One of our most popular pieces back at All Things NIT was our NIT Bracket of Presidents, which we published on Presidents’ Day 2018.
I woke up this morning feeling opportunistic, so now that we’re free from NIT Stu’s dictatorial constraint that we solely be an NIT blog, I’m fishing for clicks with a bracket of the greatest presidents, along with an updated bracket of those of NIT caliber. Thank you for biting.
How I Ranked Something so Subjective
The short answer to this heading is that I did it subjectively.
The long answer is that I tried to counteract my own biases and identify the eight greatest presidents in terms of how effectively they responded to the challenges of their day, how they bettered the country, and how instrumental their presidencies were in terms of turning the United States into the nation it is today.
Accomplishments from roles other than their presidency, or personal qualities that didn’t affect the presidency, were ignored as best as possible. Thomas Jefferson doesn’t get credit for writing the Declaration of Independence. Woodrow Wilson doesn’t get dinged for being a racist, except for the extent to which it impacted his actions (or lack thereof) towards Civil Rights reform.
On a similar note, presidents are viewed within the context of their time: Wilson’s lack of action on Civil Rights reform is more damning than if it had occurred in the 1800’s, but less damning than if it had occurred in the 2000’s.
This isn’t a bracket of my favorite presidents—Chester Arthur is nowhere on this list (he’s a cool story, though!). It’s a bracket of who I, as a historically/politically-interested American and by no means an expert, think were objectively the best presidents. You will likely disagree. That makes sense. This is, as has been said twice, subjective, and subjective rankings of things drive the blogging industry, so thanks in advance for playing your part by either disagreeing with me or disagreeing with my disagreers.
Why Eight Presidents
It’s a convenient number for brackets, and it’s a portion of presidents about equal to the portion of Division I basketball teams which make the NCAA Tournament.
The NIT Bracket of Presidents
Our bracket of pretty-good-but-not-the-best presidents is included again this year, with one minor change.
Ok Are You Ready
I hope you’re ready.
You’re Ready
Good, let’s go.
The NIT Bracket of Presidents
We start with the four best presidents who weren’t good enough to make the final bracket. They’re listed here in reverse order:
4-Seed: James Madison
Taking over James Monroe’s spot from last year is the man whose presidency kicked off the time period for which Monroe is known: James Madison. Nothing changed about either man’s presidency since last February, but as I reflected on it, I realized I’d given Monroe slightly too much credit, and Madison slightly too little.
The War of 1812 was important. It solidified America’s independence, as well as its place in North America. It was a stalemate, but easily could have been a defeat. As commander-in-chief during this war, Madison deserves credit.
Away from the battlefield, Madison started pushing the federal government towards building roads and canals, important pieces of infrastructure which are vital to an economy (especially a 19th-century economy) but don’t come about via the free market.
Lastly, as mentioned, James Madison’s presidency kicked off the Era of Good Feelings (#GoodVibesOnly), an era in which partisanship was at nearly an all-time low in America. Madison doesn’t deserve all the credit for this (the Federalist Party’s self-destruction deserves a fair share), but he justifiably receives some credit.
All in all, a solid performance by President Madison.
3-Seed: Lyndon B. Johnson
A large man with a large ego and large plans, LBJ did a lot in the Oval Office, especially for the most marginalized American citizens. He supported and signed crucial Civil Rights legislation. He expanded access to healthcare. He strengthened public education. On his watch, American poverty lessened, at least in part due to policies he supported.
LBJ, though, is never named as the greatest American President, and for good reason. He escalated the Vietnam War. He used federal wiretaps to spy on Martin Luther King Jr. for political purposes. He had numerous affairs while in office, and while none broke into a national scandal, I’d opine it’s fair to desire your President to not be a scumbag.
Complicated from the start, Johnson’s presidency was a mixed bag. Still, it profoundly improved America in multiple areas.
2-Seed: John Adams
John Adams was, in a lot of ways, the first real American president. George Washington obviously was the first literal president, but much of his presidency consisted of defining what a president is. Adams was the first to attempt to fulfill that role.
Adams certainly had his flaws. He was unpopular for fair reason, even within his own party to some degree. His response to the threat of Napoleon’s growing empire was imperfect, and he was far from an effective diplomat.
Still, Adams kept America at peace, and brought her forward into the post-Washington centuries. Perhaps most importantly, he peacefully handed over power to Thomas Jefferson upon losing his election. In doing that, he solidified America’s commitment to the very thing that initially set America apart from any other nation, in the history of humanity: its government of the people, by the people, and for the people.
For that, John Adams deserves our praise, and recognition as a very good president, if not a great one.
1-Seed: Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson held America out of World War I for, I think it’s fair to say, a responsibly long time. He entered only when there was a reasonably broad public consensus that entrance was necessary, and by entering, he ended the war. Yes, thousands of young American men died, but as tragic as death is, not all presidents get to avoid it.
