Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lot's of great ones here, except Teddy Roosevelt and the bot troll from this morning.

I think for the finalists, in addition to Lincoln, FDR, MLK, Mr Rogers, Harriet Tubman, we could add Jane Addams and Eleanor Roosevelt. And maybe not overall but of our time, John Lewis.

I think Japanese internment & the continuation of Mexican repatriation which included 40-60 percent American citizens despite its less violent nature plus the choice to develop the nuclear bomb is too great a horrific mark on far's legacy. politicians are all dirty and nasty in oneway or other, his personal character also left a lot to be desired.

my vote: tubman, Frederick douglass, jane Addams, mr rogers.

FDR gets a lot of love for the CCC, government sponsored socialism.

I've been working on talking through stuff like this with my older kid. They talked about President's Day. We talked about how people are complicated and it's okay to talk about the good and bad people did. So Washington was a crucial figure in US History but also owned slaves (I'm not ready to dig into Jefferson with him yet).

My granddad absolutely loved FDR because his policies lifted my grandparents out of poverty post Great Depression. My great uncle was one of the Bonus Army demonstrators. But my best friend's grandmother and her family was interned during WWII for being part Japanese.

With respect to Washington and slaves, you are judging him by a modern set of morals. Yes, Washington did have personal concerns about owning slaves, but did not free them during his lifetime. In some cases, he wasn't legally allowed to free the slaves. However, what if he did? What awaited these slaves as free men in Virginia? They couldn't own land, and likely couldn't work either. Washington didn't have enough cash to send them up north either. Being largely uneducated, employment in the North would have been menial jobs. It was a practical solution to a difficult problem.

This is a b!!ch-a$$ take. Lots of abolitionists had been opposing the slave trade and slave ownership for hundreds of years already, many at great personal cost to life and fortune. You know what Washington could have done? He could have given them freaking land, that's what. He was rich as fck and could have afforded to do so.

Listen, I'm actually a very conservative, right-wing kind of person on many issues. But these ridiculous founding father slaveholding apologies are ridiculous. There is still billions of dollars of family wealth floating around the south in white plantation families as a result of their investing slave labor. Reparations could be made on a forensic accounting basis. We know where the wealth came from, and we know the enslaved ancestors who created it, in many cases.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lot's of great ones here, except Teddy Roosevelt and the bot troll from this morning.

I think for the finalists, in addition to Lincoln, FDR, MLK, Mr Rogers, Harriet Tubman, we could add Jane Addams and Eleanor Roosevelt. And maybe not overall but of our time, John Lewis.

I think Japanese internment & the continuation of Mexican repatriation which included 40-60 percent American citizens despite its less violent nature plus the choice to develop the nuclear bomb is too great a horrific mark on far's legacy. politicians are all dirty and nasty in oneway or other, his personal character also left a lot to be desired.

my vote: tubman, Frederick douglass, jane Addams, mr rogers.

FDR gets a lot of love for the CCC, government sponsored socialism.

I've been working on talking through stuff like this with my older kid. They talked about President's Day. We talked about how people are complicated and it's okay to talk about the good and bad people did. So Washington was a crucial figure in US History but also owned slaves (I'm not ready to dig into Jefferson with him yet).

My granddad absolutely loved FDR because his policies lifted my grandparents out of poverty post Great Depression. My great uncle was one of the Bonus Army demonstrators. But my best friend's grandmother and her family was interned during WWII for being part Japanese.

With respect to Washington and slaves, you are judging him by a modern set of morals. Yes, Washington did have personal concerns about owning slaves, but did not free them during his lifetime. In some cases, he wasn't legally allowed to free the slaves. However, what if he did? What awaited these slaves as free men in Virginia? They couldn't own land, and likely couldn't work either. Washington didn't have enough cash to send them up north either. Being largely uneducated, employment in the North would have been menial jobs. It was a practical solution to a difficult problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Regardless of whether he shows up in the files or not, he’s a creep. Sorry!

There's absolutely nothing to justify calling Mr. Rogers a creep. It's weird you'd make such baseless claims.

The accusation proves that we need to have an investigation. There wouldn't be accusations unless there was something there.

Believe all women.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Regardless of whether he shows up in the files or not, he’s a creep. Sorry!

There's absolutely nothing to justify calling Mr. Rogers a creep. It's weird you'd make such baseless claims.

The accusation proves that we need to have an investigation. There wouldn't be accusations unless there was something there.

Another vote for Lincoln.

Eileen Gu

1) Geronimo (Goyahkla)

2) Harriet Tubman

3) Benjamin Franklin

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Regardless of whether he shows up in the files or not, he’s a creep. Sorry!

There's absolutely nothing to justify calling Mr. Rogers a creep. It's weird you'd make such baseless claims.

plus a million. He’s done nothing creepy

Obama

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Regardless of whether he shows up in the files or not, he’s a creep. Sorry!

There's absolutely nothing to justify calling Mr. Rogers a creep. It's weird you'd make such baseless claims.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lot's of great ones here, except Teddy Roosevelt and the bot troll from this morning.

I think for the finalists, in addition to Lincoln, FDR, MLK, Mr Rogers, Harriet Tubman, we could add Jane Addams and Eleanor Roosevelt. And maybe not overall but of our time, John Lewis.

I think Japanese internment & the continuation of Mexican repatriation which included 40-60 percent American citizens despite its less violent nature plus the choice to develop the nuclear bomb is too great a horrific mark on far's legacy. politicians are all dirty and nasty in oneway or other, his personal character also left a lot to be desired.

my vote: tubman, Frederick douglass, jane Addams, mr rogers.

FDR gets a lot of love for the CCC, government sponsored socialism.

I've been working on talking through stuff like this with my older kid. They talked about President's Day. We talked about how people are complicated and it's okay to talk about the good and bad people did. So Washington was a crucial figure in US History but also owned slaves (I'm not ready to dig into Jefferson with him yet).

My granddad absolutely loved FDR because his policies lifted my grandparents out of poverty post Great Depression. My great uncle was one of the Bonus Army demonstrators. But my best friend's grandmother and her family was interned during WWII for being part Japanese.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Regardless of whether he shows up in the files or not, he’s a creep. Sorry!

Anonymous wrote:I’m shocked at all the posters mentioning Mr. Rogers. He’s a tv character. You can’t remotely compare him to FDR, Harriet Tubman, and Lincoln. He also gave me the creeps. I wouldn’t be surprised if his name comes up in the Epstein files.

You should be ashamed of yourself. You don’t just cavalierly mention that someone could be in the Epstein files with no proof of that and hopefully you’re never in a position where someone spreads a rumor online about you, like you just did about someone else.

Anonymous wrote:Jeff

+1, first person I thought of

Anonymous wrote:The clear answer is Abraham Lincoln. Saved the country, gave it a renewed sense of purpose and ended slavery for once and for all. Most of the other great Americans were particular to their time or cause, but Lincoln really does transcend all of them.

"Saved the country" comes first on your list and "ended slavery" comes third for good reason. These were also the priorities of Lincoln.

War was not the answer to the evil of slavery. Northern states should have expelled the southern states decades before and enforced economic sanctions. The bloodbath of the war and the following hundred years of continued bigotry were no grand achievement.

War can be used to accomplish all kinds of positive results, but that does not mean its use was the answer. Northerners did not want to suffer the temporary economic setback from sanctioning the south to accomplish anti-slavery goals. Just like today, we would rather rush headlong into war than accomplish things by other means.