Over The Past 30 Years, How Would You Rank The Presidents From Most Progressive to Least?

[Median Democrat]

Here is my ranking:

1. President Barack Obama (2009 - present)
2. Jimmy Carter (1977-1980)
3. Bill Clinton (1993-2000)
4. George H.W. Bush (1989-1992)
5. Ronald Reagan (1981-1988)
6. George W. Bush (2001-2008)

[Occam Bandage]

1. That's about right, I think.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. On a scale ranging from-5 for totally reactionary to 5 for highly progressive:

1. President Barack Obama (2009 - present) jury's out, but hoping for maybe a 2
2. Jimmy Carter (1977-1980) +1
3. Bill Clinton (1993-2000) -1
4. George H.W. Bush (1989-1992) -4
5. Ronald Reagan (1981-1988) -5
6. George W. Bush (2001-2008) -100 (like, completely off the scale. Like trying to rank a wolverine in the county fair 4-H cattle show.)

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. I'd flip Carter and Clinton.

And it's too early to tell about President Transformational.

The rest is correct. Not much difference really between Reagan and Bush II in terms of ideology. Bush was definitely the more objectionable of the two... as he lacked both charm and intelligence. Reagan did not lack charm and was kind of clever, though I wouldn't say intelligent.

[Median Democrat]

8. I Rank Dubya As Less Progressive Than Reagan, Because ...

Reagan had to deal with a Democratic congress, and did raise taxes a bit in response to concerns about the deficit, even though he tried to call some of these hikes "fees." Bush, on the other hand, Dubya and his neocon cohorts were pretty much unopposed, which helped lead to the current foreign policy and economic crisis. As for Carter and Clinton, I agree it is a tough call. I do think that Bill Clinton was generally a free marketer, and his reliance on Dick Morris always troubled me. Finally, while I understand that Obama is a work in progress, what's your take based on what you've seen? Obama's first 100 days alone goes far beyond what Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter did in terms of pushing liberal imperatives in terms of the stimulus, health care reform, and financial regulation, rather than deregulation.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. My observation:

1. Center-right (jury still out)
2. Center-right
3. Center-right
4. Center-right
5. Right
6. Flat out wingnut

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. Don't know about Obama yet.

I agree with your ranking otherwise...although it's close. Reaganomics makes my skin crawl.

[Fovea]

6. Where's Richard Nixon?

Wage and Price controls.
Diplomatic overtures to China and S.U.
Founding the Environmental Protection Agency.


Take it Back to 1969, and he would be pretty progressive.

[Median Democrat]

9. Did Not Include Nixon Because...

I wasn't even born when he was President, though you are correct that he does fall within the thirty year window I referenced. Based on what I've heard, I'd put him between Bush I and Clinton, though his politics and "Southern Strategy" appear to have been a precursor of Rove.

[Umbral]

16. More progressive initiatives were signed by Nixon than any by all the presidents since. nt

[Hippo_Tron]

12. Secret war in Cambodia, illegal wiretapping and intimidating civil rights and anti-war groups...

Escalation of Vietnam even though he knew it was un-winnable, not to mention aiding the installation of a murderous dictator in Chile. Nixon was not progressive by any stretch of the imagination unless you completely ignore foreign policy. IMO foreign policy is almost a better indicator of how progressive a President is because it doesn't really have to go through Congress and even when there are treaties, you can measure it by whether the President signed a certain treaty even if the Senate did not ratify.

Clinton didn't send thousands more troops to die in an un-winnable war and he didn't install any dictators in Latin America and he didn't secretly bomb any countries that would subsequently de-stabilize them and lead to a genocide. He did sign Kyoto Protocol, The ICC, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, all of which were never ratified due to Jesse Helms and the most right wing congress since the Hoover Administration. Meanwhile Nixon had one of the most progressive congresses of the 20th century. I really don't see where people get this idea that Nixon was more progressive than Clinton.

[brentspeak]

15. Nixon was one of the most progressive Presidents we've ever had on domestic issues

His foreign polices and dirty tricks prevents him from being considered a "progressive", but his domestic policies puts Clinton and Carter -- and, if things keep going the way they are, Obama -- to shame. It wasn't the Democratic Congress that indexed Social Security for inflation, created the EPA and OSHA, began a policy of affirmative action, and wanted to introduce a national health care system and minimum national wage. Clinton, for all his socially liberal statements, was a total Wall St. and corporate America enabler.

[Hippo_Tron]

17. It was the Democratic Congress that did all of those things

Nixon just signed them. Carter is far more progressive than him due to reversing our decades long support of the Shah and Somoza. You undervalue foreign policy in your assessments far too much.

[brentspeak]

20. Yeah, Nixon signed the bills into law...

...after he proposed the legislation in the first place:

http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/program.pl?ID=205547

(And the EPA was created by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reorganization_Plan_No._3">Nixon's executive order.

[Hippo_Tron]

21. Fair enough, still don't see how it makes him more progressive than Carter

Bobby Kennedy, Gene McCarthy, or Hubert Humphrey all would've done those things and probably more. Public opinion wanted more regulation at that point and that's what Nixon did. Carter tried to get progressive legislation passed and congress wouldn't pass it because Carter wanted to cut their precious pork barrel projects. He also tried to get the nation off of our oil addiction and created the Department of Energy, which I would argue is just as important as the EPA.

[Odin2005]

7. I'll do it for the entire post-war period.

Liberal
1. LBJ (in spite of Vietnam)
2. Truman
3. Obama
4. Carter
5. JFK (Vastly overrated)
Moderate
6. Eisenhower
7. Clinton
Conservative
8. Nixon
9. GHW Bush
10. Ford
Bat-Shit Wing-Nut
11. Reagan
12 GW Bush

[spag68]

10. Obama

is a centrist, not a progressive. We haven't had a progressive since Johnson, and he was only a progressive for a short time.

[Median Democrat]

11. How would you rank them?

Or, is your view that there is no such thing as more or less progressive?

[brentspeak]

13. Nixon was a progressive on domestic issues

Probably one of the most progressive Presidents on domestic issues we've ever had, strangely enough.

[Jennicut]

19. And terrible on foreign policy.

[MadBadger]

14. This board has turned me off progressivism and made me embrace the term Liberal much more.

Everything is so god damned exclusive to the "progressives" on DU. Everybody seems to have a different definition for it and it seems that many here have such a rigid definition that if somebody doesnnt fit, they are a centrist, or a corporatist.

[Jennicut]

18. Why the knock against the term liberal I wonder? Did Repukes scare us off of it?

I am proud to be a LIBERAL.

The rankings:

1. Obama is obvious
2. Clinton
3. Carter
4. Bush 1
5. Reagan
6. Dumbya thanks to Cheney

[Median Democrat]

22. You know, I Agree. I Should Have Used "Liberal"

My ranking would remain the same with the term "liberal."

[Raineyb]

27. Thanks for the gratuitous swipe.

That makes for great conversation.

Regards

[leftofthedial]

23. slight variation

Carter
Obama
Clinton
BushI
raygun
BushII


of course, "most progressive" is a complete non sequitur when applied to this list.

[avaistheone1]

24. Where is LBJ and the Great Society that halved poverty - on your lists?

Where is JFK?

[Median Democrat]

26. Because They Weren't President In Last 30 Years

And I was not even born when they were President, so I am reluctant to rank them with no personal knowledge.

[Richard Steele]

25. Hate to nitpick, but George W. Bush has no place on that list.

He was never President.

[npk]

28. No love for Gerald Ford

The first vice/president to never be elected by the people to either position.