Presidents and Presidents ’ Day

David BoazAs government workers —thoughfewer than a third of private ‐​sector office workers—get a day off Monday for Presidents ’ Day (legally, though not in fact, George Washington’s Birthday), I’m thinking about presidents.Every few years Siena College asks historians and political scientists torate the presidents. Presidential scholars love presidents who expand the size, scope and power of the federal government. Thus they put the Roosevelts at the top of the list. And for a long time they rated Woodrow Wilson —theanti ‐​Madisonian president who gave usthe entirely unnecessary World War I, which led to communism, National Socialism, World War II, and the Cold War —6th. Recently he’s fallen to 13th, presumably because of the increased publicity about hisracism.In his 2009 bookRecarving Rushmore: Ranking the Presidents on Peace, Prosperity, and Liberty, Ivan Eland gives high grades to presidents who left the American people alone to enjoy peace and prosperity, such as Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, and Rutherford B. Hayes. The fact that you can ’t remember what any of those presidents did is a plus. At the bottom he places Wilson, Truman, McKinley, Polk, and George W. Bush. If you ’ve ever wondered whether a particular president deserves the respect he seems to get, you might take a look at Libertarianism.org ’s “Everything Wrong with the Presidents. ”Lately we ’ve had a string of presidents who th...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - February 17, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs