem

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Anonymous #3 9w

That being said, in light of our current admin I really hope we can dampen executive power a bit in the future, and maybe the power of the SCOTUS too. Then again, it’ll never happen because nobody wants to diminish their own power 😭

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Anonymous #2 9w

Yeah but if someone brings more power to a position and then uses that power well only to have the next be able to misuse that power. Did the first guy really help cause we cant acknowledge unintended consequences?

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Anonymous #1 9w

This is a good point, and definitely worth acknowledging, although I don’t think anyone was truly atrocious in the presidency for a long while after FDR. Regardless, don’t think you can make a good case for FDR not being top 3

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Anonymous #1 9w

But also yes, FDR did help. Regardless of what happened next he was still a big net positive, and definitely more so than the fast majority of US presidents

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Anonymous pinksleepygirl 9w

Thank you girl I’m fighting a battle out here 😭

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Anonymous pinksleepygirl 9w

I don’t have is as GOAT, but surprised so much pushback for me putting him over Washington

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Anonymous #2 9w

I'd say his biggest criticism would be the internment camps he put Asian Americans in

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Anonymous OP 9w

For sure, but you can criticize Washington for equal/worse things. I hope nobody ever looks at any of these guys as idols or heroes, cause they aren’t. Not even Washington or Lincoln

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