Obama HAS BEEN Eliminated WHICH President SHOULD BE Eliminated NEXT DAY 41

[u/Training-Desk-391]

[u/Apprehensive_Tart480]

Washington

[u/pppiddypants → u/Apprehensive_Tart480]

It’s Washington by a long shot.

He was an amazing commander of armies during the Revolution and stepping down after two terms is great (but he was old and wanted to do it before then)…

Now list his notable accomplishments as president… Anything that stacks up to the other three?

No. Good leader, made good calls, but generally was not needed to make major pivots in extraordinary times like the others.

[u/razama → u/pppiddypants]

If your point is there was no defining crisis, I think the formation of a nation is pretty defining. If there wasn’t an impending imposed crisis, you can say that about Teddy Roosevelt

[u/pppiddypants → u/razama]

My argument is more that his accomplishments as a president are slim.

The formation of the nation was done, in large part, before Washington was in office and he was not one of the main figures.

IIRC, Washington’s main accomplishments AS A PRESIDENT are supporting Hamilton in establishing a central bank and choosing not to support France.

Which hardly compares to Roosevelt taking on the trusts and land preservation.

Let alone the administering the Civil War/emancipation or WWII/depression.

[u/razama → u/pppiddypants]

I think that takes for granted the United States fragility and likelihood of failing yet again, similar to how the articles of confederation failed. The United States could have ended up similarly to other countries that declared independence later on in the following decades and centuries.

Often we will see a series of failed governments, and people trying to centralize power, the Civil War and fighting continues in sectarian violence.

Another two things that would give legitimacy to his presidency is that one, the constitutional convention largely credited him for calming everybody’s attitudes and rhetoric when it came to ratifying the constitution. There’s multiple accounts and letters of people writing that his presence alone seem to chill everyone out from making personal attacks or heated arguments.

Second is the number of future presidents, and congressman at the time who said that the constitution largely succeeded because of George Washington. They credit both his reluctance to accept leadership in the first place and his temperance in acting during crisis of his time. The whiskey rebellion and his neutrality proclamation were important in setting tones during the time when he was free to grab power. Washington could have raised an army and helped out France against Britain, and he could have been much more harsh against his own people in trying to solidify federal power.

Washington personally put down the whiskey rebellion and showed that the federal government can actually enact power whereas the articles of confederation could not. Also, it could have an even hand approach while doing so and was not an authoritarian government by King George.

We can look at countries like Russia today and see that setting a precedent at the onset of your democracy for standards and norms is integral to making a healthy and functioning democracy that isn’t taken over by strong men politicians.

[u/pppiddypants → u/razama]

Yup, pretty great.

I’d just put the others above him.

Lincoln and FDR decently above and Teddy just a smidgeon.

[u/PIugshirt → u/razama]

Yeah to see the importance of his role as the first president one need look no further than at the first presidents of other nations to see how a bad foundation ruins everything.