A new poll of historians coming out on Presidents Day weekend ranks Biden as the 14th-best president in American history, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant. While that may not get Biden a spot on Mount Rushmore, it certainly puts him well ahead of Trump, who places dead last as the worst president ever.That is a head-scratcher. Reagan was a popular President who won the Cold War.. Biden has lost two wars, in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Trump presided over four years of peace and prosperity.
Not only was Trump last, he was last by a wide margin. What explains this Trump hatred?
4 comments:
I have heard many democrats make excuses for Biden,
But I can't say I hear compliments any near as often.
If you can throw popular support behind a senile grifter who has no idea when and where he is and doesn't really make decisions anymore, other than his favorite flavor of ice cream...maybe...
I guess he's your guy. Perhaps democrats can build him a great big statue after they tear down Jefferson's or some other stupid dead white guy's monument.
"...
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
The bias among academics (such as historians) isn't really all that hard to understand. I have spoken with many professors, both young, old, and near retirement both on the right and left of the political spectrum. They all agreed what was going on was not a good thing, but didn't really see anything they could do besides lose their jobs if they rocked the boat.
These are several reoccurring explanations I was given to explain this one sided tilt.
1.)Academia leans left, it's been almost a tradition for at least fifty plus some years, but what has been defined as 'left' has been steadily drifting further left while more conservative views have remained somewhat more fixed.
2.)Academics in both hard sciences, soft sciences, and humanities are now absolutely terrified to express their own views if they do not politically align with their peers. Doing so is good way to be passed over for promotion, funding, tenure, or even have employment termintated.
3.)Given the situation (with #2) with each passing year, the gate keepers tilt the field ever further in one direction, as those who remain that are protected by tenure retire, and those that are chosen to replace them have either decided to go along to get along, or are in political alignment with the bias.
4.)The biggest problem in academia is actually administration. The ratio of twenty administrators to every one teacher and growing is a huge problem, and this monolith is so top heavy and one sided now that it runs over everything else such as basic scholarship, educational merit and standards, ethics, and increasingly even scientific principals. All professors I spoke to regardless of politics said the bureaucratic oversight has become so stifling, many are leaving teaching prematurely since they find themselves being forced into more administrative roles than actual teaching or student office hours.
I actually had wanted to pursue a teaching career once upon a time, but was advised against it by many of my best teachers. They explained the landscape was changing and becoming increasingly intolerant of anyone who didn't tow the party line unquestioningly. I was told that this kind of thing sadly repeats itself about once every one hundred years, where education is gradually replaced with stratified dogma, then there is a reversal back to more classically liberal inquiry and standards.
I think the historians view Trump as the narcissistic grifter he is while Trump's supporters admire his non-elitist status, his interest is supporting and hopefully implementing reactionary policies and his alleged business acumen. It all comes down to one's view of reality.
Hard agree with #4.
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