A Challenge To The Blogosphere: 'The Ten Worst Americans' List (CONST. UPDATED)

Raffaello Sanzio 'St Michael and the Satan' ca.1518, The Louvre, Paris

CONSTANTLY UPDATED, ONTO OUR THIRTEENTH DAY NOW, SCROLL DOWN

Historians have put together a list of the ten worst Britons in the last 1000 years, one for each Century, for the BBC History Magazine, and I propose a challenge to the Blogosphere: 'The Ten Worst Americans' List in the last 230 odd years.

As a post Christmas/Hannukah Challenge, I invited the Blogosphere to name 'The Ten Worst Americans' in the last, well it will have to be 230 odd years! Considering most on the Brit list are Aristocrats (including Jack The Ripper, believed to be somehow linked to The Prince of Wales), we may have our job cut out for us.

Don't forget that each person will have a vastly different understanding of wickedness. What you consider the definition of evil, will be very different to someone else's, and it's your definition of wickedness that will give us such a diverse selection of figures on our list of evilness in America, which is what will make it so interesting. The left and the right are most welcome, let's spice it up....enjoy!

Michelle Malkin, Sister Toldjah  John Hawkins @ Right Wing News, Bill & Clayton @ The Daily Pundit and Greg @ Political Pit Bull help spread the word about my challenge. Also the cool Barry Johnson @ The Royal Flush & Blogs For Condi, and Ankle Biting Pundits. Lorelle VanFossen, who is behind the success of WordPress Codex, is my exciting new find. Thanks guys, ahem and girls..... 

Ed Morrissey @ Captain's Quarters has responded and will be posting his list later but his readers have some interesting choices thus far.

UPDATE: Ed has just posted his list together with incredible dialogue which is divided into groups of three posts due to length, and is a brilliant not to be missed. Having spent some quality time on this, he will definitely have some bloggers scrambling for their keyboards. His explanation of the list is here:

"Speaking from a historical perspective, it really is quite difficult to come up with a list of "worst Americans". Most of our history is spent pursuing what we did well, and our failures tend to get shoved under the carpet. Some people simply rise to the occasion, however, and our history has its fair share of the scandalous and the downright evil.....In the end, I came up with ten that I think will be intriguing and provocative, and I wrote explanations for each. Below you will find posts in groups of three, except for #1 which will have its own spot. The essays make it too long to put into a single post. I'm going to really enjoy the commentary for each of these, and I think we will have a great debate over this -- and I may just surprise a few people."

His Number One is flying solo. Numbers Two - Four are here. Numbers Five - Seven are here. Numbers Eight - Ten are here.

Glenn Greenwald has just posted his. Glenn is a brilliant blogger and although our opinions more often than not differ, I have a great deal of respect for his sound reasoning, ahem.....most of the time (I reserve my judgment on the inclusion of the LGF commenters on the list! LOL!).
Chris Bertram @ Crooked Timber gives the thumbs down to the Producer of Friends, and lets his readers decide the rest.
The Commissar @ The Politburo Diktat, seems to have an obsession with Chris Bertram so here is his ahem, take.

Our favorite cartoonist Chris Muir has just posted his list in the Comments section below, and directly below him is the great list compiled by John Morrissey @ Powerline.

Dafydd @ Big Lizzards, one of my favorite Bloggers (who needs a pair of glasses), posts his list with extensive not to be missed explanations.

The Anchoress still feels she'd like to keep thinking about Christmas, but loves the painting of St. Michael.
Sigmund Carl & Alfred has posted The Worst Americans of 2005
Jeff Goldstein@ Proten Wisdom has posted his brilliantly funny list here.
Rick @ De Civitate Dei has a list with humorous explanations and photographs, which I know from expreience take a lot of trouble to compile
Fake But Accurate has  quite an incredible article with, not quite a list, but a single culprit.....

Memeorandum has featured the post here.

Josh Minton is the first in, and has posted his reply here.
My friend David @ Third World County has his list with wonderful explanations and ends with a poem from Kipling.
My friend Robert Pearson @ The New Victorian has his thoughtful response here.
My friend @ Media Lies has posted in the comment section below
The great blogger Daniel W. Drezner puts his list up here.

Gorgeous Pamela @ Atlas Shrugs has her list up here.
My friend Doug @ Below The Beltway has posted his here.
Adam has given us an extensive post, with photographs!
Brian @ Uncooprative Blogger's answer is here.
Sean @ The American Mind rises to the challenge
John Norris Brown has his compiled list here.

California Conservative's emailed answer kinda goes something like this.( Michelle Malkin's answer to LGF's Idiotarian list)
Eugene @ The Volokh Conspiracy has got it, so let's see what he comes up with.  
Steve @ Secure Liberty has a rather wonderful blog, and an interesting list here, focusing on enemies of liberty.
Robert Hayes @ The Argument Clinic posted here.
Blogs For Industry has his list here. 
Ramjac @ Rammin & Jammin has a cool list with succinct explanations.

Betsy Newmark  comments on the Brit list.
CM Cornell @ Yelling At The Windshield has risen to the challenge here.
The Glittering Eye has his answers here.
Brian @ The Iowa Voice posts his list here, with some interesting explanations.
Scott Olson @ The Trading Post here.
Solomon @ Left Behinds, with the view from the left, as well as Frank Warner whose list is here.

