December 30, 2005

Worst Americans Ever

Alexandra von Maltzan at All Things Beautiful came up with a question perfect for the least productive week of the year: name the ten worst Americans ever. This is sure to stir up discussion. Let me take a stab at it in no particular order:

• Benedict Arnold--The man betrayed the revolution. 'Nuff said.

• Margaret Sanger--She was a racist and eugenitcs advocate. She also founded Planned Parenthood. Bad, bad, bad.

• Aaron Burr--The freak almost became President. Later he killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel and tried to create a nation in the West.

• John Wilkes Booth--Killed Abraham Lincoln for a lost cause.

• Beardsley Ruml--"Father of the modern American state" because he's the father of the withholding tax. [see Amity Shlaes' The Greedy Hand]

• Jefferson Davis--Led the Confederacy in the name of "States' Rights" which meant legalized slavery.

• Stephen Douglas--His "popular sovereignty" led to "Bleeding Kansas" and didn't ease the pressures that led to the Civil War.

• Ed Gein--It's too easy to put a murderer on the list, but Gein wasn't just your "ordinary" serial killer. The loon made furniture out of his victims.

• Timothy McVeigh--He may have thought he was being patriotic, but his hatred of the federal government was so intense he blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and killed 168 people.

• Roger Taney--He authored the awful Dred Scott case that fueled the fire of civil war.

I really wanted to add Franklin Roosevelt. We're stuck with his expansion of government in the name of fighting the Great Depression. He failed, and we're paying the price for his welfare state. But he did lead the Allies in World War II. U.S. Grant could also make this list if you only looked at his corrupt Presidency. But Grant is a war hero. That saves him.

Who would you put on your list?

[via Captain Ed]