@evan@DemocracyMattersALot without Nixon a ton of terrible stuff wouldn’t have happened, which set the stage for truly horrible people like Reagan to reshape society on a grand scale. So while Trump is objectively worse on every metric, he wasn’t possible without Nixon and Reagan.
@evan I wonder how much of this is influenced by when we came of age and realized today's politicians also mean us harm? I reflexively pick Reagan for that reason, though I now understand that rot really started earlier in the GOP (at least with Nixon, if it doesn't go back further) and is ultimately systemic (I grew up knowing we had systemic problems but also with the illusion of continual progress towards more liberation for more of us, even as men worked to roll them back withing my lifetime it seemed like progress was inevitable....dear reader, it really isn't at all and takes lots of work across generations to achieve for us poors and not riches).
@evan Interesting perspective! I had (stack ranked from worst to best) Trump, W, Reagan, HW. I think Trump's Supreme Court is a generational turn for the worse, and his undermining of norms and institutions enabled a generation of MAGA Republicans.
@evan Understood. Just saying it's rather analogous to polling "Would you prefer to die by being ..."
A. Torn to shreds by a rabid velociraptor
B. Burned at the stake
C. Drowned in a pool of fetid feces
D. Well, you get the idea ... any option is a horrible option
@evan The actions George Bush Jr. Very likely lead to the deaths of over 500,000 people. He also opened a torture center. His actions certainly lead to the rise of ISIS and the Syrian war.
@evan Trump is actually the worst, but I think it’s a standing on the shoulders of giants situation; though, I have pause calling the predecessors giants. There wouldn’t be a Trump without the Bushes, or Regan…
@evan Interesting selection! No Nixon, Hoover, Harding, Arthur, Hayes. There's some argument that Hayes, by ending Reconstruction in 1876 to become President, caused a century of Jim Crow. And Harding 's administration may have been more corrupt than Nixon's! Needs a bracket:-)
@evan
Hard to decide: Trump was the worst in his own right, but it was Reagan who led us down the current path. (HW gets credit for signing civil rights legislation and not staying in Iraq.)
i said Reagan for sheer overall impact. i only really remember Trump out of those listed, so he seems worse, but that could be because i was old enough to understand politics when he was president. i also lived through it, unlike others where i just had to learn about it.
@evan I really think people forget the shit that other presidents did, not the celebrate any of them, but Reagan did so many terrible things... and the Bushes equally too... trump clearly is more in the mind set and he as well
It would have been easier if the wording was which presidency was the worst. That was Reagan. and what I went with.
Which person is the worse is easily Trump by a mile, but his presidency was largely ineffective policy-wise. Just a lot of bumbling and bluster when it comes down to it.
@evan i feel like donald trump is the most outlandishly evil in every respect but ronald reagan is responsible for more destruction and despair by far; donald trump stomped around in the wreckage of the united states but reagan is the one who destroyed it in the first place
@evan would have voted Nixon if he were an option but Reagan is a perfectly suitable substitute.
The orange man is truly awful, but I don't think his legacy will be that great. He gets a lot of credit for dividing the US, but I think that started long ago and had little to do with him. His legacy will be as a watermark for how low trust and community has fallen in the US, but all that his administration achieved was despite him.
@evan
Reagan destroyed unions, fought against eductation and the environment, actively campaigned against civil rights, and pushed heavily for the misguided war on drugs. Despite being a former actor, he even tried regularly to cut funding for the arts despite promising to support them.
@evan This poll is basically about whether the cause (Reagan) or the effect (Trump) is worse.
I said Reagan, because even though he did not mount as direct an attack on democracy, he and his administration created the conditions for Trump to gain power; and I believe that if Trump didn't exist, someone else as bad or worse would have eventually gained power because of the Reagan administration. If Reagan didn't gain power, I don't think Trump could have become so dangerous.
@evan Now I'm curious about the ages of those responding. Reagan absolutely set off a chain of events that sent society backwards, Trump just feels like the personification of what that enabled.
@evan one of my (unoriginal) working theories of the modern GOP is none of the current travesties would’ve been possible without a) Goldwater’s “shoot liberal on sight” extremism and b) the total capitulation of right-leaning moderates.
How different would the country look If the Republicans had put Rockefeller on the ticket in ‘64?
@evan I mean, in a two party system, it’s only natural that one of them is going to court the vote of the 20-30% of the population that’s reactionary, authoritarian, nationalist, and white supremacist, so probably an inevitability.
Add comment