Robert Farley @ Lawyers Guns & Money can't resist: "Reading the comments is fun; if you've ever doubted whether the right has more spite, anger, hatred, and vitriol than the left, please put those concerns aside. Including Martin Luther King was not enough for one enlightened commenter; she decided to put every African-American on her list. Jimmy Carter seems to be a mainstay on the conservative lists, as does Earl Warren." Then he upsets me and puts Mickey Kaus on the list. I like Mickey Kaus is that wrong? LOL...

Joe @ The Heretik asks: "Only Ten?"
Ampersand @ Alas A Blog response is here.
The Dodo @ Life Like Pundits, gives us his list here.
Greg Prince has his list here.
Neo-neocon's cool list is here.

David Wyman @ The Village Idiot chooses his list of six and four with extensive notes, from those whose actions had the worst effects, regardless of intent.
The Bullwinkle Blog posts his here.
Peter Levine provides us with ten of the worst as well as ten of the best
Jill @ Yellowsnapdragons has her list here.

The Common Room's response is here.
Bill @ The Florida Masochist posts a few, and points us to his Knucklehead of the Year Award.
Another list from the left side of the Blogosphere, Minipundit's choices are here. 
Jess @ Life..... presents hers.
DW @ Four Right Wing Whackos puts his list together here within an extensive post. 

Houblog's selection is here, and includes the Dishonorable Mentions that didn't make the cut.
Raspberry Swirl has hers here.
The Squiggles Blog has squiglled hers here.
Gahrie's list is here.
Anthony @ Tangerines... (aka The Pink Moose, which I prefer) has his list here. 

Mary Madigan @ Exit Zero has her list divided in categories.Bruce Armstrong @ Ordinary Every Day Christian has his top ten choices listed.
Jamie @ Eye Of The Polyphemus has his compiled list here.
Mike @ Hidden Genius, and his reluctant list here.
Walter In Denver puts forward his list here. 

Salt or Salty Vicar to his friends has posted his list here.
Scott @ Ah Shoot posts his list making sure he looks at no one else's first.
Elliot @ From Where I Sit has his choices here.
Scantron @ WAHC has a 'Worst Americans of 2005' list.
Jimmie @ Sundries Shack has joined in the fun with his list here. Glad you made it Jimmie.
Black Guile posts his list here.

Ben @ Badger Blues, calls it a stupid list, and then proceeds to make one anyway.
Jon Sullivan's list is here.
Oscar @ Against Them All has posted in the comment section below
Aggravated DocSurg has his, ahem, one worst American of all time.
The Watcher of Weasels chimes in here.
Chutney @ My Irony has her list here.

Say Anything has a list here and "pays more attention to the actual effects of a person’s actions than to a person’s intent" 
Greg Prince @ Uncorrelated has his list here.
Rad Geek has although reluctantly, posted his here. with extensive explanations and some names that have not appeared elsewhere.
David Chung @ Dis-oriented puts forward his list here

I'll keep you posted with the latest as they come in. Much more in the Comments and TrackBack section below. As you know, the challenge has been going on for some thirteen days now, and spreading like bushfire through the Blogosphere with almost a 120 000 odd people having had a look so far.

It is very interesting how a few names are emerging as a constant. On everyone's lips and the number one favorite is Benedict Arnorld, very closely followed by Jimmy Carter, Joseph McArthy,  Richard Nixon, George Soros, Aaron Burr, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg (no particular order). Jane Fonda has appeared on quite a few lists, and so has George Bush, J. E. Hoover, John Kerry, Lyndon Johnson and Alger Hiss.

Comments

[North by Northwest]

I say, one is certainly Dr. H.H. Holmes, who was hanged on the morning of May 7, 1896. It is said that he killed 200 or more people in his castle of horrors and that the term 'Serial-Killer' was 'invented' being faced with such hitherto unprecedented evil.

[North by Northwest]

More controversial would of course be naming Klaus Fuchs, Harold Gold, David Greenglas, his sister Ethel and her husband Julius Rosenberg for allegedly giving away the secret of the nuclear bomb to the Russians, which is believed to have enabled the Russians to successfully complete their first atomic bomb in 1949 (their first nuclear test, "Joe 1", shocked the West in the speed it was produced). In the strictest sense of the word 'evil', namely being profoundly immoral and malevolent, one could of course argue that their actions do not qualify as 'evil', as they apparently acted in 'good conscience' in accordance with their genuinely held beliefs and moral values which did not intend to cause harm but to do 'good'.

And taking this theme even further, how about Chief Justice Earl Warren:

Warren's opinion in Brown has been criticized for its lack of constitutional analysis. In Brown the key finding does not appeal to precedent or to the history of the Fourteenth Amendment. Rather there is an emphasis on common sense, justice, and fairness that can be seen in Warren's reliance on social science and psychological research. Warren was not antigovernment, but he believed that the Constitution prohibited the government from acting unfairly against the individual. In taking this position, he carved out a powerful position for the Court as a protector of civil rights and civil liberties.

Warren's rulings were clearly motivated by the very best of intentions, but in the process he certainly helped opening a massive can of worms...

