Graham’s Musings: This is not a political blog, but since policy and economics are inextricably linked, and this column states many facts that are conveniently omitted by the history books, here goes nothing. Note that Chuck Baldwin shows no inclination to political parties – a refreshing approach in today’s ‘my clown is better than your clown’ political mentality.
A few days ago, I posted my list of the top ten worst U.S. presidents on my Facebook page. See (and hopefully “Like”) my Facebook page here:
Chuck Baldwin’s Facebook Page
People who are familiar with my writings should not be surprised at my list, although many people who read my Facebook post did act surprised. Of course, these could have been people who aren’t that familiar with my writings after all.
At any rate, with my Facebook post I made my list without explanation. I will use this column to share a little bit of the reasoning behind my selections. So here goes: my top ten worst presidents in U.S. history:
1. Abraham Lincoln (Republican)
Without an ounce of doubt in my mind, Abraham Lincoln is America’s absolute worst President. He did not free a single slave; but what he did do was begin the process of enslaving free men. It is no hyperbole to say that Lincoln truly governed as a dictator, not as a President.
Virtually every single problem we are having today (and have had ever since Lincoln’s presidency) with an overbearing, encroaching, authoritarian federal government in Washington, D.C., came as a direct result of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency. EVERY SINGLE ONE!
Abraham Lincoln destroyed the Washington/Jeffersonian model of American government and replaced it with an imperial White House. His own statements prove that he cared absolutely nothing for the black race and was indeed himself a racist–unlike many leaders of the Confederacy, such as Robert E. Lee, T.J. “Stonewall” Jackson, et al., who publicly and adamantly spoke in support of ending slavery and NEVER said anything remotely derogatory or racist against the black people.
Beyond that, in his first inaugural address Lincoln actually SUPPORTED an amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which would have been the 13th Amendment) proposed by Ohio Congressman Thomas Corwin that said, “No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere, within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State.” In other words, the amendment would have forever guaranteed the right of people to own slaves.
Lincoln violated every constitutional restraint on the office of the President possible. He used the Union army to invade independent sovereign states, and he invaded the State legislature in Maryland, kidnapping and incarcerating the legislators to prevent them from voting on secession. He used force to bully and intimidate other State legislatures in the North to keep them from supporting southern independence. He authorized Union forces to hunt down and imprison “Copperheads” (individuals in the North who supported southern independence).
While Lincoln drafted black men from the North to serve in the Union army in segregated units, southern blacks were fighting voluntarily side-by-side with the white men–in the same units as the white men. And what most history books fail to mention is that there were reportedly over 300,000 slave owners fighting in Lincoln’s Union army during the Civil War. (Mildred Lewis Rutherford, “Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederate States, and Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States,” 1861-1865, p. 35)
Lincoln’s so-called Emancipation Proclamation was an attempt to give the North moral justification for continuing his unconstitutional and immoral war of aggression against the South (and which the North was miserably losing after two years into the war) by issuing an edict to a nation that had already seceded (the Confederacy) and in which he had NO AUTHORITY, while leaving the institution of slavery completely intact among the states in which he did have authority (the Union). Lincoln was also hoping that his proclamation would incite southern blacks to insurrect against the southern states. However, this goal was never remotely accomplished.
England’s William Wilberforce had already shown how slavery could be peacefully ended. The institution of slavery was already dying in the United States. There was absolutely NO REASON why over 600,000 Americans had to die in Lincoln’s War of Aggression. Abraham Lincoln cared nothing about freeing slaves; what he cared about was enslaving free and independent states to an all-powerful, dictatorial federal government.
There really wasn’t a “bad” President before Lincoln. But with Lincoln as a model and with the constitutional restraints against an imperial presidency left torn in shreds, we haven’t had an abundance of “good” presidents since him. In fact, without Abraham Lincoln the nine “worst” presidents below would probably have never been President.
(I highly encourage readers to read the excellent book “The Real Lincoln” by Thomas DiLorenzo.)
2. Woodrow Wilson (Democrat)
Woodrow Wilson took Lincoln’s vision of subjugated states to a global level. In one year, Wilson did more to destroy whatever vestiges of a free republic that were left after Lincoln than any President since. That year was 1913. It was a year that should live in infamy. Woodrow Wilson shackled the American people with the following:
February 3, 1913
This is the date when the 16th Amendment was ratified and the direct income tax and IRS were instituted. This was a flagrant repudiation of freedom principles. What began as a temporary measure to support the War of Northern Aggression became a permanent income revenue stream for an unconstitutional–and ever growing–central government.
April 8, 1913
This is the date when the 17th Amendment was ratified. This amendment overturned the power of the State legislatures to elect their own senators and replaced it with a direct popular vote. This was another serious blow against State sovereignty. The framers of the Constitution desired that the influence and power in Washington, D.C., be kept as close to the people and states as possible. For example, the number of representatives in the House of Representatives was to be decided by a limited number of voters. In the original Constitution, the ratio of “people of the several States” deciding their House member could not exceed “one for every thirty thousand.” (Article. I. Section. 2. Paragraph. 3.) And when it came to the US Senate, the framers also recognized the authority of each State legislature to select its own senators, thereby keeping power and influence from aggregating in Washington, D.C.
