MM#380--How To Rank Our Presidents: An Objective Book

Transcript

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Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life.

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Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

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Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute.

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In just a few short weeks two to be exact we will have a peaceful transfer of power from the current presidential administration to a new one.

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Well, we pray God that happens.

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And for most of my life as a political science graduate with a minor in history, there's an old parlor game we play where the nerds and the political junkies like myself we rank presidents.

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Junkies like myself we rank presidents and we rank them on who deserves the title of very best in the country, the best the country has ever had.

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And historians in particular love to argue over who belongs where on that list, debating endlessly over this fact or that achievement.

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If you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time, you will know my stance.

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I think this current president, joe Biden, has been one of the worst in US history.

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But don't worry, if you're new here, if you've picked up this podcast since the beginning of the year, we welcome you.

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And this episode is not repeat, is not going to be diving into Joe Biden's record just yet.

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That's coming soon, so we're warning you now.

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Today we're going to focus on how how we rank our presidents in general.

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How do we stay objective about something so subjective?

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How do we move beyond our feelings and use clear, independent criteria?

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Honestly, this is reminding myself to take my own advice before I go grading President Biden in future episodes.

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It's all about doing the hard work and staying fair.

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And to help us out, we're going to turn to today's book.

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The President's Noted Historians Rank America's Best and Worst Chief Executives, by Brian Lamb, susan Swain and the whole C-SPAN team.

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Let me just read a bit from the back of the book to set the stage and to kick off today's discussion.

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Go on to the back of the book.

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Over a period of decades, c-span has surveyed leading historians on the best and worst of America's presidents across a variety of categories their ability to persuade the public, their leadership skills, their moral authority and more.

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The crucible of the presidency has always forged some of the very best and the very worst leaders in our national history, along with much in between, along with much in between.

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Over the years, I've found myself coming back to this book again and again, trying to get a sense of where we are at in the grand narrative of American history.

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You know that American story.

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It's fascinating stuff.

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We have had some truly incredible leaders, leaders and presidents who left an indelible mark on history.

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Take Abraham Lincoln, for example.

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He guided us through the chaos of the Civil War and played the vital, key role in abolishing slavery.

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Or George Washington, who set the tone as our first president and helped launch us on this bold experiment in Republican self-government.

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But for every great or even so-so president, we've also had a few well, not-so-great ones, and some who were just downright terrible, who were just downright terrible.

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James Buchanan often tops the worst president list, serving from 1857 to 1861, right before Lincoln took office at the beginning of the Civil War.

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Buchanan's presidency was marked by a failure to address the growing crisis over slavery, his weak leadership and an inability to prevent the Civil War.

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Historians don't pull punches when it comes to Buchanan's legacy.

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And then there's Andrew Johnson, who took over after Lincoln's assassination.

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His presidency from 1865 to 1869 is heavily criticized for his mishandling of Reconstruction and the failure to unite a fractured nation.

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Now can you believe we had two of America's worst presidents just within 12 years, with just within 12 years, from Buchanan to Johnson, it was a rough, rough stretch, with only the sun coming up on Abraham Lincoln.

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Now, why bring all this up?

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Because it shows us something deeper about our country, shows us something about the character of our country.

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It shows us something about our country's resiliency.

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We face some dark times, but we've always found a way to move forward.

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Abraham Lincoln's sandwich between these two disastrous presidencies reminded us that even in our darkest hours we can still work to form what he called a more perfect union.

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Don't need perfection to keep progressing.

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We're a good, a fair and a noble people.

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Let's be honest.

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We're part of the greatest country that was ever created.

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Now, with that in mind, let's dive back into this book and see how it ranks our presidents, because there's so much more to explore.

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A letter from my counterpart at the James Buchanan Foundation chastising me for some non-too-generous comments I had made about his namesake on a C-SPAN broadcast.

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I should be careful, he suggested to whom I applied the lack or the label of presidential failure.

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I sympathize with his position, if not his argument.

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As it happens, he has some distinguished company.

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The late great Lincoln scholar, david Herbert Donald liked to tell of his 1962 visit to the Kennedy White House, in the course of which JFK voiced his unhappiness over the glib methodology employed by some historians in rating his predecessors as quote, below average or even quote failure.

