Who was the last decent Republican president?

[IluvPitties]

I was born during the Reagan era, which means that the Republican Party I have known is the greedy, racist and warmongering political organization that has brought us Donald Trump. But, at what point did they became such an evil force in American politics? Who was the last Republican president that could be described as a decent human being with good intentions, even in disagreement with his policies?

[shraby]

1. Probably Eisenhower.

[quartz007]

26. Abe Lincoln!!

[struggle4progress]

92. +

... we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes ...

OTOH he unnecessarily delayed standing up to McCarthy, and he had Tricky Dick for VP

[thucythucy]

112. He also approved the CIA overthrow of the democratically elected

governments of Guatemala and Iran. In the first case this led to a decades long civil war under a succession of military dictators, causing tens if not hundreds of thousands of deaths, in the second case it led to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the subsequent anti-Americanism of the revolutionaries who eventually overthrew the (US imposed and supported) Shah.

He did pull the plug on the British/French/Israeli attempt to seize the Suez Canal. But then he started American support for the French in "French Indochina."

So it was definitely a mixed bag, as far as foreign policy.

[struggle4progress]

127. What people say and what they do are too often different things.

The 1954 covert actions in Guatemala and Iran followed his 1953 Cross of Iron speech (pdf), in which he said "Any nation's attempt to dictate to other nations their form of government is indefensible"

Parts of that speecch are still quite quotable:

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone.

It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.

It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.

It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.

We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.

We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.

This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

[thucythucy]

135. That was indeed a great speech.

I think Ike was too much under the influence of the Dulles brothers, and Nixon. It was Nixon, if I recall my reading of this correctly, who pushed for the covert action in Guatemala, at the behest of United Fruit, who were worried their lands (on which they paid practically no taxes) would be nationalized. The Guatemalans wanted UF to pay a reasonable tax on their huge holdings. UF said, "but the land is worthless" (a lie, of course) so the Guatemalan government said, essentially, "Okay, if it's so worthless, we'll take it off your hands." Corporate freak-out leading to CIA covert action.

In part I think Eisenhower had the same problem as LBJ. He relied too heavily on old school State Department and Corporate business types to steer his foreign policy, believing himself limited in that area of governance. In fact, his instincts were excellent, just as LBJ knew in his gut that a land war in Vietnam was going to be a disaster, but didn't have the confidence to stand up to A) the Rusk types at State and B) all the conservatives who had howled "Who lost China?!" in the '50s. I think it was Bill Moyers who said LBJ's problem wasn't that he was ignorant about foreign policy, but that he believed he was ignorant. A rare spot of humility in an otherwise mountain of ego.

BTW, I'm pretty sure Ike was echoing Bryan's "Cross of Gold" rhetoric, another great speech, if far less widely cited now.

Best wishes.

[Angry Dragon]

2. I would say IKE

[GWC58]

9. I was born in 1958

From what I’ve read and heard Eisenhower was a very good president. I believe Ike was the, pardon the pun, driving force of our interstate highway system. I think the German autobahn system impressed him.

[Angry Dragon]

11. the interstate highway system was set up to move the military

[parkerMcDavis]

15. That is ridiculous, thanks for the chuckle. 😊

[unc70]

21. Not ridiculous at all. Very true, very serious

Not only were the interstate highway for moving troops and supppies, sections of them were designed to serve as replacement airfields.

What about all that gave you a checked?

[Caliman73]

23. Actually, that is true.

The Interstate Highway System is called the "Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways". That doesn't mean that Eisenhower didn't care about the average person, it just meant that he championed the project because he felt that the US needed an integrated and controlled way of transportation across all vital parts of the country.

[CurtEastPoint]

41. Kind of a harsh response, no?

[Spider Jerusalem]

71. 100% true, that's why the standard vertical clearance is 16 feet

that's the clearance required for a trailer carrying a main battle tank.

