Posted on 02/21/2011 1:00:39 PM PST by Colonel Kangaroo
On Presidents’ Day, Americans take a day to recognize the office of the presidency – and to reflect upon the country’s best.
FrumForum asked freshman Republican members which president they admired the most, but excluded President Reagan from contention to give the other presidents a fair chance. The fourteen Republican members who responded gave a range of answers, but President Abraham Lincoln came out on top.
Interestingly, these freshman congressmen have something in common with President Obama, who has identified Lincoln as his favorite president. Independent voters also agreed – a new Gallup poll shows that Lincoln was their favorite president.
“President Lincoln’s ability to guide our country through our most difficult period in history stands as a testament to both his leadership, character and patriotism,” Congressman Lou Barletta (PA-11) told FrumForum.
“[H]e served as president during one of the most dangerous and trying times our nation has ever faced and he was able to keep our country from falling apart. Lincoln saved our democracy and is the reason our nation is still thriving today,” concurred Rep. Steve Chabot (OH-1).
That same Gallup poll predictably showed Reagan with a 24 point lead over the second place finisher, George Washington.
The congressmen who favored Theodore Roosevelt, the president who finished second in the FrumForum polling, cited his love for the environment and his respect for states’ rights. “Teddy Roosevelt is one of my favorites because of his can-do spirit, his respect for states’ rights, and his exemplary foresight to ensure that the beauty of our nation was left for future generations,” said Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ-01).
“Teddy Roosevelt… believed in and promoted American exceptionalism. In addition, he was instrumental in introducing the U.S. as a world power,” agreed Rep. Bill Flores (TX-17).
Thomas Jefferson was the non-Reagan favorite of Rep. Rick Crawford (AR-1): “Thomas Jefferson was a Renaissance Man. Not only did he write the Declaration of Independence, but he was an author, inventor, farmer, diplomat, and public servant, only to name a few. A true ‘man of the people.’”
Congressman Michael Grimm (NY-13) told FrumForum that he had served under George H.W. Bush – and that he was his choice for favorite non-Reagan president. “President George H. W. Bush was my Commander in Chief when I served as a Marine during Operation Desert Storm. He has the best experience any president can have from his service in the military, to his leadership as an ambassador, his time as a U.S. congressman, his role as the Director of the CIA, and his two terms as Vice President. President George H. W. Bush is the greatest and most dignified American I have ever had the privilege and honor to meet,” he said.
Rep. Chip Cravaack (MN-8) pointed to the economic accomplishments of the Coolidge administration to explain his choice: “During the Coolidge administration the federal budget shrank, the national debt was cut in half, unemployment stood at 3.6%, consumer prices rose just 0.4% and Americans personal wealth increased 17.5%,” he said.
Congressman Kevin Yoder (KA-3), on the other hand, proudly noted that President Eisenhower was from his home state. “He is a proud son of Kansas and a true American hero. Eisenhower worked his way to the highest level of service in the military and public office yet maintained his strong Kansas principles of humility and hard work… When he left office, he left our country with greater prosperity and through his service he made a lasting impression for future generations,” he said.
According to Gallup, 19% of all Americans view Reagan as the nation’s best president, with Lincoln, Clinton, Kennedy and George Washington trailing behind.
With files from Nicole Glass and Shawn Summers.
Tables included at linked article.
I consider Lincoln to be a very bad president. He used force to impose the power of government on people who did not wish to be subject to that power. Not what this country was created for.
I say, “No thanks.” In my opinion, we’d all be better off had there been another option, other than Lincoln. Would that he’d have stayed a grocery clerk, rather than initiating the bloodiest war in American History, and doing more to destroy the sovereignty of states, and man, than perhaps any other man in our history, with maybe the exception of Wilson, or Obama (Both are debatable). But Lincoln did his piece, for sure.
I’m glad I am not the only one to feel that way.
You are incorrect.
Then again, maybe not...
My current list of “worst presidents”:
1 Obama - Because he has actually tried to destroy the foundations of this country.
2 Lincoln - Because he should have understood that this country is about states choosing to form a union, not a centralized government imposing itself on the several states.
3 Wilson - He tried to turn this country in a bad direction (fascism)
4 FDR - He tried to turn this country in a bad direction (fascism)
5 LBJ - He tried to turn this country in a bad direction (fascism)
6 Carter - Incompetent
7 Clinton - Incompetent
8 Buchanan - Incompetent
9 Harding - Incompetent
10 Teddy Roosevelt - He tried to turn this country in a bad direction (but I actually think he meant well).
Lol at democrats putting Clinton first and not even having Washington in the top 5.
Ah, you beat me to it while I was typing. I was taqsked to read “Lincoln on Leadership.” After reading that book about that man, I think you give him far too much credit.
“I think that Lincoln misunderstood this and used the tyrannical power of the federal government to create one centralized body which would be ruled from Washington.”
