America's Worst Presidents?

Well, it's President's Day, a holiday created to combine Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday into one holiday... and now it celebrates ALL Presidents, including the one's who weren't so good (and we've had a few...)

American Thinker has up an article to "celebrate" the three worst Presidents in our history (according to the author). They are Jimmy Carter, James Buchanan and Lyndon Johnson.

The article is quite good. Carter is a no-brainer, Buchanan is largely lost in the mist of time, and LBJ is known mostly for his foreign policy problems, mainly Vietnam. He is also known for the "Great Society" (mainly negatively by conservatives, positively by liberals) and for promoting Civil Rights.

Not remembered much in current history textbooks or the media of today, was that in the 1920s Republicans proposed anti-lynching legislation, reflecting back to Civil War times when Democrats, including founders of the KKK, had been involved in this horrific act. The legislation passed the House , an opposition speech was given by a Democrat Congressman from Texas named Lyndon B. Johnson, but was killed by the Democrat-controlled Senate. Finally in 1939 it passed the Senate.

LBJ and the Southern wing of the Democratic Party persisted in supporting anti-black positions. Consider, as LBJ's term neared:

- In 1956, Democrats expressed their opposition to the desegregation decision of Brown v. Board of Education in the "Southern Manifesto." One hundred members of Congress, all Democrats, signed the manifesto.

- In 1957, REPUBLICAN President Eisenhower authored a Civil Rights Bill, hoping to repair the damage done to blacks and their civil rights by Democrats for nearly a century. Passage of the bill was blocked by Senate Democrats.

- In 1959, Eisenhower authored a Voting Rights Bill, again, in an effort to undo the disenfranchisement of blacks by Democrats through poll taxes, literacy tests, and threats of violence by the KKK. And once again, passage of the bill is blocked by Senate Democrats.

The article goes on to show how LBJ saw the change in the political wind and jumped on the train, signing the Civil Rights Act (which was voted for by a larger percentage of Republicans than Democrats!) and then proceeded to pass "Great Society" legislation, that has ultimately been disastrous for the black population.

The article is good, whether you agree with the choices for "worst President" or not, and will be enlightening on many fronts.