[Angry Dragon]

81. I guess it takes little to make you chuckle

[tazkcmo]

95. Your response

Is ridiculous. The ignorance of some people never ceases to amaze me when coupled with the knowledge that said person carries a computer in their pocket but only uses it to play Candy Crush or such.

[lastlib]

100. The Act of Congress that created it was the National Defense Highway Act of 1956

The constitutional justification for it was national defense. Part of the money for it came from the defense dept. budget.

[MineralMan]

121. Not ridiculous at all.

You simply do not know. However, you can know. Go to this link and read the article there:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_Highway_System

Learning is good. Speaking from ignorance - not so much.

[customerserviceguy]

85. Agreed

The man actually put his country before his party.

[PatSeg]

120. And that is why

both parties wanted him as their presidential candidate.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Teddy Roosevelt maybe

If Ike had said something to make McCarthy go away, maybe him then.

[Drahthaardogs]

22. The same Teddy who called Italians "dago's"

And said their lynching was a good thing. The same Teddy who said they were worse than the negroes?

Nah. He was a racist prick.

[brush]

70. Roosevelt also took credit during Spanish-American War away from the Buffalo Soldiers...

(African-American 9th Cavalry, 10th Cavalry, 24 Infantry and 25 Infantry) for his Rough Riders units. Here's some info on that:

Called the most integrated battle force of the 19th century, the troops of the 24th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry fought up the slope of San Juan Hill along with White regular army regiments and the 1st Volunteer Cavalry (the Rough Riders) led by Lieutenant Colonel Theodore Roosevelt. Twenty-six Buffalo Soldiers died that day, and several men were officially recognized for their bravery. Quarter Master Sergeant Edward L. Baker, Jr., 10th Cavalry emerged from the battle wounded by shrapnel, but was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.(16)

After the Battle of San Juan Hill, Rough Rider Frank Knox said, "I never saw braver men anywhere." Lieutenant John J. Pershing wrote, "They fought their way into the hearts of the American people." (17)

Theodore Roosevelt commented "… no one can tell whether it was the Rough Riders or the men of the 9th who came forward with the greater courage to offer their lives in the service of their country." (18) Despite this praise, incredibly Colonel Roosevelt later wrote: "Negro troops were shirkers in their duties and would only go as far as they were led by white officers."

Tenth Cavalry Trooper, Presley Holliday wrote in response, "His (Roosevelt's) statement was uncalled for and uncharitable, and considering the moral and physical effect the advance of the 10th Cavalry had in weakening the forces opposed to the Colonel's regiment, both at Las Guasima and San Juan Hill, altogether ungrateful and has done us an immeasurable lot of harm…not every troop or company of colored soldiers who took part in the assaults was led or urged forward by a white officer." (19)

https://www.nps.gov/prsf/learn/historyculture/buffalo-soldiers-and-the-spanish-american-war.htm

Because of the above, I would say that Ike was the last honorable Republican president. An by the way, he was also the last legitimately elected one except maybe Daddy Bush. All the rest of the repugs since then either committed treason to get in (Nixon, Reagan, trump) or cheated, W. Bush. Ford was just the feckless VP who took over from Nixon and then lost his attempt at getting elected.

[djg21]

72. Read this book.

https://www.amazon.com/War-Lovers-Roosevelt-Hearst-Empire/dp/031600412X/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

[brush]

74. Thank you. I'll check it out. Here's one for you as well:

"Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" by Stephen Kinzer.

[Gabi Hayes]

84. Funny you should mention that! Excerpts galore:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/American_Empire/Overthrow.html

He’s written several excellent bios, including the revelatory one on the Dulles monsters

Bitter Fruit: The Story of the American Coup in Guatemala, with Stephen Schlesinger; Doubleday, 1982; revised ed. Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-07590-0

Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001, ISBN 0-374-13143-0

All the Shah's Men: An American Coup and the Roots of Middle East Terror, John Wiley & Sons, 2003, ISBN 0-471-26517-9

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq, Times Books, 2006, ISBN 0-8050-7861-4

Blood of Brothers: Life and War in Nicaragua, with a new afterword, Harvard University Press, 2007, ISBN 0-674-02593-8

A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, John Wiley & Sons, 2008, ISBN 978-0-470-12015-6

Reset: Iran, Turkey, and America's Future, Times Books, 2010, ISBN 978-0-8050-9127-4.
Reset also published as Reset Middle East: Old Friends and New Alliances: Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, Iran, I.B. Tauris, 2010, ISBN 978-1-84885-765-0

The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles, and Their Secret World War, Times Books, 2013. ISBN 978-0-8050-9497-8.