[Charles Shull]

The above are good contenders. Let me insert a controversial nominee:
Lyndon B. Johnson. He campaigned against the Vietnam War. Then started the war. (The attacks on the Maddox and Turner Joy never happened.) He refused to win the war. The liberals have been fighting this war since then.
He started the War on Poverty, which we lost.
In this war, he created a huge buerocracy which has eternal life.
He moved the Social Security funds into the budget. (Everyone who mentions the "Social Security lockbox" is a liar. He knows there's no lockbox.) The list goes on and on.

[sigmund, carl and alfred]

Our list is up, though with a bit of a twist. We nominated the The Ten Worst Americans of 2005.

The worst ever, will take a bit more time.

[antimedia]

I'm tempted to suggest Noam Chomsky, but I doubt he makes the top ten.

John Wilkes Booth. It's impossible to say what our country would be like if Lincoln had lived, but I can't help but think that we would not have suffered through the Reconstruction fiasco and discrimination against blacks may well have ended much sooner as well. Booth's actions almost assuredly changed our history.

Jane Fonda. As a Vietnam vet I have to list her. She visited North Vietnam while we were at war, posed on an anti-aircraft gun that was killing American pilots, visited our POWs and swore they were receiving good treatment at the hands of the Vietnamese. She pushed the envelope of anti-American Americans and set the standard for the outrageous behaviors we see today.

John Kerry. He met secretly with the enemy while still a uniformed officer in the US Navy, then followed that up with his Congressional testimony that defamed US troops, telling lies that still have not been completely corrected and still haunt American troops today and he was the impetus for Congress abandoning South Vietnam, an action that cost several million lives in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

Benedict Arnold. His name is synonymous with traitor.

[Chas]

Antimedia has a good point. The south would have recovered much more rapidly if Lincoln had lived. I ditto him on Fonda & Kerry. I still think LBJ was double bad. He geve us the idea the government owes us something.

[Joshua Minton]

I agree with Antimedia about John Wilkes Booth but I have to disagree about Benedict Arnold. He's really a wash because, while he did finally betray America, he started out as a British soldier and betrayed them by coming to us, plus he helped capture all those Canadian armaments and helped drag them back to Boston which allowed Washington to take the heights and drive the British out of Boston.

So, while he was ultimately a terrible American, he was a really good soldier who just ended up being a double agent. He got his in the end.

[Huan]

i nominate the New York Times

[antimedia]

Josh, while I see your point, I was trying to focus on people whose actions changed history. Just as Holmes was the reason that the phrase "serial killer" was invented and is therefore worthy of inclusion, Benedict Arnold has the commonly understood meaning of "traitor". My thinking was, if they changed history or were "trendsetters", they qualify.

[Alexandra]

Guys don't forget to check the TrackBacks above and the updates in the main text for more. Jeff Goldstein also listed Arnold.

[David Steinman]

While it's difficult not to nominate American serial killers in order of the number of persons dead, two bad figures from the history of the American West include
Col. John Chivington of the Colorado militia who led
the Sand Creek Massacre against Chief Black Kettle, whose lodges were flying an American Flag, murdering many of 500 Southern Cheyenne and 50 Arapaho, in 1864.
Also, Governor Frederick Pitkin, shamelessly played
the race card during the last days of Colorado Utes,
infamously calling for their extermination.

[skeneogden]

I didn't quite know where to begin (or end) but these are the 10 I came up with. There are so many deserving people to fill the list out with.

[Brian Bonner]

Edward Kennedy - Doesn’t he span 230 years? Also, short for Edward is Ed, not Ted!

John Kerry – For the lies he told to Congress about Vietnam

George Soros – Rich Communist trying to influence American Politics

Michael Newdow – For his never ending attack on Christianity

Nancy Pelosi – Left Wing political opportunist masquerading as a party leader

Benedict Arnold – If you don’t know this guy get an education.

"Hanoi Jane" Fonda - Traitor

Al Franken – Left Wing Cliff Dweller who believes humor replaces fact

Bill Clinton – For his contribution to the destruction of American Morality

Noam Chompsky – a Brilliant subversive Communist Living as a capitalist

[Darrell]

Those wacky Brits! First they do this -
1 - Nelson Mandela
2 - Bill Clinton
3 - Dalai Lama
4 - Noam Chomsky
5 - Alan Greenspan
6 - Bill Gates
7 - Steve Jobs
8 - Archbishop Desmond Tutu
9 - Richard Branson
10 - George Soros
11 - Kofi Annan
Picking Uncle Bill to head the world in a fantasy poll (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/4298568.stm) in September(note who made No. 4)... And now selecting Thomas Becket, aka Thomas-a-Becket or Saint Thomas-a-Becket. Yes, he refused to follow Henry II's edicts because they violated Canon Law...And had his brains scattered on the floor of the cathedral at Canterbury for his troubles. And poor Henry WAS forced by public sentiment to do penance at the Saint's tomb...I guess public sentiment has now changed in the UK...at least among Leftists.

My first thought is to out serial killers on the list because few other things come close to epitomizing true evil. I'll have to give this more thought.

[Darrell]

Oooops! I meant picking Nelson Mandella...Then Former President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton....

[Darrell]

Ooop again...I meant Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela...

