What is up. I am Mr. Beat, and Presidents Day is over
so no longer are we going to be praising past Presidents, but we are going to be talking trash about past Presidents
(Jimmy Kimmel live clip)
Here is my video counting down the 10 worst Presidents in American history
according to my opinion. This is just my opinion.
I'm a little biased.
We all are, so keep that in mind.
I'm also aware some of this may reveal my political beliefs and that's fine.
But without further ado, let's just jump right into it, as Phillip DeFranco says.
Number 10, Benjamin Harrison
Ok, he was all about really high tariffs.
and you all know how I feel about tariffs, right?
Right. I'm not a really big fan of tariffs.
Bad job Benjamin.
Harrison was supportive of the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani
and the taking of Hawaii, which is one of the shadiest parts of American history.
Also, the Wounded Knee Massacre occurred under his watch.
Not only did Harrison approve,
But the Army gave out Medals of Honor like they were candy afterward.
for a massacre.
Number 9, Andrew Johnson
I wasn't going to put him on this list. I feel like a lot of historians talk a lot of trash about him unfairly.
But, you know, I'm all about character, right?
And this guy was driven by his ego. This guy, first and foremost, cared about his own legacy
and his own desires.
He refused to compromise, and he seemed to dig his heels when he faced opposition.
Speaking of opposition,
just his blatant opposition to civil rights for African Americans.
as seen with his fighting the 14th and 15th Amendments, and Civil Rights Act.
I mean, that ended up holding back African Americans for generations.
This makes him look exceptionally bad.
And he was a white supremacist.
But mostly his stubbornness in politics. I know the Radical Republicans that he opposed were also stubborn,
but his refusal to compromise with them,
just made it look like he only cared about his own selfish desires and
didn't care about the greater good of the country.
Number 8, George W. Bush
Obviously I am even more biased living through the Presidency of George W. Bush,
but I disagreed with his response to the 9/11 attacks in several ways.
The AUMF, or the Authorization to Use Military Force Against Terrorists,
basically gave a blank check to the President to fight terrorism all around the world. It's still in effect.
The PATRIOT Act, which really was one of the worst laws passed in American history,
It really just stripped civil liberties that Americans used to take for granted.
The Iraq War, dragging out the Afghanistan War with no end in sight.
Not a fan of all these things.
His response to Hurricane Katrina.
The Great Recession happened under his watch, and he responded to it with crony capitalism
which I'm not a big fan of. Bailing out banks and corporations, etc.
No Child Left Behind. No teacher I know is actually a fan of No Child Left Behind.
Not a good law.
He expanded the surveillance state.
The Department of Homeland Security, the TSA,
all that, detaining suspects without warrants,
who were never charged with any crime, never given any due process
just shows that he often made decisions out of fear
not out of reason.
But such a nice guy, though.
I love ya Dubya, sorry about this, if you're watching.
Number 7, Woodrow Wilson
First of all, Cypher from the Cynical Historian has definitely influenced my opinion of Woodrow Wilson.
Cypher: "WIL-SON!"
So a shout out to him. Go watch his two videos where he completely bashes him.
Wilson was all about spreading democracy around the world.
A very ego-centric foreign policy.
It was all about self-determination, right, but it assumed that American knew what was best for the entire world.
And thus, Wilson paved the way for future American interventionism.
One big reason why he got re-elected in 1916 was because he said he kept the country out of World War One.
What happens after he gets re-elected?
He gets the country involved in World War One.
asking Congress to declare war and they do.
And during the war, the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act
two of the worst laws in American history
urinating on the First Amendment
and Cypher pointed this out in one of his videos
I never knew this, but apparently Wilson wanted the Sedition Act before the United States even entered World War One.
And most of our Presidents were racist, ok?
We've got to consider historical relativism, but
Wilson was exceptionally racist, even for his time.
The screening of The Birth of a Nation at the White House and then calling it historically accurate,
not a very smart move by Wilson.
Ignoring all the lynchings that were going on across the country when he was President.
He ignored a lot of things, apparently.
Ignoring women's rights
They were marching across the country for the right to vote. He ignored them.
He ignored the First Red Scare going on. A lot of chaos around the country.
Didn't do anything about it.
Number 6, William McKinley
This one may surprise some of you because McKinley is consistently ranked in the top half of Presidents
usually because the economy was good when he was President
and the U.S. was becoming a world superpower due to a more aggressive foreign policy.
Well guess what? This foreign policy sucked.
McKinley's foreign policy was based on a Christian/American exceptionalism mentality
which meant the U.S. was going to be spreading its influence around the world in places it shouldn't be.
The Spanish-American War, a war built on lies
McKinley, you know, he struggled with the decision at first
but after talking to God, God said "yes, you should go to war with Spain."
So he went to Congress after that and they declared war on Spain.
The Phillippine-American War, which happened as a continuation of the Spanish-American War
That doesn't get much attention, because it makes the United States look pretty bad
but McKinley justified that war.
A war in which Americans killed civilians and rounded up them and put them into concentration camps
McKinley justified this because he thought the Filipinos were incapable of self-governing.
He was the first to bypass Congress to send troops to China to fight in the Boxer Rebellion.
As I said earlier, yes the economy was doing well under McKinley's watch
but he had high tariffs, and again, I am not a fan of high tariffs.