The True Flag: Theodore Roosevelt, Mark Twain, and the Birth of American Empire, Henry Holt and Co., 2017. ISBN 978-1-6277-9216-5

[brush]

129. Wow, what a list. I've got my reading for quite a while now.

Last edited Mon Feb 5, 2018, 12:19 AM - Edit history (1)

I see those Dulles boys were mentioned quite a bit. They were behind the scenes, pulling strings and had a huge part in the imperialism we exerted on not just the Americas but on the Middle East, Asia and other parts of the world.

And they had the ear of presidents. Their nefarious influence was always an interest of mine so thanks again for the list.

[Gabi Hayes]

134. Its a compelling story. Hard to believe they were psychotic. I did the audio book and had to stop

Just after Iran

It gets worse

The idea of the names of both DC airports being named after deranged criminals does not sit well

And when will they change the name of the FBI bldg?

At least the Pats lost!

Check the excerpts if you can

[smirkymonkey]

102. Really? I had no idea. My estimation of him has completely

declined if that is the case.

[Drahthaardogs]

107. Oh it's true

The worst mass lynching in America was done to Scicilian immigrants in Louisiana. Teddy thought it was GREAT!

[smirkymonkey]

108. Horrible, I am going to have to do some reading up on that. My father's parents

both came here from Italy and they were hard workers who embraced this country.

[brush]

133. Thanks for that info. I didn't know about that. Roosevelt also sanctioned the discrimnatory pay...

pay system and lodging of the Panama Canal workers. White workers were on the Gold Roll (higher pay and benefits for them and family) and Carribean, African Americans and other non-white workers were on the Silver Roll.

The whole Gold Roll/Silver Roll was nothing more than and importation of American racism and segregation to the Canal Zone.

http://thesilverpeoplechronicle.com/2007/11/1904-gold-and-silver-roll-system.html

[WhiskaBiscuit]

111. Who was the last decent Democrat?

Obama? Nope, he was great.
Clinton? Nope, he was good.
Carter? Nope, great (just took 3 decades to realize it)
Johnson? Nope great.
Kennedy. Ding ding ding. Winner. I don’t buy into the Camelot nonsense Jackie peddled after his death, and his administration was just too short to make any proclamations about it.

[brush]

128. Good post. The direction it took surprised me after reading the headline.

[Hoyt]

30. Way too racist.

[Sophia4]

37. And yet he was a reformer and fought against Tamanny Hall.

He also fought the Spanish. Mixed.

[djg21]

76. You have to look at him in the context of his times.

many presidents and politicians did good things while very being bad people. Lyndon B. Johnson was largely responsible the Civil Rights Act of 1965. He also was a ruthless, vindictive, and by many accounts despicable human being who bears responsibility for getting us into Viet Nam and keeping us there despite knowing it was an unwinnable war.

Teddy Roosevelt was a great President and in many respects ahead of his times. He also was a jingoistic warmonger.

Eisenhower did a lot of good things as a Republican too.

[Sophia4]

83. Agreed.

[Liberty Belle]

4. Eisenhower, who in his farewell speech, warned of the industrial-military complex.

Theodore Roosevelt, who started the national park service and national forest system, was arguably the one who left the longest-lasting positive legacy.

The rest since then have done far more harm than good.

[Boomerproud]

8. Yes, that was possibly the most famous farewell speech ever, but I never get this question answered:

What did Eisenhower ever do to STOP the Military/Industrial Complex?