[Ghost Dansing]

Dubya's certainly the worst President ever. I was kinda reflecting on the accomplishments of great men like Jimmy Carter and was just amazed that we have, as a Nation, reached this far down in the pickle barrel:

-Became president after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes, with the help of my fathers appointments to the Supreme Court.
-First president in US history to unilaterally attack a sovereign nation against the will of the United Nations.
-Set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in US history. Spent the surplus and bankrupted the treasury -Shattered record for biggest annual deficit in history. Set economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
-First president in US history to enter office with a criminal record.
-First year in office set the all-time record for most days on vacation by any president in US history. After taking the entire month of August off for vacation, presided over the worst security failure in US history.
- First two years in office over 2 million Americans lost their job.
-Cut unemployment benefits for more out of work Americans than any president in US history.
-Set the record for the least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
-Presided over the biggest energy crises in US history and refused to intervene when corruption was revealed.
-Presided over the highest gasoline prices in US history and refused to use the national reserves as past presidents have.
-Cut healthcare benefits for war veterans.
-Set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously take to the streets to protest me (15 million people), shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.

And there's more. Actually, his only lifetime accomplishments seem to have been "being born a Bush" and half-way sobering up at 40 years of age.

-Dissolved more international treaties than any president in US history.
-Had more states to simultaneously go bankrupt than any president in the history of the United States.
-First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the human rights commission.
-First president in US history to have the United Nations remove the US from the elections monitoring board.
-Withdrew from the World Court of Law.
-Refused to allow inspectors access to US prisoners of war and by default no longer abide by the Geneva Conventions.
-All-time US (and world) record holder for most corporate campaign donations.
-Removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any other president in US history.

Dubya was exceptional as Texas Governor also:

-Changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union.

But stalwart and persevering he is!

"The important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our Number One priority and we will not rest until we find him!"
--George W. Bush, Sept. 13, 2001

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
--George W. Bush, March 13, 2002

What a guy...what a great Republican!

[Robert (New Victorian)]

Umm, Ghost Dansing person, I think you're supposed to comment on the post and not ramble off into Fantasyland--that's what YOUr blog is for. Ahem.

Anyway, I tried not to look at any others' work before posting mine, but I see there are a few names that pop up often. As there should be.

[Left Behinds]

We're coming up with nominees over at Left Behinds.

So far we've got arguments for Leo Strauss, Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Roger Taney, Woodrow Wilson, George W. Bush, David Hasselhoff, Rush Limaugh, John McLaughlin, Richard Nixon, The Manhattan Project guys, and the entire Christian Right.

[Alexandra]

Hey Left Behind, The Entire Christian Right? Right....LOL!
On your Blog you mention the Nobel Prize Winner, and if I am not mistaken the recipient of The National Medal of Science, Milton Friedman? I am still trying to get that one, but I guess it was the Reagan connection? Right? Oops I said it again...

[Alexandra]

My favorite of Milton Friedman's:

"I am a libertarian with a small l and a Republican with a capital R. And I am a Republican with a capital R on grounds of expediency, not on principle."

[Jimmie]

I'd like to play, too. I'll drop a list on my blog tomorrow and do the appropriate trackbacks.

[Darrell]

Readers guide to understanding and enjoying Ghost Dansing...

1)Ignore the lies, half-truths, and misrepresentations.

That will take you to the "Posted by:" line in red.

Know that he is a proud member of the Ward Churchill tribe of Native Americans.

Enjoy!

[Left Behinds]

Heh heh, Alexandra, I used that quote in this post.

I only mentioned MF as a potential candidate, I didn't follow through, because on consideration I don't think he himself is malevolent. I just think that his followers have wreaked a lot of havoc in his name (Reaganomics, various international development programs, etc.).

And I was being tongue in cheek when I nominated the entire Christian Right. ;)

[Joseph Marshall]

Ok, Alexandra, here are my picks. This was rather difficult because most of the evils in American history and American life are collective, rather than individual evils. Some of the most heinous things in American history have no outstanding single perpetrators. And while Americans have committed private outrages galore, very few of these have had a significant long-term impact on the country as a whole.

One of the classic cases of collective American evil is the slaughter of Northern California Indians after 1848. This was the work of nameless and faceless men in a loosely organized “California Volunteer Militia” championed by the California press, which openly referred to their activities as “extermination”. This is perhaps the single incident in our history that was explicitly, unequivocally, and inescapably genocide.

Another classic case was the explosive expansion of Black slavery in the South which resulted from the invention of the Cotton Gin. The rise of the “peculiar institution” was a collective evil, perhaps the evil that will stain our name longest.

The people I have chosen are those who committed heinous actions of national scope which they, as individuals could have avoided or refused. In many cases they are the immediate perpetrators of broader evils whose actual source cannot be explicitly traced to one man. Consequently, few of them were evil in the sense that, say, Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin were evil. We simply don’t seem to grow monsters on that scale.

General Winfield Scott—the man who took over the job of forcing the Cherokee Nation from Georgia into Oklahoma—the Trail of Tears. His predecessor, General John Wool, resigned his commission rather than be a party to it. Some of the most famous names in American Congressional history, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and Davy Crocket opposed the policy that mandated it. About 4000 Cherokee died as a result of the removal.