Wilson was a foreign policy visionary, and while his League of Nations was not implemented during his time in office, his fingerprints can be found on much of the current global order. He scaled back American imperialism, pushing successfully for varying degrees of autonomy for Puerto Rico and the Philippines.
At home, Wilson supported American agriculture fairly effectively, and kept relations between labor and management relatively peaceful (they could have been much worse, and were much worse at many points surrounding his presidency). As mentioned earlier in the piece, though, he failed to move America forward in the arena of race relations when it was desperately needed.
Woodrow Wilson: Smart man. Flawed man. Pretty good president.
A Picture of the NIT Bracket of Presidents
Fill it out and tweet it at me, if you’d like.
The Bracket of the Greatest Presidents
Here they are, listed from eighth to first:
8-Seed: Ronald Reagan
Reagan is a polarizing president, in part because he’s such a recent figure, and in part because of his status as a conservative icon. You might love him. You might loathe him.
If you fall into the latter camp, I’m not here to tell you you’re wrong. I would ask you to consider, though (and I’d ask conservatives to consider the same thing when evaluating FDR), the role to which your tribal dislike of Reagan’s supporters influences your opinion on his presidency.
In terms of what got him this slot, Reagan was a major player in bringing about an end to the Cold War, which may not seem as significant to my generation as it does to someone who lived at a time when nuclear war was often days away, rather than months as it is today (at worst). He also oversaw an enormous economic recovery, though the role of federal policies upon the economy is always debatable, and often decided by the political preferences of the person making the claim. Regardless of that point, Reagan’s tax reforms took six million poorer Americans who had been paying income tax and removed that burden from their shoulders.
As the economy grew, though, inequality grew with it. The rich got richer faster than the poor did. Since Reagan’s actions on taxation continue to be felt today, it isn’t unreasonable to place at least a share of the blame on him for today’s concerning wealth inequality in America.
Similarly, the War on Drugs escalated under Reagan, amplifying the racial divide in our country’s prisons. Reagan doesn’t deserve sole blame for this, but it’s arguably his worst legacy, and one that is painfully present today.
Lastly, Reagan’s overwhelming success in foreign policy as it pertained to Russia is at least slightly blemished by some less honorable and less successful international affairs from his time, including, of course, Iran-Contra, which occurred on his watch whether he knew about it or not.
Ronald Reagan: Cult hero (deservedly). Criticized (deservedly).
7-Seed: Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Kansan who freed Europe was also pretty darn good at being president. He avoided nuclear war (again, it should be stressed that the avoidance of nuclear war has been, to this point, a major success of American presidents), ended McCarthyism, and created America’s interstate system. He also supported and signed significant Civil Rights legislation.
Eisenhower’s time in office is perhaps the most nostalgized period in today’s America. Beyond the sepia and the suburbs and Mickey Mantle, though, problems were growing. The Eisenhower administration’s decisions on Vietnam, however well-intentioned, came up short in the long run. Civil Rights progress occurred, and deserves celebration, but more could have been done.
Eisenhower is an American hero. He’s also one of the best presidents of all time.
6-Seed: Harry Truman
Talk about being dealt a tough hand. In his first few months on the job, Truman had to figure out how to end the biggest war in human history. His decision is debated, and that’s understandable. But if there were ever a time to drop an atomic bomb, that was it.
Truman went on to oversee not only America’s recovery from World War II, but that of the world. All told, historians agree (on the aggregate) that his administration did a pretty good job on that last bit. Yet, some of the world’s most oppressive regimes (China, North Korea, the U.S.S.R.) arose on his watch, and his actions on Israel, while certainly well-intentioned and understandable—especially in the wake of the Holocaust—didn’t bring about a long-term solution.
On our own continent, Truman took steps independent of Congress to racially integrate federal agencies and the armed forces. In doing this, he tore the Democratic Party apart, provoking Strom Thurmond’s independent, segregationist presidential campaign. Somehow, he won re-election anyway.
Only 5’8”, with horrible eyesight, Harry Truman doesn’t exactly fit the physical archetype of bravery. Through those round-frame glasses, though, he stared down difficult decisions and found the courage to do what he thought just. More often than not, he was right.
5-Seed: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Enormous challenges often lead to presidents rising to the occasion. This is part of why three Cold War presidents have filled the last three slots on this list.
FDR’s presidency made the Cold War look like checkers.
Elected in the throes of the Great Depression, and serving through it and up through nearly the entirety of World War II, America’s second President Roosevelt fundamentally changed the role of the federal government. His hands-on approach to alleviating suffering was surely imperfect, but it undeniably put enormous quantities of people back on their feet, at least in the short term. He steered the country into World War II, and all the way to victory in Europe and near-victory in the Pacific. He tackled necessary financial regulations, making the growing industry safer for future generations.
At the same time, FDR’s solutions weren’t always practical, especially in the long term (though Social Security, in particular, might be more stable had World War II not led to the Baby Boom). More troublingly, his attempt to stack the Supreme Court with sympathetic justices was a direct assault on America’s three-branch government.