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No one has a right to grade a president, said Kennedy, not even poor James Buchanan, who has not sat in his chair, examined the mail and the information that came across his desk and learned why he made his decisions.

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Whoever defined history as an argument without end might have had in mind that great academic parlor game called ranking the presidents.

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We talked about this before.

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The reputation of some chief executives are literally carved in stone, as evidenced by the C-SPAN historian surveys that appear elsewhere in these pages.

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Most, however, are subject to endless second-guessing.

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Most, however, are subject to endless second guessing, less because of new facts coming to light than two fresh ways of interpreting facts long established.

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Now we could certainly understand where former President Kennedy was coming from.

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May he rest in peace.

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But let's be real.

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Americans have every right to examine and judge their presidents.

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This isn't ancient Rome, this isn't the Greek Deimos, where speaking out of turn could get you killed by an angry mob in the snap of your fingers.

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Thankfully, we're not there yet, fingers crossed, but Americans have always ranked their presidents.

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They've always judged their presidents.

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We've even judged the king that we fought an American Revolution to separate from.

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This is not a glib exercise.

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This is Americans, who are the consent of the governed, who are at the top of the food chain.

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At least they should be.

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This is them exercising their self-right and, of all things, their freedom of speech.

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So sorry, mr President.

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We are going to grade.

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Mr President, we are going to grade and as we gear up for our 500th podcast episode, we're going to take some time to evaluate our current president.

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We're also going to grade the incoming president.

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Maybe we'll do that on a quarterly basis.

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How, not sure right now, but we're certainly going to stick to the objective facts and metrics.

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We're going to look at economic performance.

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We're going to look at economic performance.

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We're going to look at domestic and foreign policies and ultimately, we're going to answer the big question Is the president effective or ineffective?

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That's the standard we hold all leaders to.

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It's the standard we hold ourselves to if we're a leader Effective or ineffective.

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Thank you.

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J're a leader, effective or ineffective.

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Thank you, jocko Willink, for that definition.

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Now let's dive back into the book for one more final quote.

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C-span has the means to blend the best of both worlds.

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A staple of intelligent television in a noisy cable era.

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C-span televises extensive programming on individual presidents, both in studio interviews with authors and other specialists, as well as in our on-site tours of places of importance to an understanding of each of these individuals.

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The audience for such programs comes from all walks of life, but one thing in common.

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One thing they have in common is a serious interest in the full scope of presidents, including, but beyond, a Washington, a Lincoln or an FDR.

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When C-SPAN embarked on the ranking of the US presidents in 1999, it duly engaged in 58 authorities in the field.

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Moreover, for 10 days in late 1999, audience members could submit their own responses to the same survey, and just over 1,100 did.

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When the responses of those who might be called caring amateurs didn't stray far from those of the professional historians, the question of elitism was put to rest, and that is exactly why we chose this book to help us understand our past presidents and guide us on how we'll approach grading the latest president.

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Now here's one thing Most professional historians lean liberal, if not very liberal.

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That has been the case for the last 100 years.

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It's just the nature of the profession and the environment that we live in now.

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And, yes, most of those C-SPAN respondees lean left too.

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Some people seem surprised when I say that, but after watching C-SPAN for over 40 years basically since it started I feel confident in that observation.

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That said, this book and its rankings give us a solid framework to move beyond our personal opinions and focus on the facts.

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No president wants to be the worst, just like no employee, athlete or student wants to be at the bottom on the list.

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But, as outsiders, it's up to us to give the grade, and we will.

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After all, in a government based on the consent of the governed, the American people are the ultimate graders.

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They're the teachers, in a way.

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So this podcast, we're going to begin grading presidents and we're going to start with President Joe Biden coming soon.

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So in today's Mojo Minute, as we dive in to this book's criteria and we begin the grading process, let me leave you with this quote In times of political turbulence, this book demonstrates how ineffective leaders can leave the nation floundering, while good ones can set us straight.

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We've been floundering for the last four years and we'll dig into that next week, but for now, let's keep fighting the good fight.

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Let's keep praying for a peaceful transfer of power in our country.

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Thank you for joining us.

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We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast.

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Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources.

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Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.

MM#380--How To Rank Our Presidents: An Objective Book

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