Help ( Democrats + Republicans ) ???
- Thread starter Noname11
- Start date
The Republican and Democratic party for that matter are corporations with who ever donated the most or is popular at the moment leading (popular vote). Each party has it's own agenda and that is to make its members rich. If the citizens can make money also so much the better, if not it is also alright with them. John Boehner was voted House Minority Leader by the Republicans, it could have easily been anyone of them.
Andy Jackson crushed the English at the battle of New Orleans, thus won the popularity contest for President (they say he was a nasty person). All the Presidents back then moved against the Indians as the colonists moved west. Eisenhower did nothing spectacular as President.
Woodrow Wilson pushed hard for the creation of a League of Nations after World War One; it was to be the end of all wars of aggression. Points for trying.
Jimmy Carter brought together Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Menachim Begin of Israel together to negotiate a historic peace deal between their two nations.
Noname, in my opinion, the most important president of the 20th Century was Lynden Johnson, even though he served only one term.
In his one term, he managed to pass more initiatives, more legislation than any two or three presidents combined, the legislation, the programs which are still alive today (after four decades), are still popular today and which have had a profound influence on the American society, American life (and indirectly on the world at large).
The most important was of course, the Civil Rights legislation, which paved the way for blacks to achieve full equality. It also served as a launching pad for the Feminist movement and the gay rights movement.
Then there was the Voting Rights Act (which helped blacks register to vote), Medicare and Medicaid, which are in existence today and are still extremely popular. Then there was environment protection, funding for education, National Endowment of Arts etc. There was the ‘Great Society’, war on poverty etc.
Johnson was a Democrat, but none of the Republican presidents were able to reverse even one of Johnson’s initiative. Most are alive today, most are thriving, most are deeply popular with Americans.
Normally a presidency would be considered very successful if a president accomplished even a small fraction of what Johnson accomplished in his one term. Unfortunately he was also a trigger happy, shoot from the hip cowboy like Bush (it seems to be the trait of Texas). He escalated the Vietnam War and all his legacy was drowned out by the Vietnam War.
However, I think without doubt Johnson was the most effective, most influential president in the 20th Century.