[ornotna]

20. What did any of them do?

[Boomerproud]

25. If you believe the behind the scenes directives from JFK, he was battling the powers-that-be

and look what happened to him. I think every president since then (especially the Democrats) learned from that.

[Rhiannon12866]

17. +100!

[doc03]

5. IKe nt

[Mister Ed]

61. I like Ike. n/t

[PCIntern]

6. Lincoln. Nt

[Timewas]

7. I Like IKE

last repug that was worth a damn,would probably fit right in the dem party today

[GWC58]

13. Hell, not even

St. Ronald of RayGun would be welcome in today’s GOP.

[Moral Compass]

10. Eisenhower

[shenmue]

12. Eisenhower

[NewJeffCT]

14. Eisenhower put William Brennan on the Supreme Court

via a recess appointment a month or so before the 1956 election.

He was also instrumental in starting the interstate highway system.

[kydo]

16. Ike n/t

[Sharpshooter007]

18. I know it wont be popular to say this

But the Reagan/Bush years (80-92) were still light years ahead of anything the GOP have ever had since. That was probably the last time you could say the GOP as a political party held some significant worldwide respect (certainly in western world, Europe etc), didn't embarrass us and when America was still revered around the world whilst they were in charge.

I fundamentally disagreed Reagan as president, but the GOP then at least appeared sane back then, rational and considerate. The fact that people like Jon Stewart and Elizabeth Warren were voting for them back then tells all you need to know.

Reagan's typically ranked around 8th-10th best president with historians, Bush Snr has crept into the top half now (around 18th-20th). Of course as liberals we wouldn't rank them there, but you can at least see why the case is made for them.

Since then its all been about Dubya and Trump. Dubya's ranked around 35th-40th, among the worst ever and I'd be shocked if Trump is not ranked at least as low.

Bush jnr and Trump are literally the two worst politicians I've ever seen in my lifetime and I can't understand how so many people in this country voted them in for, breathtaking stupidity.

[Gabi Hayes]

82. Reagan and his pals were genocidal crooks who committed treason to gain office,

then compounded their misdeeds while in office

Only cowardly dems and a supine media enabled him to lay the foundation for the destruction of the middle class

Anybody who doesn’t know this wasn’t/isn’t paying attention

Try starting here
Liberty Under Siege by Walter Karp
October Surprise by Robert Parry
On Bended Knee by Mark Hertsgaard

Excerpts from Karp and Hertsgaard:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Walter_Karp/Reaction_Launched_LUS.html
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Ronald_Reagan/On_Bended_Knee.html

[HughBeaumont]

97. Well, no . . .

. . . because lauding one of the most corrupt regimes in Modern American History, the genesis of most modern American problems if you will, would be criminal in it's own right.

The grand irony of the Iran-Contra scandal is that Reagan won the presidency by marketing himself as tougher on Iran than Jimmy Carter was during the Iranian hostage crisis. According to a slew of allegations, Reagan may have developed a cozy relationship long before the Iran-Contra dealings when he allegedly asked the Iranian government to delay their release of American hostages until after his election campaign against Jimmy Carter ended and he was elected president. If Reagan did deliberately delay the release of American hostages to benefit his election campaign, he would be guilty of treason.

Congress investigated the allegations now known as the October Surprise Conspiracy Theory twice—first in 1992 in the Senate, and a second time in 1993 when the House launched the House October Surprise Task Force. Both Congressional investigations ended when they turned up insufficient evidence. Major world leaders of the time have also corroborated the claims. Former Iranian president Abolhassan Bani-Sadr claimed that Reagan’s campaign demanded that he delay the release of the American hostages until after Reagan’s first election or else Reagan would actively bolster Bani-Sadr’s opposition party.

snip

n 1986, as the horrors of South African apartheid shocked the world, the United States Congress passed what was known as the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act. The law imposed a series of sanctions against the South African government and aimed at crippling the apartheid regime that carried out some of the worst racial segregation and human rights violations in human history. According to the law, the sanctions would be only lifted if the South African government put an end to apartheid. However, despite the fact that the law was passed by Congress, it did not go into law—at least, not at first. President Ronald Reagan opposed the sanctions and also vetoed the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act.