This Roosevelt’s presidency was inarguably flawed. Nonetheless, he confronted two of the most trying times in American history, and rose to the occasion in so many ways.
4-Seed: Theodore Roosevelt
I thought about kicking this section off with some sort of joke about Twitter (I guess I’m doing exactly that, and just breaking the fourth wall while doing so), but I couldn’t decide whether Theodore Roosevelt would have tweeted incessantly or spent so much free time off the grid that a staffer would have handled all the actual 280-character declarations.
Thankfully, the answer to that question is meaningless, and instead we can focus on one of the most improbably practical presidents in history. Theodore Roosevelt dealt with things swiftly, and this included many of the challenges of his day. He regulated monopolies, creating a clear path for the competition and innovation of a free market. He protected consumers, supporting the ban of harmful food and drug practices, which included just lying about what was being sold. He was an effective-enough diplomat between labor and management, and he was a Nobel Prize-winning diplomat internationally (though whether that helped America is unclear). He helped set the Panama Canal in motion. And, of course, he contributed more to the conservation of America’s natural wonders than probably any other person to hold his office.
There aren’t a lot of negatives to Roosevelt’s presidency. I suppose one could argue that because he was so outcome-focused, he didn’t stick to a strict political ideology, but that’s more an observation than a criticism. The biggest disappointment from his presidency is that he did nothing to advance the cause of civil rights (his personal views are unclear).
Often lost while taking in what an astounding character he was is that Theodore Roosevelt was also, by almost any measure, a very good president.
3-Seed: Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson, like many of these men, lived a life full of much that was not his presidency, an enormous amount of which was dedicated to the creation and implementation of the United States. His presidency itself, though, was also pretty darn good.
Taking office after Adams, Jefferson effectively handled the challenges of the day while also laying the foundation for what would become a continental nation. He massively reduced the national debt, yet simultaneously cut taxes, primarily by cutting military spending in peacetime. He supported and signed legislation banning the importation of slaves (the United States could not agree that slavery itself was inhumane enough to deserve banning, but it could evidently agree that the international slave trade was).
Most notably, Jefferson oversaw the Louisiana Purchase, and sent multiple expeditions out to explore America’s new backyard. Under Jefferson, Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean on behalf of the United States, setting the stage for the nation we now know.
Sadly, Thomas Jefferson, who outside of the presidency is often remembered for failing to live up to his own high ideals, failed in the same way when it came to the conflict between expansion Westward and Native American relations. While it would be years before Andrew Jackson sent the Cherokee Nation on its Trail of Tears, the roots of that injustice can be found in Jefferson’s support for relocation, a short-sighted and decidedly unjust “solution.”
Perhaps Jefferson didn’t grasp how the Louisiana Purchase was setting America up for relentless growth towards the Pacific, and that he had a unique opportunity to shape how that expansion transpired. Whatever the case, this failure on Jefferson’s part is notable.
Thomas Jefferson was a notably lacking president in one particular, important area. Nonetheless, his accomplishments were massive, and without him, the United States may never have become the nation it is, instead forever boxed in by European interests (and it should be noted here that there’s no evidence France or Britain or Russia would have handled their own imperialism any more or less humanely than the United States did).
2-Seed: George Washington
There is an enormous gap between the top two on this list and the rest of the presidents. Between these two, there’s no real gap, because if such a debate were to be had, it would revolve around preference more than any objective criteria.
I put Washington in second because he’s such a mythical-seeming figure. Unnaturally tall for his time, stoic, and seemingly always wise, George Washington could easily have been king. In keeping with his mythical status, he chose otherwise.
To be certain, Washington’s presidency had its challenges, and I’m sure he made mistakes, as he himself noted in closing his farewell address. Still, he defined what a president is, and most importantly, he decided that a president is not a king. He was a powerful figure, and under his guidance, the United States survived its birth. The Constitution worked, and continues to work, in part because George Washington was the first person to man the helm.
George Washington, in so many ways, made this nation, not the least of which came through his presidency.
1-Seed: Abraham Lincoln
Whereas George Washington seems nearly divine, especially in our collective recollection of him, Abraham Lincoln was decidedly human.
Lincoln does not deserve sole credit, of course, for America surviving the Civil War. Still, he was the man who led the United States through its bloody rebirth, as it began the long, still-unfinished process of purging the nation of its most egregious sin. He did this in the face of opposition from all sides, and in the midst of all the tumult a half-million-casualty war includes. He did it despite crippling depression, and he did it surrounded by many who wanted him dead—including one who eventually succeeded.
Prior to his martyrdom, Lincoln confronted the greatest existential threat in United States history—that of part of the country wishing to secede—and successfully put the country back together. Lincoln is not a founding father. He’s a dutiful steward. Sometimes that’s worth more.
Picture of the Bracket of the Greatest Presidents
Fill it out and tweet it at me, if you’d like.
