Ghosts of presidents past (#7)
A completely unscientific ranking of the worst presidents in U.S. history.
History is full of great people, but it’s also full of the worst. We don’t even have to go that far back to find possibly the worst president in this country’s history — it was literally just a few weeks ago! But when we do pull back the curtain a bit further, it’s clear that Mr. 45 wasn’t the only terrible president America ever elected in the 232 years since its first president.
I decided to forego the most recent generation of presidents, who many people are already familiar with, and went deeper into the past to World War II and earlier for this list. So, here it is, a completely unscientific list of the worst American presidents in history:
#10 William Henry Harrison — 9th POTUS 🇺🇸
President William H. Harrison served the shortest presidential term ever — 32 days — after he got sick and died by giving his inaugural speech in the freezing cold rain for nearly two hours with no overcoat. But before he was briefly president, he was complicit in the U.S. government’s violent encroachment on native land. His nickname “Old Tip” came from the Battle of Tippecanoe where he led U.S. troops against an alliance of tribes in Prophet’s Town. The tribal confederacy fought then-Governor Harrison and his forces who burned down and pillaged the native base.
#9 John Tyler — 10th POTUS 🇺🇸
As President Harrison’s VP, John Tyler automatically succeeded him after he died — the first time such an incident had occurred — which led to Tyler’s sad nickname “His Accidency.” Ill-equipped for the presidency, Tyler turned out to be really bad at politicking; he alienated himself from his own party (the Whigs) and, at one point, his entire Cabinet resigned except for the Secretary of State.
#8 Benjamin Harrison — 23rd POTUS 🇺🇸
Benjamin Harrison holds two distinctions about him: 1) he was the grandson of William Harrison (the POTUS who died after speaking in the rain); and 2) he was the only POTUS to lose reelection to the guy he won the presidency from. Harrison defeated President Grover Cleveland’s reelection bid in 1888 but then everyone was, like, nevermind we want Cleveland back. Cleveland got reelected after Harrison served just one term.
#7 Ulysses S. Grant — 18th POTUS 🇺🇸
You probably know him as the Union Army general who defeated insurrectionists during the Civil War, but Ulysses S. Grant later sat as president, too. His White House legacy was that of unchecked corruption and questionable uses of governmental powers with incidents like the Gold Scandal, the almost-annexation of Santo Domingo, and the Sanborn contract. But most remembered were the Whiskey Rings, a network of slush funds from unreported whiskey sales that may or may not have helped finance Grant’s reelection.
#6 Warren G. Harding — 29th POTUS 🇺🇸
President Harding was the first sitting senator elected as president and he proved pretty popular during his tenure. But his good name has declined a lot since his death after indiscretions like his many sexcapades (“America’s horniest president” as POLITICO has crowned him) came out. His more serious offenses include enacting racist immigration laws and Teapot Dome, the biggest presidential scandal up until Nixon’s Watergate and which set precedent for Congress to obtain Trump’s tax returns.
#5 Grover Cleveland — 22nd and 24th POTUS 🇺🇸
OK, obviously there have been plenty of slime dogs in the Oval Office but President Cleveland was in a league of his own. Before male historians understood the difference between promiscuity and sexual assault, Cleveland was simply seen as a busy bachelor and Maria Halpin was one of his many conquests. But modern scholarship suggests Cleveland, then governor of New York, may have raped Halpin, fathered her child, and orchestrated her involuntary admittance to a mental institution.
#4 Woodrow Wilson — 28th POTUS 🇺🇸
Wilson was the president of America’s early 20th Century Jim Crow era, when the KKK was rising and slavery had long been illegal but racial discrimination remained, even enshrined into law. He promised Black civil rights leaders that he would implement laws to strengthen legal rights for African Americans in exchange for their votes but instead mandated that federal agencies be segregated by race, deludedly arguing that segregation was for the benefit of Black people.
#3 Harry S. Truman — 33rd POTUS 🇺🇸
During WWII, President Harry S. Truman ordered the cruel nuclear bombings of Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki which killed nearly 300,000 people, mostly civilians. He is the only national leader in *human history* to launch a nuclear attack, earning him a high spot on this list (also, apparently the “S” in his middle name doesn’t stand for anything??)