Despite an international coalition which set out to end apartheid, Reagan kept close ties with the racist South African regime behind it. Reagan met privately with P.W. Botha, the South African leader behind apartheid on multiple occasions. Reagan helped prop up P.W. Botha by denouncing the African National Congress that was determined to end his racist regime as dangerous and communist.

[Sharpshooter007]

113. As I said I wouldn't vote for Reagan in a million years.

But to compare them to Trump or Dubya is a bit of a stretch really.

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

19. Eisenhour

`

[VOX]

24. Dwight Eisenhower. His farewell speech was a warning about the Military-Indultrial Complex.

Which went completely unheeded, of course.

But overall, America did pretty well in the post-war boom. There was no income inequality, college educations and houses were covered with G.I. Loans. Public schools and colleges enjoyed a heyday.

However, it was a tough time for African Americans, especially in the segregated South.

[Boomerproud]

29. There was no competition from outside at the time either.

The entire world was either recovering from WWII or had never become players.

[tonyt53]

38. Uh, the speech where Eisenhower uttered those words was his farewell speech.

The US and the Soviet Union had been escalating their conflict for several years when the gave that speech.

[Volaris]

63. Agreed. American economic hegemony post world war 2 was based largely on the fact that

Everybody who had the knowledge to offer competitive products had been bombed flat during the war and it took 30 or 40 years for that infrastructure to be rebuilt.

I suspect it's why those countries also have single payer healthcare and we dont...

[radical noodle]

40. Yes, but Eisenhower did propose

legislation to give African-Americans the right to vote. Today he would not be a Republican... they wouldn't vote for him even if he was.

[Golden Raisin]

27. Ike.

And I was raised in an orthodox Adlai Stevenson home.

[gopiscrap]

28. I would say never was one

[GulfCoast66]

87. Hello. Lincoln?

[gopiscrap]

91. nope, if ypu're a republican, you're scum

[Proud liberal 80]

109. You do know that

Republicans use to be the liberals and the Democrats were the conservatives and racists. The parties have switched ideologies over time.

[El Supremo]

31. Ike

Even though he cheated on Mamie during WWII and laid the groundwork for the Vietnam War.

He might have become a Democrat if he hadn't listened to the Repukes.

[GulfCoast66]

89. I have been faithful to my wife for 30 years

And she and I recently had this exact conversation based on an NPR story that mentioned Ike and his infidelity while comparing past presidents to trump fucking porn stars and hookers. Except NPR did not phrase it that way.

I commented that if I were in the prime of my life, leading a desperate effort to save democracy and sending thousands of men to their deaths; all while separated from my wife for 4 years...I would inevitably be unfaithful. She responded that she would expect nothing less. And I would not inquire about her ‘affairs’. And it’s not like Ike was running thru the red light district. He just made the ‘work wife’ literal.

I totally cut him a break for that.

And back to the OP. He was the last good republican president.

[LeftInTX]

137. Maybe it was her bangs!!!!

I blame Mamie for what my mom did to me for many years!!!
Gosh, my mom would cut my bangs so short, it was awful.

[SunSeeker]

32. I'd say Lincoln, but his was not the same as today's Repblican Party. nt

[pamdb]

33. last decent republican president

I would say Jerry Ford, and he wasn't even elected.

[Freddie]

93. Agree

I was a kid but I remember Ford as a decent moderate and a good person. The last of the Rockefeller Republicans.

[chuckstevens]

34. Ike, but he could easily have been a Democrat

[Sophia4]

35. Eisenhower tried.

Teddy Roosevelt was a reformer although not saintly. He certainly fought wars against the Spanish.

