Greatest American?

June 20, 2005 · Filed Under zeitgeist

As an Historiphile (i.e., “lover of History” — if it isn’t a word, it is now, because I cannot seem to find a synonym; so if you know of one, please let me know…), I was aghast when I first saw the ads for the limited-run TV show to determine the “Greatest American of All-Time.” Why? Well, the first ad I saw was one that had text that read something like this:

“He lit up America & the world with his invention of the light bulb. She lit up the daytime. Who’s greater, Thomas Edison or Oprah Winfrey?”

Even for me, words cannot truly express all that is wrong with that statement masquerading as a question…

All that said, I just caught the Top/Final 5 selections, from which the “Greatest” will be determined, over at Worldmagblog, and I must say that it’s a reasonably good list:

George Washington
Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ronald Reagan

The only one I would quibble with is MLK, because I’d rather see Teddy Roosevelt, James Madison, or Thomas Jefferson on the list instead. That being said, however, my ranking of these 5 would be like this:

George Washington — The “Father of Our Country.” Nuff said.
Ronald Reagan — Won the Cold War, stared down Communism, helped us realize that true conservatism & traditional American values could carry the day against patriarchal, FDR-inspired, socialistic, liberalism.
Benjamin Franklin — The greatest non-president, which is saying something.
Abraham Lincoln — To be honest, I’m actually ambivalent about him, because his actions in the face of the Civil War fundamentally changed the USA from a Republic of sovereign States into a Federal Republic.
MLK, Jr. — I respect his fight for civil rights. I don’t, however, respect his faux-Christian spirituality, or his hypocritical (in light of his “Christian” theology) morality.

Who were the worst/most destructive Presidents, you ask? Why, that’s easy — Lincoln & FDR (with Wilson not too far behind…).

-ghp

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Tags: america, history