#2 Andrew Jackson — 7th POTUS 🇺🇸
Andrew Jackson may have his face plastered on the $20 bill but the atrocities of his presidency are a solid argument for taking him off of it. He was a war criminal, slaveholder, and — most of all — the mastermind behind the most heinous government-sanctioned violence against natives: the Indian Removal Act. About 46,000 Native Americans from various tribes were forced to desert their lands and move to poor reservations, creating the infamous Trail of Tears that killed thousands.
#1 Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan — 14th POTUS and 15th POTUS 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
It’s a twofer for the top spot, folks! It seemed only fitting Pierce and Buchanan share number one since they are consistently ranked by historians among the worst presidents in U.S. history and their legacies essentially fed off each other. Back then, the United States was not yet united, and tensions between abolitionists and pro-slavers had begun to sprout between states. Pierce and Buchanan did everything in their powers to overturn anti-slavery laws and embolden pro-slavery states so they could keep slaves and stay in the union, paving the way for the Civil War.
It’s been more than two weeks since Texas was gripped by a severe winter storm that caused power outages and 80 people to die from the paralyzing freeze.
While this disaster was unfolding, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, who represents Texas and is — by the way — staunchly anti-immigration, was caught trying to crossover to sunny Mexico. The excursion sparked the nicknames “Fled Cruz” and “CanCruz,” and compelled frustrated constituents to send a full mariachi band to his Texas home.
Power in the state has mostly returned but the aftermath of the blackouts still lingers as residents deal with home repairs and the effects of lost work. During the outage, some were forced to stay home by their employers who told them that it would be counted as unpaid personal time off which meant lost wages and benefits.
There have also been numerous reports of energy companies serving customers with surprise bills for the extra power that had to be used during the peak of the freeze — one woman ended up with a $1,000 electricity bill which was a shockingly high jump from the usual $49 to $61 range she regularly paid each month. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is already suing one of these companies.
It’s a shame what’s happened in Texas, a large rich state in a large rich country, and the blame mostly falls on the people who were tasked with governing yet refused to take responsibility (one mayor resigned after telling distraught residents that “only the strong will survive” during the debilitating blackouts. Wild.)
Adam Serwer, a Texan and a star writer at The Atlantic, pointed out that Republican lawmakers — who’ve had control of the state’s government since the 1990s — have seemed more concerned with waging culture wars with their Democratic counterparts than with taking proper care of their constituents.
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SOME THINGS TO READ/WATCH/LISTEN TO
🔥 How does the power struggle between the U.S. and China impact the rest of the world? Here’s a great 30-minute video report that breaks it all down. | Deutsche Welle
🔥 Singaporean transgender activist June Chua gives a refreshingly candid talk about her journey as an advocate, former sex worker, and founder of The T Project, the first and only initiative offering social services for trans people in the country. | New Naratif
🔥 An open letter about the current crisis from Myanmar. | We, the Citizens
🔥 State lawmakers are trying to ban critical race theory and any other seemingly critical thought from school curriculums because they’re uncomfortable talking about things like white privilege and racism. | New York Times
🔥 Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. territory has returned to the spotlight as opposing factions put out proposals to determine the island’s future, including a full-page ad in the New York Times bought out by groups that support a self-determination process championed by Congresswomen Nydia Velázquez and AOC. | El Nuevo Dia
🔥 A bill just passed by Georgia’s Republican-controlled Assembly aims to suppress voting through archaic tactics, like banning food and drinks from being given out to people waiting in line to vote. | The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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If you want more, check out past issues of The P Word, like issue #6 where I dove into America’s growing anti-science problem, or issue #3 where I break down the unconscious biases that fog our perception of certain political candidates.
Thanks for checking out this week’s issue! If you have thoughts or feedback, you can reply to the email or leave comments on the original Substack post. Also, make sure you share the newsletter on your favorite online social hub!
Keep rockin’,
Natasha