Kit Carson—the principle architect of the Long Walk of the Navajo Nation to Bosque Redondo in southern New Mexico. Carson himself estimated the total Navajo population to be 15,000; perhaps 11,600 of these were force marched south in 1863-64, 9000 were officially counted at Bosque Redondo in 1865; of these 7,500 were left by the time the Navajo were allowed to go back to their traditional lands in 1868. In the interval about 4000 died of various causes—or around 20-25% of the total population in a mere five years.

Brigham Young—Whose word was law in the fledgling Mormon state of “Deseret” and who had his own force of secret killers, the “Danites”, also known as the Destroying Angels.

John C. Calhoun—South Carolina senator and author of the political theory which nearly tore this country apart, Disquisition on Government, which is the anti-Declaration of Independence, the anti-United States Constitution, and the anti-Federalist Papers that formed the basis for the South’s secession.

General William T. Sherman—Who invented the modern war made deliberately against the civilian population supporting the armies in the field. The March Through Georgia is the prototype for every deliberate military assault on civilian infrastructure from the bombing of Guernica, through Hiroshima & Nagasaki, to our own day.

Alan Pinkerton—The man who turned American industrial companies into a law unto themselves, by providing them with entire private police forces, from his Pinkerton Agency, during the blackjack and brass knuckle phase of American labor relations. All a mill or mine owner had to do was slip the country sheriff a little extra cash and Alan’s fine boys suddenly became “deputies”. Because of Alan, not only could they buy the law, they could outsource the muscle. Now was that a deal, or what?

Tom Horn—The most remorseless and cold-blooded killer in the American West, a man who specialized in “bushwhacking” or shooting people in the head with a rifle from hiding. He himself described it this way, “Killing men is my specialty. I look at it as a business proposition, and I think I have a corner on the market.” Unlike all most all other Western badmen, lawmen, and both together, there was absolutely nothing in his circumstances or by chance that ever forced him to kill men. He charged Montana cattle ranchers $500 a hit. And he once offered a volume discount to the Governor of Montana [also a large rancher] of a mere $5000 to kill all the cattle rustlers in the entire county where the Governor had his ranch. The Governor backed out on the deal at the last minute.

Arnold Rothstein—The man who took advantage of Prohibition and single-handedly created American organized crime. His role was that of investment banker. He capitalized the up and coming young hoodlums in the alcohol trade such as Charlie “Lucky” Luciano, Meyer Lansky, Ben “Bugsy” Segal, and Frank Costello. By borrowing Rothstein’s cash as venture capital, and learning his business acumen, they turned liquor, gambling, narcotics, and prostitution into a country-wide multi-million dollar industry.

Senator Joseph McCarthy—the single most dangerous American political demagogue ever. No reputation was safe from his quest for power and influence through exploiting America’s paranoid “anti-communist” hysteria. He also invented the modern form of the Senate Hearing as a trial-by-media, where guilt is presumed, rather than innocence.

Jim Jones—The modern self-immolating religious cultmeister personified. Need I say more?

[Marcus Aurelius]

General George Brinton McClellan.

Of course Benedict Arnold came to mind but I agree it really is a wash.

[Left Behinds]

Joseph Marshall: excellent list! You are either a history buff or an actual historian.

The only rationalization I have for my less evil list is that Alexandra didn't say the most evil or the most criminal Americans, she just said the worst, which is more ambiguous. Hence Leo Strauss, Ayn Rand, and Paris Hilton, who truly do represent some of our worst traits as a nation.

[fd10801]

Here are my first five:

Alexandra at All Things Beautiful, has offered me the challenge to name the 10 Worst Americans. I've chosen to eliminate Revolutionary "candidates", such as Benedict Arnold, because there was really no America then.

I've eliminated the Civil War Era, because I want to allow for intentions, and, in some respects, there was no "America," or, at least, a "United States" then, either.

I also want to be sure that I don't focus too closely on current events. So let us begin (in no particular order):

1) Aaron Burr -- In the presidential election of 1800, Burr and Thomas Jefferson each had seventy-three votes, and the House of Representatives on the thirty-sixth ballot elected Jefferson President and Burr Vice President; challenged and mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel fought at Weehawken, N.J., July 11, 1804; indicted for murder in New York and New Jersey but never tried in either jurisdiction; escaped to South Carolina, then returned to Washington and completed his term of service as Vice President; arrested and tried for treason in August 1807 for attempting to form a republic in the Southwest of which he was to be the head, but was acquitted. (from the Biographical Directory of the US Congress)

2) "Boss" Tweed and Tammany Hall -- 1860 = William March Tweed became chairman of the New York county Democratic Party and the leader (called the Grand Sachem) of the Tammany club. For the next seventy years ( until the 1934 mayoral victory of Fiorello La Guardia) the anti machine reformers only held the mayor's office and control of the City for a total of ten years. Thanks to David Wiles

3) "Emperor" Joshua A. Norton -- September 17, 1859 – Joshua A. Norton, who lost his money in an attempt to corner the rice market, today declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
By no means a villain, the Emperor Norton was an eccentric who was undoubtedly the "worst" of Americans, in that he had no idea how to be one. From the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.