[Still In Wisconsin]

36. My dad says Ike. I've not known one in my lifetime... Ford maybe least bad?

I dunno. Ford seemed more incompetent than evil, but I was pretty young...

[Hekate]

39. Gerald Ford

[Skittles]

45. he wasn't evil, he was just kind of meh

[Hekate]

94. I tried to edit my post to add Ike, but lost my connection. Ike was actually a war hero & better...

...than average in many ways, including ethics and foresight. I was a little kid in California, but remember him integrating the schools in the South. In these hostile partisan days, I like to remind people of that, because it was a heck of a big deal.

Ford was just a decent man who came later -- and again, these days that is saying something.

[nocalflea]

60. I guess he was rather innoucous.Tabula placeholder Rasa.

His first official act was the only act of his I remember. Oh and those silly WHIP buttons.

His First Lady had a bigger impact, made a stronger impression, than he did.

Technically, you win.

'Scuse me, WIN not WHIP.

[nocalflea]

42. Ike.

I think G.H.W. Bush would've been ok but he irancontra'd and compassitionatly conservatated himself out of the running . Dude didn't even know the price of milk.

Excuse me. He was the "points of light" Bush. Same difference.

[Skittles]

47. that and grabbing women's asses

[nocalflea]

52. 🎯

[kurtcagle]

43. Eisenhower, Bush Senior

For all the scandals of the Reagan years, Bush Sr. was a comparatively pragmatic and even handed president. Politically, I think that Bush and Clinton were actually pretty similar - both were reasonably intelligent, both were globalists, and both understood government. Reagan to me was always a front man, Bush Jr. was a comparatively decent man who was not really qualified to be a good president (and let Cheney and Rumsfeld run amok FAR too long before he clipped their wings) and who I suspect lived out of a bottle the last couple of years of his presidency. Nixon was not above using dirty tricks, but he was to the left of Obama, and considerably to the left of Bill Clinton.

[chuckstevens]

59. What about Bush's role in Iran/Contra?

[brush]

75. Are you kidding? Nixon was a crook who committed treason to get in and he was not to the left...

of Obama and Clinton.

[MichMary]

116. Curious--

what treason did Nixon commit to be elected in '68? This is the first I've heard of it.

[Rollo]

124. Nixon promised South Vietnam a "better deal" if they delayed the Paris peace talks...

Had the Paris peace talks been launched just prior to the '68 election, it is likely that Humphrey would have won the election. Instead, South Vietnam delayed its participation just long enough to ensure Nixon's victory.

LBJ knew about this Nixon treason but instead of going public with it, used it as leverage over Nixon.

[kurtcagle]

136. Comparatively speaking

Again, looking at achievements rather than political leaning.

Clinton was a borderline conservative, was responsible for founding the pro-business DLC, and his priorities tended to be focused primarily upon moving the Democratic party to the right. He was brilliant, but I consider the tech bubble and consequent recession of 2000 to be primarily due to his move towards deregulation. Obama was more liberal, but I think he got caught flatfooted with the speed of the gay marriage movement. Nixon was definitely more conservative than Humphrey, but you look at things like the Clean Air Act and similar initiatives, he was actually pretty typical of a California Republican of the time, which was more like Eisenhower than Gingrich. Balancing that was his pushing the Southern Strategy, which ultimately laid the groundwork for the conservative vicious circle that would emerge forty years later.

Until Trump, I think it reasonably safe to say that most Presidents tend to end up slightly right of center, as this tends to reflect the geopolitical orientation of the country overall until recently. Obama was the first GenXer, and his views were definitely more "open" than older presidents, but I don't necessarily see him as being all that far politically from Clinton or even post-Rumsfeld Bush. He was admittedly a more honorable one, which was a novelty.

Trump's the wild-card. By today's standards, both Kennedy and LBJ were incredibly racist and sexist, but the difference was that this was not atypical of men of power at that time. Trump strikes me as someone who never grew out of that when the rest of America did, because he never had to. In some respects, he's more like a time capsule from another era, mold and all.

