Thursday, March 1, 2012

Ranking the 20th Century Democratic Presidents

1) Harry S. Truman.............2) John F. Kennedy.............3) Franklin Delano Roosevelt.............4) William Jefferson Clinton.............5) Woodrow Wilson.............6) Jimmy Carter

10 comments:

BB-Idaho said...

If I understand the right wing,
Eisenhower should be on that list.

dmarks said...

I've never run into a conservative who places "Ike" in the wrong party.

BB-Idaho said...

The rightwing of the time did not fall into the 'I Like Ike' camp.
Goldwater termed his administration
a 'dimestore New Deal', Joe McCarthy accused his administration of 'sheltering communists', and Welch, founder
of the John Birch Society, accused Ike of treason. ..which led rational conservatives to marginalize the JBS and promted Ike to write in 1954,
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes that you can do these things. Among them are a few Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or businessman from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid ."

dmarks said...

Interesting quote, like the one from FDR opposing governnent-employee unions.

Dervish Sanders said...

In 1933, FCR signed the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, which recognized the rights of [government] employees to negotiate wages through "collective agreement".

Regarding the Tennessee Valley Authority employees, FDR said, "Collective bargaining and efficiency have proceeded hand in hand. [This is a] splendid new agreement between organized labor and [government] (from an address at the Chickamauga Dam Celebration near Chattanooga TN, 9/2/1940).

Dervish Sanders said...

FDR didn't oppose government-employee unions. He opposed government employees striking.

dmarks said...

WD: You are right... mostly. That is what I meant.

However, you aren't perfectly correct on this. He didn't oppose just striking. He opposed other ways also that public-sector unions might use to bankrupt the treasury and dimininish public service:

"All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management. The very nature and purposes of Government make it impossible for administrative officials to represent fully or to bind the employer in mutual discussions with Government employee organizations."

It is from 1937

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

If Eisenhower was a Democrat, I would have placed him 3rd and moved FDR, Clinton, Wilson, and Carter each down a spot.............dmarks, President Carter, Mayor Laguardia, and George Meany all opposed collective bargaining for public sector workers, too. It's hardly a left versus right paradigm (wd's posturing, notwithstanding).

Dervish Sanders said...

I think you're wrong. In any case, I support public sector unions... and unions in general. Hopefully Obama will be able to sign cardcheck legislation in his second term.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

Card-check gives union toughs (the shitheads came to my home and I will never forgive them for that) a free pass to intimidate workers and, because of that, I vociferously oppose it.