Which President produced the most egregious gallery of rogues? Who's harmed the country the most? How'd they get away with it?

Trump. Hands down

I'm an elder gay who lived through the Nixon years, and I can honestly say I've never seen more abject crime and corruption from the Trump administration than any other in American history.

President Grant.

Nixon comes in last place (least harm of the 4): his rogues were idiots on the fringe, and the establishment’s response to Nixon sent a fairly strong pro-Constitution message to the nation.

Next is GWB. I would have put Trump in this place before the combo of COVID-19 and January 6. GWB caused immense harm and death through a totally unnecessary war, caused a recession, embraced evangelical freaks, etc, but Obama’s first term managed to right a lot of the wrongs, and the Trumpification of the GOP has cut short the influence of the Bushies. Although we’re stuck with the more unprincipled cockroaches like Kavanaugh.

Next is Trump—for now. If he rises to power again, then we’ll likely be fucked as a nation.

I put Reagan as worst. His economic policy hollowed out the middle class, broke union strength, and led to an economic regime in which consumers expect cheap goods without regard to the laborers who make them: the US economy now runs on sweatshop labor we would never tolerate here, and what do tolerate here has led to the new Gilded Age we live in now. The Internet conglomerates run by billionaires only exist because Reagan appointees gutted antitrust law.

[quote] Who's harmed the country the most?

Which country? If you mean any country in the world, all American presidents since the end of WWII have harmed many foreign nations and killed millions of civilians for pure personal gain.

[quote] the establishment’s response to Nixon sent a fairly strong pro-Constitution message to the nation.

I beg to disagree. A great deal of the nation's woes today is because Nixon did not go to jail.

Ditto what R1 said. I thought the exact same response.

Reagan’s grandpa persona masked the viciousness of a lot of his policies. Same with GWB’s “folksiness” to a lesser degree. Nixon was always clearly a freak. Trump is so grotesque that it almost exaggerates the harm he caused.

Be wary of presidents who refer to us as "folks," including the guy who has the job now.

Andrew Johnson did more damage to this country than any other President. He basically singlehandedly destroyed the idea that the Civil War was about anything other than keeping the Union together, and ushered in 100 years of Jim Crow type nonsense. When Congress or the military tried to help African Americans in the South, Johnson appointed racists that he knew wouldn’t work hard to enforce the law, and he relieved sympathetic military commanders and replaced them with racist military commanders. Dante could not have devised a punishment awful enough for that piece of shit President.

R9 Fuck off, MAGAt.

It would be hard to choose between Trump, Nixon, Bush Jr, Grant and Harding. All presided over administrations rife with abuse of office and naked criminality.

Trump and his goodfellas.

[quote]Nixon comes in last place (least harm of the 4): his rogues were idiots on the fringe, and the establishment’s response to Nixon sent a fairly strong pro-Constitution message to the nation.

You forgot about him fucking with the Paris Peace Talks which resulted with the Vietnam war continuing for years.

Reagan caused much of the damage to the middle class and mentally ill that we are seeing today.

Reply 12, I completely agree. However Dean did nothing to help gays, especially when Gay people were dying from AIDS. On the other hand I have hard time making up my mind, between the four that R12 cited.

The correct answer is probably Thomas Jefferson.

I can't believe I'm about to say this but all of them were terrible for the country but i'm tempted to let W off easiest. He was clearly way in over his head when elected and esp for the lead up to and aftermath of 9/11. Still if Gore had won, I personally think there would have been more focus on national security and air safety regulation than tax cuts and more tax cuts and 9/11 might have been prevented. Gore certainly wouldn't have had to be questioned about reading the PDB in Aug 2001.

R16 = that repulsive pedant John Adams, one of the most egregious fools on the continent.

As a millennial, it was palpable with GWB. Those people are war criminals and they were never held accountable. They had the incredible opportunity to unite the country with 9/11, but instead it became permanently divided. Not to mention that Al Gore actually won and should’ve stayed and fought. Taking the high road achieves nothing in politics. Honor has become meaningless. You need to fight the war as it is, not the one you wish it were or would’ve been 60 years ago.

I'm 72 and have always been interested in the politics of this nation in every election and I say for sheer corruption no one else comes close to trump. Reagon isn't far behind for many reasons he really hurt the middle class. As far as Nixon goes, 1n 1973 I would have said Nixon but after Reagan, he is now in 3rd position and Bush wasn't even running the country. Bush's father and Dick Cheney ran the country so he comes last.

Our presidents are just the front men for power blocks already in place. As such, they can barely be said to be responsible.

They are there to get the public behind. Whatever their particular owners want done, and make it palatable to us.

Politicians are just actors spouting lines. To focus on them and their named supporting cast as individuals is to remain utterly confused about the exercise of power in this country.