The 17th Amendment seriously damaged the influence and power of the states by forcing them to elect their US senators by popular vote. Senators who answered to State legislators, each answering to a limited number of voters, were much more accountable to the “citizens of the several States” than those who were elected by a large number (many times numbering into the millions) of people. For all intents and purposes (at least in the larger states), US Senators are more like “mini-Presidents” than representatives of sovereign states.
December 23, 1913
This is the date when the Federal Reserve Act was passed. This Act placed oversight of America’s financial matters into the hands of a cabal of private international bankers who have completely destroyed the constitutional principles of sound money and (for the most part) free enterprise. No longer would the marketplace (private consumption, thrift, growth, etc.) be the determinant of the US economy (which is what freedom is all about), but now a private, unaccountable international banking cartel would have total power and authority to micromanage (for their own private, parochial purposes) America’s financial sector. Virtually every recession, depression, and downturn has been the direct result of the Fed’s manipulation of the market.
1913 was not a good year for the United States. And Woodrow Wilson was our second worst President.
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Democrat)
F.D.R. was America’s first socialist President. His “New Deal” was actually a “Raw Deal.” Roosevelt forever engrained into the psyche of the American public the idea that government spending and involvement is the answer to ALL of our nation’s problems. He convinced people that the only way they could be delivered from “The Great Depression” was for them to accept government jobs and handouts. This was in spite of the fact that “The Great Depression” was actually caused by the Feds vastly expanding credit and Washington, D.C., vastly increasing taxes–among other dismal government actions. In other words, “The Great Depression” was typical of the way big-government toadies routinely operate: first government creates the problem, and then it claims to be the solution to the problem that it has created. And let’s not forget, F.D.R. also illegally confiscated the personal gold holdings from the American people.
Roosevelt was also the President that did the yeoman’s share of work in preparing the United States to reject American independence and embrace globalism. What Woodrow Wilson had failed to accomplish with the attempted League of Nations, Roosevelt accomplished by laying the framework for the United Nations, which came into fruition under his successor Harry Truman.
Roosevelt was also the man responsible for aiding and abetting communism in Eastern Europe and elsewhere. I think it is also accurate to say that F.D.R. purposely goaded Japan into war and surreptitiously stalled Japan’s Declaration of War until after Pearl Harbor was bombed in order to further incite the American people. I believe he also made sure that the defenses that should have seen the Japanese attack coming were not operational. Not to mention his unconscionable internment of Japanese Americans during the war.
Abraham Lincoln gave America an imperial presidency. Woodrow Wilson gave America globalism. F.D.R. gave America socialism.
4. Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat)
L.B.J. was an F.D.R. on steroids. He took American socialism to heights Roosevelt could have only dreamed of. Johnson’s “Great Society” permanently ensconced a welfare society into the fabric of America, which has resulted in the destruction of both our economic system and the family unit–especially in the black community.
Before Johnson’s “Great Society,” black families were largely intact and out-of-wedlock births were an exception to the rule. Not anymore! Now, over 70% of births in the black community are out of wedlock. For all intents and purposes, Johnson’s “Great Society” replaced black husbands and fathers with Uncle Sam and took away the black man’s self-respect and dignity. No wonder today’s black males comprise such a large percentage of the prison population.
Lyndon Johnson is also responsible for the Gun Control Act of 1968, which is the grandfather of ALL of our modern gun control laws. As a U.S. Senator from Texas, Johnson is also the man that successfully gagged and muzzled America’s pastors and churches with the passage of his amendment to the 501c3 section of the Internal Revenue Code in 1954. Of course, Johnson also took America into the unconstitutional war in Vietnam. And I personally believe that L.B.J. was a conspirator to John F. Kennedy’s assassination. Lyndon Johnson was a terrible President and an awful man.
5. George W. Bush (Republican)
Lincoln gave us the imperial presidency; Wilson gave us globalism; F.D.R. gave us socialism; L.B.J. gave us welfarism, gun control, and cowardly churches; and G.W. Bush gave us a burgeoning Police State, perpetual war, and Neocons.
What Bill Clinton and Al Gore could not do, G.W. Bush did with ease: shackle the United States with the hugely misnamed and tyrannical USA PATRIOT Act. He also gave us the Department of Homeland Security and the Military Commissions Act. Bush also illegally seized and held two American citizens in indefinite detention without a trial, which led Barack Obama to add the indefinite detention sections into the NDAA in order to justify what Bush had done and in order to give future presidents the same authority. Bush also expunged Posse Comitatus in America. He illegally invaded two sovereign nations, Iraq and Afghanistan. He created the “preemptive war” doctrine that still guides America’s foreign policy today. His policies and actions directly contributed to the rise of Islamic terror groups such as ISIS and the invasion of illegal immigrants in Europe and the United States. The phony “war on terror” is G. W. Bush’s war.