[brush]

138. Somehow you skipped mentioning Nixon's treason.

[davekriss]

44. Lincoln

[dembotoz]

46. Easy. Ford

[oasis]

50. Pardon me?

[dembotoz]

105. Ford ..

[salin]

126. *chuckle*

[brush]

131. Ford? Meh! Feckless.

[oasis]

48. Ike by a mile.

[elfin]

49. Ike, (too young to vote then) but then I did like Ford,

but didn't vote for him mainly due to Nixon pardon. Ford was hobbled by raging inflation as well as the pardon. More competent than SNL etc. portrayed. Agreed with his civil rights actions. Still admire Carter, but he has even been more of an inspiration since out of office via Habitat, human and voting rights here and abroad, Guinea Worm eradication, truly living the best of his faith, etc. The inherited economy coupled with Iran hostages were poison pills, ushering in the phony "Sunrise in America" St. Ronnie. But I voted for him against the actor spouting coded racism.

I think Ford would have been a good President in his own right, even though I am a Democrat through and through. Whether he could "WIN - Whip Inflation Now" - remember those buttons will never be known. Carter couldn't get a grip on it either as I remember. LBJ's Butter and Guns legacy haunting that period.

Nothing but Dems for me after that.

[MLAA]

51. Im going with none of the above 😬

[IphengeniaBlumgarten]

55. Did not think much of Ike at the time.

He um-ed and ah-ed at lot in unscripted speech. He was caught flat-footed in the incident of the spy plane that the Russians shot down. Whispers about his marriage and about Mamie. Didn't seem to quite be at home in negotiating with politicians, too different from how the army operates.

But when you compare him to subsequent Republican presidents, he sure looks good. And the farewell speech was right on.

[MLAA]

68. Im a few years to young to remember him. I will find his speech on line and listen 🙂

[brush]

77. Ike was good. Read his views on unions in his letters to his brother.

[Billy Jingo]

53. George H. W. Bush

Managed the collapse of the Soviet Union deftly. Told Maggie Thatcher to pound sand and supported the reunification of Germany thus saving NATO. Began the fiscal conservatism of retiring Reagan's Cold War debt (which Republicans never forgave him for). The last president in this nation to actually stand up to Israel. Brought to the world an economic order that has lifted billions out of poverty.

I could go on.

The greatest one term president in American history outside of James K. Polk.

[Bluepinky]

66. He also wasnt afraid to raise taxes when he realized the country needed it,

even though it cost him a second term. He was smart enough to not invade Iraq.

[radius777]

90. Agree, at heart a moderate Repub to the left

of Reagan.. remember they had a brutal primary in '80 where Bush called Reagan's ecoomic theories 'voodoo economics', as they were based heavily on 'borrow and spend'.. whereas Bush was a more responsible, old-school Eisenhower Repub at heart.. would've been even more moderate but was pinned to the right by Buchanan.

[Cosmocat]

99. Yep, and that his party softened

On him enough to cost him a second term was the canary in the coal mine for how crazed it was about to become

[nocalflea]

117. For a president he was a hell of a Secretary of State.

Domesticslly MIA.

On the world stage he was boss. And as much as I hate to say it, he probably did a much better job as Secretary of State than Dukakis would have.

[IluvPitties]

119. What about Panama? That was an abusive action by his presidency.

[nycbos]

54. You like Ike, I like Ike, everyone likes Ike.

[Archae]

56. Ike had some serious faults too.

I'm reading at the moment a book by the cartoonist Herbert Block, written about 1958.

Ike had some real problems, not the least of which was his goon, John Foster Dulles.

Ike would also ignore problems until they became a crisis.

[bullwinkle428]

67. "Operation Wetback" (yes, the actual name) was launched under Eisenhower as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Wetback

[DBoon]

57. Teddy Roosevelt

He is crying in his grave over the opening of Bears Ears to mining, after all his work to save Yopsemite

[jimlup]

58. Well we have to go back before Richard Nixon so that means I wouldn't know

I was born during Eisenhower but didn't know what a president was until the Kennedy Assassination 5 days after I turned six.