But mostly I am a critic of McKinley due to his brash imperialism
and his general disregard for the sovereignty of nations that just wanted to be left alone.
Number Five, Richard Nixon
He was a pathological liar who mostly just cared about himself and his own legacy.
Not the general welfare of the country
Boy did that backfire
I know there are a lot of obvious reasons to hate on Nixon.
He was a crook. I mean, Watergate
His paranoia and backstabbing make it seem obvious why he's on this list and
and most people's lists.
However, the War on Drugs is probably the biggest mistake of Nixon.
Nixon started the War on Drugs, and we are still seeing the horrible effects of it.
So that's why that tops my list of problems with Nixon.
Nixon got elected promising to end the Vietnam War.
but the war just dragged on during his Presidency.
Meanwhile, while secretly dropping bombs and cancer-causing chemicals on civilians in Vietnam and Cambodia.
He implemented wage and price controls, and this was horrible for the economy.
A big reason why the horrible stagflation of the '70s occurred was because of his administration.
Now don't get me wrong, Nixon did a lot of good and was highly intelligent.
Opening up relations with China,
His policy of detente with the Soviet Union,
and the creation of the E.P.A.,
are probably my favorite three accomplishments of Nixon.
But he had such poor character.
Had a booger sticking out.
Number four, Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover of course makes many lists because of the Great Depression.
It's actually a myth that Hoover did nothing in response in the early stages in what would become known as The Great Depression
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, for example
in 1929, raising import taxes
increasing income taxes to balance the budget,
the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to bail out businesses
and increased crony capitalism likely just made things worse
under his watch, a recession became the Great Depression
His treatment of the Bonus Army veterans in D.C. was disgraceful.
Simply put, Hoover DID try to end the Great Depression, but simply made it worse.
FDR didn't have much success either after that, but at least FDR seemed more in touch with ordinary people.
Hoover seemed very out of touch with most Americans.
Number Three, Franklin Pierce
Oh Pierce, where do I begin?
I know, how about with the Kansas-Nebraska Act?
Again, a law that was one of the worst laws passed in American history
and he signed it into law.
A doughface. Sorry that was a little harsh there, but
A Northerner, who was perfectly fine with slavery.
The Ostend Manifesto
Pierce seemed to be ok with declaring war on Spain if it refused to sell Cuba to the United States.
Pierce wanted Cuba annexed as a slave state.
Boy did that make Northerners happy.
At a rocky time, when the country needed unity,
Pierce arguably helped further divide the country.
Also, at a time when the country needed a more hands-on and active President,
He was not.
But you know who was worse? Number Two, James Buchanan
That's right, Buchanan was worse.
He took over as President after Pierce,
and instead of learning from Pierce's mistakes, he just let the country become even more divided.
Another (censored). You didn't have to bleep that out, I said (censored).
Ok, doughface. He was a President who did nothing. He didn't want to make
He didn't want to make anyone mad, but he also didn't want to make anyone happy.
He personally was against slavery. He said it was morally wrong.
And yet proceeded to speak out in favor of the Dred Scott Decision,
one of the worst Supreme Court decisions in American history
In fact, he was so pro-South that he basically just let the South do whatever they wanted.
When the states seceded after the election of Abraham Lincoln in the election of 1860,
he blamed the Northerners
and the abolitionists
By the time he was out of office, the United States was on the brink of civil war
and the Union had fallen apart
and he did absolutely nothing to stop it.
And the worst President in American history, in my opinion,
is Warren Harding
He once said, quote
"I am not fit for this office and should never have been here."
I agree.
He appointed many of his corrupt buddies to be in his Cabinet.
Some of them famously got in trouble
for bribery in what became known as the Teapot Dome Scandal.
I know this sounds bad, but he was probably our dumbest President.
He was not a deep thinker at all.
He seemed to just let all his corrupt buddies make all the decisions.
He didn't stand for anything.
You didn't know where he stood, because he rarely stated where he stood on issues.
He seemed to have no moral compass.
While President, he would often cheat on his wife
and he had parties in the White House where they would illegally gamble
and smuggle in alcohol at the height of Prohibition
He didn't ever get much work done.
He preferred socializing and partying to working.
When he actually did work, he signed crappy laws.
One law he actually did sign was the Emergency Quota Act,
which was really a law designed to favor Western and Northern European immigrants,
and limit Southern and Eastern European immigrants, as well as most of the rest of the world.
To sum it up
while Harding was a nice guy who was easy to get along with,
he surrounded himself with shady characters,
and avoided any action whatsoever
while in office. He was just a horrible President.
and if you haven't noticed by now, character means a lot to me in terms of how I view a President
though there are exceptions, like Harding who I just mentioned
and George W. Bush
I love you man, but you just made some really bad decisions while in office.
Well that will do it. Those were my ten least favorite Presidents.
The ten worst Presidents in my opinion.
Let me know in the comments below who you think was the worst President in American history.
I'm sure you'll agree with some of them. You might be surprised by others, though.
A shout out to Buck Russell, my newest Patreon supporter. Thank you so much for your support.
and also another shout out to my friend Professor Dave of Professor Dave Explains
He has a whole playlist of biography videos of all the Presidents
and John Tyler should be available soon so look below for the link for that.
Thank you so much for watching. We'll see you next week for a new episode of Supreme Court Briefs.