Ranking the Presidents.

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else."-Theodore Roosevelt

Because of my keen interest in politics and history, I get asked frequently about who I think the best president of the United States.  I especially get asked this whenever a new president is elected or whenever it's President's Day.  I'll start with the best, but I will also get into the worst.

The best in my lifetime was Ronald Reagan, he restored the people's confidence in their country and won the Cold War. The Left can try as hard as they want to rewrite history, but they can't rewrite the memory of those of us who were alive to see it. Reagan wasn't perfect or infallible but he was a damn sight better than what came after him. The best in the last century was Warren Harding. Harding averted a depression in the early 1920s by resisting pressure from the bankers to intervene after a stock market crash. His presidency was a welcome reprieve from the onslaught of progressivism. Unfortunately because of this, the textbook writers vilify him and have so effectively rewritten the history that even most conservative historians tend to credit Calvin Coolidge for Harding's accomplishments. The best ever would be a seven way tie between the presidents of the Founding Era, Washington through Jackson. All seven of these men were very mindful of their place in history and the precedents their actions would create. An honorable mention of course would go to Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy, a tragic hero who loved his country and fought for American ideals as he understood them.

Now here is my list of the worst presidents.

Worst president in my lifetime: Five way tie: Bush, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump. Each one secured power for himself and his successors. The size of government grew under their presidencies. The foreign policy is such a continuation of the same bad ideas that it has felt like we had the same administration since 1989.

Worst President in the last 100 years: Woodrow Wilson. His presidency kicked off the century long nightmare of progressivism and foreign entanglements. A close second goes to the Founding Father of the Welfare State: Fraudlin Defecit Russiavelt.

Worst President Ever: The Tyrant Lincoln. He started the War of Northern aggression. He suspended habeas corpus. He had thousands of dissidents arrested and imprisoned without trial. He allowed the taking of private property for public use without due process or just compensation. According to writer James Bovard "The abuses and tyranny that he authorized set legions of precedents that subverted the vision of government the Founding Fathers bequeathed to America."

As a child, I had instilled in me a strong sense of patriotism and I grew up revering the presidency as an institution. As I reached adulthood, I realized the dangers of and imperial presidency and that presidents of both parties worked to make it more imperial. No matter who it is that sits in the Oval Office, no matter what party he belongs to, it is important that the citizen use the Constitution as the yardstick to measure a president's actions. That is how we know to which degree the President serves the country.

Who are your favorites or least favorites? Leave a comment below, let's have that conversation.