Monday, April 7, 2014

America's Most Bigoted President?

Wow, that's a tough one but I'm probably going to have to go with Millard Fillmore. As President, he strongly supported slavery into the territories and was also one of the major drivers of the Fugitive Slave Act....And his bigotry didn't end when he left the Presidency (it was actually just getting started) in that he was one of the "founding fathers" of the Know Nothing movement of the 1850s that was virulently anti-Irish, virulently anti-German, and virulently anti-Catholic, and which also essentially advocated an end to all immigration (except of course from England). I mean, I know that it's a hard thing to vote against a dude like Andrew Jackson who was a) one of the largest slave-owners in the entire Southeast and b) a practitioner of ethnic cleansing pertaining to the Native-Americans (or even a Woodrow Wilson who advocated eugenics and segregated the federal work force and U.S. military) but at least for now I'm probably going to stick with old Millard.......That, and doesn't he kind of look like Alec Baldwin?

5 comments:

Les Carpenter said...

He certainly was not one of our most memorable Chief Executives. I can't remember a single important thing about his administration. Perhaps I was napping during discussions etc. of his tenure in the White House.

Will "take no prisoners" Hart said...

You didn't miss much, Les. His only significant "accomplishment" was the Fugitive Slave Act and that obviously didn't help much.......And I just thought of another honorable mention. Nixon. No President has ever been more anti-Semitic than that son of a bitch.

Les Carpenter said...

Agreed Will. Nixon, were it not for his paranoia and anti Semitic leanings had the abilities that could have made him a great leader. Sad and unfortunate. The reality.

BB-Idaho said...

Millard who? I'm thinking the
term 'political correctness had yet to be invented in his day.

dmarks said...

One of those forgotten names, true