4) Alger Hiss -- Ambassador William Bullitt told of having been informed in 1938 by French Premier Edouard Daladier that two men in the U.S. federal government named Hiss were Soviet agents [a reference both to Alger and his brother, Donald]. Bullitt told a Senate committee, after the trial and conviction of Alger Hiss, that he had passed this information on to the State Department at its highest levels. What he did not say, as he confided to me and to Alice Roosevelt Longworth at the time of his testimony, was that he also took this information directly to FDR.
When Hiss was exposed, the great fear of FDR's supporters and champions was that the true story of the relationship would become known, and that is why the wagons were circled. (Thanks to Ralph de Toledano.

5) Paul Robeson -- From 1927-1939, Robeson was based in London, where he was introduced to socialist ideals by his friend Bernard Shaw and several leaders of the British Labour Party with whom he became acquainted. Robeson read the classic Marxist writings and became a devoted communist. In 1935, he and his wife Eslanda Goode visited the Soviet Union... Robeson was impressed by what he saw in Russia (or rather, what the Soviets allowed him to see). "Here, for the first time, I walk in human dignity," Robeson said of his stay. He became a dedicated Stalinist and would spend the rest of his life as an apologist for the USSR. He was the first world-renowned performer to become a political activist during the peak years of his show business career. From DiscoverTheNetworks.org.

More to follow

[fd10801]

There was a mistake

Alexandra at All Things Beautiful, has offered me the challenge to name the 10 Worst Americans. I've chosen to eliminate Revolutionary "candidates", such as Benedict Arnold, because there was really no America then.

I've eliminated the Civil War Era, because I want to allow for intentions, and, in some respects, there was no "America," or, at least, a "United States" then, either.

I also want to be sure that I don't focus too closely on current events. So let us begin (in no particular order):

1) Aaron Burr -- In the presidential election of 1800, Burr and Thomas Jefferson each had seventy-three votes, and the House of Representatives on the thirty-sixth ballot elected Jefferson President and Burr Vice President; challenged and mortally wounded Alexander Hamilton in a duel fought at Weehawken, N.J., July 11, 1804; indicted for murder in New York and New Jersey but never tried in either jurisdiction; escaped to South Carolina, then returned to Washington and completed his term of service as Vice President; arrested and tried for treason in August 1807 for attempting to form a republic in the Southwest of which he was to be the head, but was acquitted. (from the Biographical Directory of the US Congress)

2) "Boss" Tweed and Tammany Hall -- 1860 = William March Tweed became chairman of the New York county Democratic Party and the leader (called the Grand Sachem) of the Tammany club. For the next seventy years ( until the 1934 mayoral victory of Fiorello La Guardia) the anti machine reformers only held the mayor's office and control of the City for a total of ten years. Thanks to David Wiles

3) "Emperor" Joshua A. Norton -- September 17, 1859 – Joshua A. Norton, who lost his money in an attempt to corner the rice market, today declared himself Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico.
By no means a villain, the Emperor Norton was an eccentric who was undoubtedly the "worst" of Americans, in that he had no idea how to be one. From the Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco.

4) Alger Hiss -- Ambassador William Bullitt told of having been informed in 1938 by French Premier Edouard Daladier that two men in the U.S. federal government named Hiss were Soviet agents [a reference both to Alger and his brother, Donald]. Bullitt told a Senate committee, after the trial and conviction of Alger Hiss, that he had passed this information on to the State Department at its highest levels. What he did not say, as he confided to me and to Alice Roosevelt Longworth at the time of his testimony, was that he also took this information directly to FDR.
When Hiss was exposed, the great fear of FDR's supporters and champions was that the true story of the relationship would become known, and that is why the wagons were circled. (Thanks to Ralph de Toledano.

5) Paul Robeson -- From 1927-1939, Robeson was based in London, where he was introduced to socialist ideals by his friend Bernard Shaw and several leaders of the British Labour Party with whom he became acquainted. Robeson read the classic Marxist writings and became a devoted communist. In 1935, he and his wife Eslanda Goode visited the Soviet Union... Robeson was impressed by what he saw in Russia (or rather, what the Soviets allowed him to see). "Here, for the first time, I walk in human dignity," Robeson said of his stay. He became a dedicated Stalinist and would spend the rest of his life as an apologist for the USSR. He was the first world-renowned performer to become a political activist during the peak years of his show business career. From DiscoverTheNetworks.org.

More to follow

[stackja1945]

Earl Browder, the American Communist party’s general secretary
Communist Pete Seeger and the Communist Almanacs were against American entry into World War II.
Communist Pete Seeger, protest against the Iraq war, a radical to the end.

[Joan Rogers]

I propose categories: government folks, criminals, and others.

Government category, Earl Warren, for leading the Supreme Court to find various rights in the Constitution that undermined citizens' sense of personal responsibility. This emphasis led to many problems, from burgeoning lawsuits to the freedom of the mentally ill to wander the streets to the shrieking of, "I've got rights!" by the generally dispossessed and great unwashed.

Lyndon Johnson, for failing to deal properly with Vietnam and win the war.

John Kennedy, for failing to deal properly with Cuba when he had the chance.

Bill Clinton, for failing to deal properly with Al Queda when he had the chance.

Criminal category: Timothy McVeigh, for murdering so many people for stupid reasons. All serial murderers.

Others: Martin Luther King, for the number of well-named streets whose names have been changed to his.

The black community, for failing to take responsibility for their children's lack of interest in education and imbecilic black street accent.

I'll try to think of some more.