I think that’s like saying that Obama is misunderstanding the Constitution. The face is, Lincoln said he would (I’m paraphrasing, I’d have to go look it up) essentially destroy the Constitution to preserve the Union. It wasn’t about slavery, it wasn’t about what was right, it was about power, pure and simple.
“He used force to impose the power of government on people who did not wish to be subject to that power. Not what this country was created for.”
Exactly. And he would ask his Generals to use their best judgement, and then overstep and micromanage them, and passive agressively berate them. Not to mention forcing his way into people’s homes when they disagreed with him, and badgering them until they did what he wanted. He was, in every sense of the word, a tyrant.
Sooner or later the contingent of FR neo-Confederates will show up dissing Honest Abe....Ten...Nine...Eight...
Good answer!
But what about the institution of slavery imposing the power of government on people who did not wish to be subject to that power?
And what about the many thousands of Unionist Southerners who were compelled by Confederate governmental force to be subject to Confederate power?
The secessionists should have left well enough alone. The desire to facilitate the spread of slavery was not a sufficient cause (Declaration of Independence) to destroy the long established government of Washington and the Founders.
“I believe the country was created to be a voluntary union of the several sovereign states.”
Exactly. People have just forgotten that the states were sovereign at one time. So if I have to explain to the public educated, I always phrase it is: “What if France or Germany wanted to leave the European Union, and the EU said ‘No, and we’re going to keep a base in _____.’ Would France/Germany be traitors for wanting them to leave?”
Then they understand better. But sadly, people forget we still ARE sovereign states, in a voluntary union, and we’ll not have freedom until that is a remembered truth.
However, the Constitution was ratified, the laws were established, and the sovereign states determined that slavery was a permissible economic system. Once so established, it becomes very problematic for an outside to say "Thou shalt change." Slaves were not citizens. They had no say. I don't defend it, but as a matter of law and government, there it is.
Lincoln freed the slaves by using the military power of a central government to impose his will on free citizens who wanted to be left alone. As a Conservative, I cannot defend such a use of government.
Also, as a Conservative, I cannot defend slavery as an institution. But I can defend the Constitution and the laws, and the power of citizens to enact legislative changes. Many states which allowed slavery in the 18th century elected to abolish slavery in the first half of the 19th century. A good system of laws allowed that peaceful outcome. Lincoln sought another way.
I consider Lincoln to be a very bad president. He used force to impose the power of government on people who did not wish to be subject to that power. Not what this country was created for.
Spot on, spot on! Lincoln was a tyrant, pure and simple. Mandatory membership in the Union is antithetical to the founding principles of our nation and the Framers.
REALLY sad.
I wonder when they think the government bequeathed to us by Jefferson and Madison disappeared, if they think at all.
ML/NJ
Well said.
I've encountered too many folks who bash Lincoln and seem to think slaves were 'other' as if they were in orbit or something, instead of being human beings owned by other human beings in our country.
It's interesting to see how folks who bash Lincoln seem more infuriated by the high regard for him than they are by the idea of slavery (these are some of the same folks, oddly, who rightly get angry about the killing of human by abortion). They bring up his human flaws, as if by proving he wasn't perfect (no one I know thinks he was) that will somehow dissipate the good he did.
All of this conveniently ignores the sins of those he opposed.
Good to see the freshmen have some historical perspective. That kind of thinking tells me they also won't be bullied by the short-term history that tells them to 'just get over' the whole 'abortion thing'--being conscious of Lincoln's great act might inspire them to save millions from something worse than slavery: destruction in an abortion mill in the name of another kind of sin hidden under lies about "independence".
“Lincoln freed the slaves by using the military power of a central government to impose his will on free citizens who wanted to be left alone.”
Lincoln didn’t start a war to end slavery, nor did he free the slaves. Lincoln started a war to assert HIS whim over the states, and said he didn’t care about slavery, he fought only to “preserve the union.” The Lincoln’s war on slavery is B.S. that people have been taught in retrospect because our education system has it’s part in the guilt America and preach democracy, not Republicanism.
Many people of the time did not consider blacks to be human, in retrospect we can feel bad for it, but that’s enthocentrism. Yep, it was wrong, but not according to the standards of the time, and not understood to everyone at the time. The blacks had made slaves of one another for time immemorial, and still do (in Africa). Slavery is wrong, but all we’ve done is change slavery of blacks to slavery of all to the Federal government.
Thanks, in large part, to Lincoln.
Don't forget that Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus. At his command, but with absolutely no legal authority, he suspended 300 newspapers from production, censored all telegraphic communications, rigged elections in the North, oversaw the intimidation of Democratic voters (in New York City hundreds of protesters against conscription were shot,) he unconstitutionally carved West Virginia out of Virginia, and he deported the most outspoken member of the Democratic Party, Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio. Duly-elected members of the Maryland legislature were goaled, so was the mayor and a Maryland Congressman. Lincoln disarmed citizens of the Border States, in complete disregard of the 2nd Amendment, and he seized private property.
What a champ!
The civil war was not fighting “over the slaves” anymore than the demonstrations in Wisconsin now are “for the children.”
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