G.W. Bush and his presidential successors have killed more people in their various and sundry wars of aggression than Abraham Lincoln. And these ongoing wars of aggression that started under Bush–and that continue to the present day–have completely destabilized the entire Middle East and much of Europe and, if allowed to continue, will doubtless take America into World War III.
Plus, G.W. Bush’s failure on 9/11 is of seismic proportions. Either his administration was totally inept in preventing and/or responding to 9/11 (especially Saudi Arabia’s potential involvement), or, if one accepts the conspiracy theories, elements within his administration actually conspired to facilitate the attacks on 9/11. Either way, Bush’s performance on 9/11 was dismal at best or traitorous at worst.
Virtually every unconstitutional tool that Barack Obama has used in his disastrous presidency was handed to him on a silver platter by G.W. Bush.
6. Barack Obama (Democrat)
Barack Obama set many firsts for America. He is America’s first Muslim President; America’s first Marxist President; and the first President not born to an American citizen or in the United States as required by the U.S. Constitution. I think anyone who believes Obama was born in Hawaii is intellectually challenged. Obama’s single greatest administrative disaster is his socialized health care plan, known as Obamacare. Without a doubt, this leviathan is a death sentence to America’s future medical system. Generations of Americans yet to come will curse the day Barack Obama and the members of Congress that assisted him were allowed to create this medical monstrosity.
Obama is also the laziest President in history. He has taken more vacations, played more rounds of golf, and spent more taxpayers’ dollars on pleasure trips than any President before him. But, to me, it’s a good thing he is so lazy. Think of the damage he could have done if he wasn’t.
7. William Jefferson Blythe Clinton (Democrat)
Bill Clinton is the only President to be impeached besides Andrew Johnson. Perjury is a serious crime, and if the Republicans in the Senate had had any man-stuff, they would have removed him from office. But perjury was not all Clinton was guilty of.
Clinton’s cozy deals with the Communist Chinese and the bribes paid to him by foreign governments are well-documented. Bill Clinton was probably the most corrupt President since U.S. Grant. And that corruption continues with Hillary Clinton. Should Hillary be elected President in November (God forbid!), she will doubtless join this ignoble list of horrific presidents.
Another major stain on the Clinton record is the way his government murdered nearly one hundred innocent men (most of them elderly), women, and children outside Waco, Texas. Then again, the Clinton body count is probably much higher than that. The people who ran afoul of Clinton’s good graces and ended up mysteriously dead number in the scores.
8. George Herbert Walker Bush (Republican)
G.H.W. Bush is the granddaddy of the modern Neocons. He is the first U.S. President to publicly call for a global “New World Order.” And I personally believe that, along with L.B.J., G.H.W. Bush was also a conspirator in John Kennedy’s murder.
In reality, the administrations of Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama are nothing more than one long, continuous administration. There really has not been any policy change of substance in the White House since G.H.W. Bush.
Bush I is also responsible for the government murders of Vicki and Sammy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. Along with the Clinton administration’s murder of the Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, the Bush-sponsored murders of the Weavers has done more to make Americans distrust and despise their central government than anything since the Boston Massacre in 1770.
9. Ulysses S. Grant (Republican)
Suffice it to say that Grant’s presidency can probably be regarded as the most corrupt in U.S. history–rivaled only by Bill Clinton’s. Grant was quite the loathsome creature. He was also probably America’s first (and only?) alcoholic President.
10. Richard Nixon (Republican)
Watergate was the tip of the iceberg for Nixon. He would have been impeached had he not resigned, for sure. Without a doubt, his imperial presidency was modeled after Lincoln’s. Nixon makes my list because of his coziness with Communist China’s Butcher of Beijing (Mao Tse-tung) and for forever taking America off of the gold standard. Nixon could probably be identified as a Neocon, if we had known what they were back then. For example, Nixon gave us the likes of Henry Kissinger.
There you have it: my list of the top ten worst presidents in U.S. history. Granted, there are several other presidents that rival my list. I could have easily substituted any of them for Grant and Nixon. At that point, the differences in “badness” between them were getting miniscule. But the first eight are definite in my thinking.
Have fun making your own list.
P.S. Since I spent time discussing our worst presidents, including and especially Abraham Lincoln, let me remind readers that I have a message that deals specifically with the right (and wrong) of revolution. This message is the quintessential analytical explanation of Revealed and Natural Law relating to the right of revolution. I don’t know of another message like this today. I borrow from the Sacred Text and notable scholars such as John Locke to clearly and unmistakably show the right course as to when resistance to authority is justified–and when it is NOT justified. This is essential truth that all freedom-loving patriots must familiarize themselves with. I urge you to get this DVD and share it with others.
