20 years once: FDR-Truman
16 years twice: Grant-Arthur and McKinley-Taft
12 years twice: Harding-Hoover and Reagan-Bush
All together, these periods constitute about 1/3 of the total years since Washington. Not super rare actually. (Pretty rare for Democrats though, since FDR-Truman is the only case.)
How many US states were there in 1812? I know the state I live in was still a territory at the time.
Also, IIRC, there were more non-English speaking people in the US than English-speaking people at the time. (Unless that is outdated info and no longer considered accurate today.)
Possibly true, if only because all the Native American tribes hadn’t yet been murdered or relocated forcibly.
This can only be true if you’re talking about people living in the boundaries of what is now the United States, and even then I suspect it’s not. In 1800, there were about 5.5 million people (i.e. mostly English speaking residents of the U.S.) counted by Census. The native population of North America (not including Mexico) was probably something less than a million. And the population of Spanish colonists and Mexicans in the western U.S. and Russians along the west coast was pretty miniscule (a few tens of thousands) compared to either group.
This James A. Garfield erasure will not stand!
Lol, I should have specified that Grant through Arthur includes Hayes and 6 months of poor Garfield. And that McKinley through Taft includes Teddy Roosevelt. And that Harding through Hoover includes Coolidge.
Garfield’s term was effectively only five months because he HATED Mondays.
I would agree that traditional presidential biographies were for a long time hagiographies in disguise at worst, and at best decent critical assessments that gave their subjects far too much credit (or blame) for events.
I did a post-doc at the Papers of James K. Polk, which is co-located at the University of Tennessee along with the papers of Jackson and Andrew Johnson. Fascinating stuff, truly, but I am pretty sure I could never do presidential history as a professional niche.
It’s hard to say if T**** is the worst President in American history. There’s been some awful ones, who have overseen some truly awful things.
But if one were to say that T**** was the smallest man (in terms of character*) voted to that office, then my answer would be yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
T**** is a Narcissistic void surrounded by blubber, hair dye, and spray tan. He has no agenda other than to try to make others think he’s just the greatest everything, like, ever. And, unfortunately, he’s good at selling snake oil. And, unfortunately, as has always been the case, there’s plenty of Americans desperate to buy snake oil.
There may have been worse presidents, possibly, but none with the ability to communicate as easily with the fuckheads that enable them to do things. Worst in effect, certainly.
Folks, if you can’t point to a previous president that tried to have Congress and his own VP killed, I don’t see how there’s any conversation to be had here.
I don’t think he did that. He’s not smart enough to come up with “Hmm. Incite a bunch of MAGA-hatted fuckwits. Have them storm the capitol. Systematically have them kill everyone they find. My congressional supporters, will – by complete coincidence, of course – not be in the capitol. My dark victory will then be complete once the mob hurls the flaming ashes of the capitol into the Potomac. Heh, heh, heh, strokes mustache”
And we would have been much worse off than we are now, this January 11th, let me tell you.
Real Trump is “HURR DURR CUM TO CAPITOL, MAKE ME LOOK GOODER,TAKE BACK ERECTION,MUCH WIN FOR THE BRAND, GIVE ME MONEY ***FAAAARRRTTTTT”
His supporters are totally tuned into this too.
Sorry, you’re right, he just tried to have them taken hostage so the outcome of the election could be forcibly overthrown. I’m still not seeing a U.S. historical parallel anywhere, but I’m certainly open to having missed one.
Is there another President whose name you censor as though it were a curse word?
I’m calling a Mulaney here.
“If you’re comparing the badness of two (Presidents), and you won’t even say one of them? That’s the worse (President).”
As a human being living in 2020, I despise T**** with every fiber of my being, and think he’s the worst of everything, even being the worst at being bad.
As kinda-sorta-wannbe student of history, I try to take the longer view. We yanks have elected some real cunts to high office. Only history’s gonna decide whether or not T**** is worse than Old Hickory.
Thing is, generally presidents look worse as history proceeds. Secrets and long-term consequences emerge, tarnishing legacies. Do you really think there’s any chance 45 is going to look better in hindsight?
Sure. Right after we get someone even worse.