Joan Rogers

[RJGatorEsq.]

FDR, for his singular role in founding an unsustainable welfare state.
_____________

[Dan Kjerulf]

1. Joseph P. Kennedy (born: unfortunately yes, deceased: way too late, 1964)

Lots of people mention Teddy Kennedy, some talk of Jack, not enough mention Bobby. The real bad guy is their father Joe, who foisted all three great misfortunes on the American people. So he's at the head of the list.

2. Volstead (don't know his given name or years)

Prohibition gave organized crime a boost from which law enforcement hasn't yet recovered.

3. Nathan Bedford Forrest

Didn't found the Klan, but built it into a political force. Yes, the immediate postwar period wasn't well handled by the North, but still, reconstruction was screwed up.

4. Jimmy Carter

Tasked with healing the nation and restoring respectability to Washington, and given more or less carte blanche, Jimmuh blew it. And has been compounding his failure ever since.

5. Ross Perot

Crashed a party to which he wasn't invited and handed the presidency to Clinton.

6. "Hanoi" Jane Fonda

Made treason fashionable. (Also an overrated actress)

7. Whoever invented baseball

No, seriously. The United States is not part of the world's most important commonweal activity, football. (What you guys persist in calling soccer...). The game is the one truly international language, the leveller and unifier of mankind.

8. The whiny, bearded professor

There's thousands of them. Not all have beards (Juan Cole, Noam Chomsky spring to mind) but you still know who I mean. Works at Berkeley, Columbia and similar places. Drives a twenty-year old Volvo with a bumper sticker opposed to nuclear weapons, supports the ACLU and makes half-hearted attempts at buying sex from coeds paid for with higher grades.

9. The ageing, female abortion and peace activist

Wears youthful clothing and hairstyle to show she's still one of the kids, like when she went to Woodstock (research shows that approximately 12 million Americans have a recollection of having been to Woodstock when in fact about 400.000 actually did. Will probably translate into 40 million kidding themselves they spent a summer at Camp Casey thirty years down the road). Really just a more violent version of the bearded professor.

10. Bostonians that raise money for the IRA

Believe me, if the people of Ireland wanted unification, they'd have had it decades ago. Southerners hate Ulstermen with a passion and the British would be glad to get rid of the place, only the majority's protestant, so it wouldn't look too good skipping out on 3.5 million white subjects. That sort of thing's much easier if they're Chinese or black or whatever...

whew! that was FUN!!!

[Joseph Marshall]

Thanks for the complement LeftBehinds. Actually, I'm merely old Joe Claus, poorer than a churchmouse, indifferently mentally ill, precariously medicated, and highly skeptical of the general slackness of mind among his fellow citizens. I once had a professor who spoke of his "reading around". It's what I've been doing since age 5.

After five decades of it, you accumulate a lot of perfectly useless information. It also encourages you to develop mature and balanced judgement, even about the people you dislike and disagree with. I recommend it highly, particularly to opinionated political bloggers.

So far, I am most impressed with the list of The New Victorian. He knows Treason like the back of his hand.

The one I am most looking forward to is Captain's Quarters. Ed is one of the least slack minds in the blogosphere, and I know he won't just pop off names of his pet peeves at random, or merely list every Democratic President of the 20th Century.

Most who have answered here and elsewhere remind me of nothing so much as the tenants of identical basinets in the maternity ward, in terms of their inability to reliably discriminate either genuine moral good and personal courage [which may or may not lead to good results], or genuine and consciously chosen moral evil, courageous or not.

A classic answer here, such as, "Martin Luther King, for the number of well-named streets whose names have been changed to his." has all the depth of a tea-saucer.

T.S.Eliot once remarked that the worst thing about most people who do evil things is that they are not "man enough to be dammed", that they are simply indifferently conscious of the moral nature of their choices.

This is by far the most destructive thing about slackness of mind. If you are not lucky enough to be good by instinct, you are very likely to be bad by default.

[Rhymes With Right]

Frankly, I'm horrified that the Brits put Becket on the list of worst Englishmen. Setting aside the fact that Catholics view the man as a saint and martyr, there is the little issue of the fact that Henry Plantagenet (aka Henry II) quarrelled with EVERYONE who stood in his way, including King Stephen (his uncle), two French kings, Eleanor of Aquitaine (his wife), every single one of his sons (all of whom rose in rebellion against him at one point or another) and the nobility of every area of his realm. To blame Becket for asserting the traditional privileges and immunities of the Church is hardly reasonable.

[Buddy Larsen]

Love the TS Eliot thought. Ten Worst, would be the ten highest on the politically-powerful and Left-Wing index. Mass-murderers and traitorious generals are bad in less-fundamental ways, IMHO. Names, I'd have to forgo the post and study. But, the current Massachusetts senators I believe will escape via the Eliot dictum.

[Buddy Larsen]

BTW, Joseph Marshall, "If you are not lucky enough to be good by instinct, you are very likely to be bad by default" is in my top ten sentences-of-the-year!
\;-)

[Buddy Larsen]

In fact, you win, as I can't imagine a different #1.

[Alexandra]

OK Guys I am being really stupid here, but can someone traslate to me in plain English the relevant part of this thread in a NYT chat forum about our post here please?

I mean what are these people talking about?

