Bottom Ten Worst Americans.

Alexandra at All Things Beautiful has issued a blogosphere challenge. That is to come up with the all time top ten worst Americans list. This is indeed a challenge. I can up with ten names very quickly but they require little thought and in all actuality have very little bearing on American history or will have little. The challenge is to break out of the present and to reach into the past to name those bottom ten whose actions could have or nearly ruined America.

I will start with naming ten people and the reason for each and then I will order the ten from bottom to top.

3/10 down.

• George Brinton McClellan

General George Brinton McClellan was a figure from the distant past that came to my mind quickly. McClellan as you may know was one of the commanders of the US Grand Army of the Potomac (GAP) during the American Civil War. He was in command of the GAP multiple times and his command was marked by rigorous training and brilliant plans but reluctance to take on the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia he always wanted more soldiers and resources.

McClellan was never pleased with his status as a subordinate to President Lincoln and his actions often times bordered on insubordination. In fact much of the events in this time during our history cemented the President's role as commander in chief of the armed forces, a fact McClellan fought against.

Another reason for his inclusion on this list is McClellan's candidacy for president of the USA in 1864. McClellan accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party and while the record is unclear (at least at the moment) as to McClellan's position the Civil War, the Democrats record was clear and is familiar. The Democrats were in favor of halting the war and letting the nation dissolve. McClellan by accepting the Democrat's nomination was either a dupe or supportive of that goal and quotes I have heard attributed to McClellan indicate he supported the goal of peace at even the cost of destroying the Union. Wow! Does that all sound familiar or what?


• Jimmy Carter

Is there doubt? The fire that came to life under his watch still burns. What fire was that? The fire of radical Shi'ism. He withdrew support from the Shah of Iran and let Ayatollah Khomeni come to power. Not only did this result in the takeover of the Embassy in Iran and the kidnapping of the people there, this gave the Sunnis reason to fear. What happened next? The Sunni powers then started to fund and encourage radical Sunnis.

The hostage crisis also damaged the credibility of the US throughout the world. People may say so what, but credibility is important it may prevent hostile actions against the nation. The nation under Jimmy Carter was found weak.

Jimmy Carter continues to devastate the nation, though admittedly, the only people that still listen to them are already convinced of what he says.

The only good thing about Jimmy Carter is he set up his own resounding defeat at the hands of one our greatest presidents Ronald Reagan



• Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon's crime was not Watergate (after all, when Dems do similar things it seems to be no big deal) but his expansion of the Federal Government. His legacy is still with and the most damaging of these is the EPA. Price controls imposed by the Nixon administration were also and abomination, but it is the EPA that lasts.

In the end part of his lowliness is that the end result of his term in office was to setup Jimmy Carter (who in turn setup Ronald Reagan so it's not an all bad thing). None the less Richard Nixon came close to destroying conservatism.