As best I can tell, all Republican presidents are either greedy scoundrels, power infatuated opportunists, or both.

[tblue37]

62. Ike. nt

[gibraltar72]

64. Ike.

[democratisphere]

65. Eisenhower.

[mountain grammy]

69. Eisenhower..

elected when I was 5. Last Republican to balance the budget.

[SCantiGOP]

73. Nixon

Until he was unfairly hounded by office.
At least that’s what I heard on FOX.

[RKP5637]

78. I would say Dwight Eisenhower. n/t

[dchill]

79. Honest Abe.

[beachbum bob]

80. Ike. He wouldn't be recognized as a modern day republican

[dawg day]

86. Eisenhower

Helped win the war against the Nazis, which would be enough.

Also started the Interstate highway system, which turbo-charged the economy (and helped my father support us-- he worked on the PA turnpike).

And after he left office, he was very loud about the danger of the "military industrial complex".

[Thekaspervote]

88. Eisenhower

There's an excellent pbs American experience 2 part series on Eisenhower. Pertinent to this discussion, before he left office the Supreme Court had made the landmark decision regarding admission of African Americans to the Alabama high school. He was known to be more than a little bit racist and before the SCOTUS decision was handed down he publicity said he thought that desegregation was moving too fast. Following the SCOTUS decision, when pressed he vehemently told the press... looked I am sworn to uphold the constitution. The Court has spoken and it is my sworn duty for me to uphold the law and protect the constitution. And, added that the day when a single person, meaning a president could go against the law and the constitution that it would spell the end of our democracy.

[LeftishBrit]

96. Possibly Gerald Ford - not very competent but decent-ish

Eisenhower wasn't bad.

While I wouldn't call Bush 1st 'decent', especially in view of his campaign against Dukakis, he was better than the subsequent Republican leaders.

[Demsrule86]

98. Eisenhower gave us the roads we still use today...the current crop of GOP losers are only interested

in feathering their nests and paying off donors.

[KPN]

101. Ike!

Ford was a decent man and an okay President. But I don't count him -- because he was never elected to that position.

[samnsara]

103. i cant even remember when the GOP won without cheating!

[smirkymonkey]

104. I wasn't born until just before Kennedy was assasinated, so I have no experience of a

decent republican in my lifetime. The best I can come up with is Ford. But it seems as though Eisenhower would probably be the best answer looking back in history.

[dhol82]

106. Eisenhower

But, after having read some of the other posts, Ford is not a bad choice also.

[tarheelsunc]

110. Ford.

Ford was the last "decent" Republican president. Eisenhower was the last "good" Republican president.

[Paladin]

114. Ike. (nt)

[JHB]

115. Eisenhower, unquestionably. Conservatives hated their non-conservative brethren for it...

...and began their Long March to purge their party of liberals. Took them about 25 years to do it, but they've been able to run wild for more than a decale longer than that.

[scheming daemons]

118. Ike

[Blue_true]

122. Ike. nt

[Iggo]

123. Doesn't matter. They're all shit now.

[Different Drummer]

125. Eisenhower was a few years before my time but, as this discussion indicates...

he was good. IMO, the last decent Republican president during the time I've been alive was Ford.

[raging moderate]

130. Gerald Ford seemed okay.

I got the feeling he wasn't really involved in the nonsense. He was the one who was pushed into place to take over when Nixon left office early. Nixon's veep, Spiro Agnew, had been removed from office and then charged with a crime. Republicans would like us to forget that. I recall a high school debate in which a boy was marked wrong when he was asked for the name of Nixon's veep and answered "Spiro Agnew." This was deep in Republican territory.

[Mr. Ected]

132. Benjamin Harrison from 1889-1893.

I could've said Ike as well, but I dare to be crazy and irrelevant today.

I prefer Republicans whose terms ended before the 20th century. Their infections tend to run their course after 100 or so years for the most part.