BTW there are about 20 chats all over the Blogosphere, discussing this post as we speak...some of the suggestions are hillarious!

[Dan tdaxp]

Without Tom Becket, England would have become another Prussia, France, or Spain. Becket, through his life and especially his death, permanently weakened the insitution of the Monarchy, allowing a pluralistic England to develop while the Parliaments and Estates-Generals of Spain, France, and Germany withered away.

Tom Becket is one of the greatest Britons of all times. Up with Cnut, Richard I, and Charles II.

[David L. Batcheller]

Abraham Lincoln. Despite his near beatific image he was a tyrant, pure and simple.

[Buddy Larsen]

"I mean what are these people talking about?"
Florida 2000, Alexandra. Still.

And, too, "There's nothing important west of the Hudson, 911 was idiosyncratic, Newton was wrong, the world is static, and there's really not much stored in my attic."

[Banagor]

Hey there,

I commented on my site: It should be a contest if it isn't. Sorry, I missed that part when I was skimming rapidly. I've been extremely busy.

I'd have to say: Sean Penn, Cindy Sheehan, Ramsey Clarke, and a whole host of others. Probably half of the Democratic party as well at this point in time. Far too many to list beyond the top few idiots. But the world is full of idiots, and your life is guided by how you weave around them as best as you can.

[David Gillies]

Jimmy Carter has to be very close to the top of the list. Simply hands down the worst President in US history. Ramsey Clark, defender of tyrants—vermin. George Custer: one of the best things that he ever did was get scalped by Indians.

[meade]

1: Thomas Jefferson. Undercut all the good things he wanted to enshrine in our constitution by upholding the right to own slaves by his Southern brethren. This still is damaging the republic.

2: Dick Cheney. His malevolent influence on the country will be felt the rest of this century.

3: Rupert Murdoch ( I know he's Australian) has degraded not only television in this country (is that even possible?) but also the political discourse.

4: Richard Nixon. Unleashed all the dark forces that now threaten the republic. Gave Cheney and Rummy their first high level jobs in his administration. The ideas that the president is above all laws flows from Nixon to Cheney and now Bush.

5: George Steinbrenner. His tactless triumphalism is what is considered "normal" among big league sports team owners now (Jerry Jones etc.) And he resurrected the hated NY Yankees when all thought they were staked for good.

6: Barbara Streisand. The "big voice" star who begat the likes of Celine Dion and Mariah Carey.

7: Richard J. Daley. 50 years on his big city political machine shows no sign of ending it's reign of terror on Chicago and Illinois.

8: Jesse Jackson. Used the blood of a true martyr and visionary to enrich himself and his family. Continues to (mis)lead the Black community.

9: John D. Rockefeller. One of the original robber barons. His family fortune is still being used to oppress and destroy around the globe.

10: Bill Gates. Fourth rate software masqerading as essential. Managed to turn an illegal monopoly into one of the greatest fortunes the world has ever seen. It will take another fifty years for the world to be rid of the noxious influence of this man's company.

[anlat.net]

its a cool..

[Assistant Village Idiot]

Mine is up, but I've only got 6 so far. I promised myself I wouldn't read anyone else's until I'd finished my own.

Which raight at the moment is killing me, because there are several names here whose opinions I'd be interested in.

I guess the 10 Worst Romanians would be too easy, huh?

[Alexandra]

Ed Morrissey @ Captain's Quarters has just posted an incredible list together with very lengthy explanations. Check in my main text above.

[fd10801]

6) Doctor Richard Gatling patented the Gatling Gun in 1861, a six-barreled weapon capable of firing a (then) phenomenal 200 rounds per minute...
Richard Gatling created his gun during the American Civil War, he sincerely believed that his invention would end war by making it unthinkable to use due to the horrific carnage possible by his weapons. At the least, the Gatling Gun's power would reduce the number of soldiers required to remain on the battlefield. from About.com
Instead, he began an Arms Race that continues to the present day.
Another horrifying side effect: PTSD. It is theorized that PTSD ("battle fatigue" "combat shock") was tied to combat by the incomprehensibilty of the destruction meted out by modern weaponry, such as the Gatling Gun. Way to go, Doc.

[fd10801]

7) G. Stanley Hall, a student of Wilhelm Wundt, establishes first U.S. experimental psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.1883. From the History of Psychology
Could anything be more unAmerican than Freudian psychology, with its minimization of guilt, and, thus, responsibility?

[fd10801]

8) Dr. Benjamin Spock's book Baby and Child Care was published in 1946, just in time for the post-World War II baby boom, and became a widely-accepted "bible" on child rearing. Pediatrician Spock encouraged new parents to use common sense and to treat children with respect. This led some critics to call him the "Father of Permissiveness," in spite of Spock's protests to the contrary. In the 1960s Spock gained new fame as a pacifist and Vietnam War protester. From Who 2 A two - time loser.

more to follow

[fd10801]

9) John Dewey -- The "Father of Progressive Education"
'Nuff said.

10) Roger Baldwin -- In 1920, he founded the ACLU.
He might be my all - time worst American.

[Gahrie]

I posted mine on my blog. I have Jimmy Carter, Jane Fonda, George Soros and Benedict Arnold on my list also. There seems to be a consensus forming about them.

1. Antonin Scalia. The mostest activist judge of all.

2. Richa