In recent history? Toss-up between Bill Clinton (who, because he was “liberal,” was able to get away with levels of austerity and warmongering that even Reagan couldn’t match) and George W. Bush (one of the worst war criminals in modern history, who somehow gets a free pass from libs because Orange Man Bad).
Going further back, I think the thing to understand is that none of them were particularly good – as Marx said, bourgeois revolutions and revolutionaries are at best ambiguous, and steeped in a whole lot of blood. That ambiguous character is more pronounced before the 1950s and the collapse of the British Empire as a major world power. Everyone knew that the US was comitting genocide within its borders, and that it was brutally exploitative to its own working class, but it was still some sort of counterweight to the hegemony of the British Empire. From Das Kapital, Vol. I Chapter 25:
Like all good things in this bad world, this profitable method has its drawbacks. With the accumulation of rents in Ireland, the accumulation of the Irish in America keeps pace. The Irishman, banished by sheep and ox, re-appears on the other side of the ocean as a Fenian, and face to face with the old queen of the seas rises, threatening and more threatening, the young giant Republic.
From the 50s on, the US stepped into the role of the former British Empire, and any government or president you get from that point on is the unabiguous face of imperialism and global capital. The only adminstration that maybe did some good was Nixon’s – he established relations with China, leading ultimately to the PRC being able to outmaneuver the US – and that only because he blinked, and Mao didn’t.
As I’ve come to understand it, Nixon was more or less forced to establish relations with the PRC due to the “dollar dilemma” and related monetary issues. Of course Kissinger probably thought he could use the Sino-Soviet split as a wedge to get China onto his side as well, but the impetus of the whole thing was balance of payments and the contemporary birth of the treasury bill dollar standard.
True, but the only real reason Nixon established ties with the PRC was to use them to put pressure on the USSR, who back then was leagues ahead of China in industrial capacity and overall ability to challenge US interest.
George W. Bush’s retirement paintings do make me wonder if deep deep down underneath the surface he is screaming in eternal pain from the weight of his sins…
I agree, Clinton not only destroyed Serbia, opened Mexico and the Balkans up to neoliberalism, destroyed welfare, and gave a boost to the prison industrial complex, but he also was also a “skillful” groomer, using his authority over Monica Lewinsky to pressure her into an affair, and also being besties with Jeffrey Epstein.
Also, I wouldn’t say there’ve been no good presidents, for example, Marx’s penpal Lincoln ended slavery.
The Lincoln-Marx connection is rather overstated. Marx sent letters, Lincoln likely did not. There is often an attempt to rehabilitate Lincoln that I understand from a certain angle, it would be nice if they were not all absolute bastards and it would mean there is a unique, historically progressive force within Amerika somwhere that we can celebrate. Unfortunately, Lincoln is not worth rehabilitating, either. He was notably unkind to natives (as in, perpetuating violence unto them which he would not even grant confederates, because he was a racist settler https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/largest-mass-execution-us-history-150-years-ago-today/). His actions in office while commendable, stemmed only from pragmatism and a desire to maintain national cohesion (“preserve the union” 🤮) and Lincoln personally detested black Amerikans, from a speech given in 1858 for his U.S. Illinois senate bid:
I will say then, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters of the negroes, or jurors, or qualifying them to hold office, of having them to marry with white people. I will say in addition, that there is a physical difference between the white and black races, which I suppose, will forever forbid the two races living together upon terms of social and political equality, and inasmuch, as they cannot so live, that while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, that I as much as any other man am in favor of the superior position being assigned to the white man.
We got no need for this piece of shit. Amerikan revolutionaries are reflected in Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, MLK, Fred Hampton, Goyaałé, Helen Keller, and many more.
In recent history? Toss-up between Bill Clinton (who, because he was “liberal,” was able to get away with levels of austerity and warmongering that even Reagan couldn’t match) and George W. Bush (one of the worst war criminals in modern history, who somehow gets a free pass from libs because Orange Man Bad).
Going further back, I think the thing to understand is that none of them were particularly good – as Marx said, bourgeois revolutions and revolutionaries are at best ambiguous, and steeped in a whole lot of blood. That ambiguous character is more pronounced before the 1950s and the collapse of the British Empire as a major world power. Everyone knew that the US was comitting genocide within its borders, and that it was brutally exploitative to its own working class, but it was still some sort of counterweight to the hegemony of the British Empire. From Das Kapital, Vol. I Chapter 25:
From the 50s on, the US stepped into the role of the former British Empire, and any government or president you get from that point on is the unabiguous face of imperialism and global capital. The only adminstration that maybe did some good was Nixon’s – he established relations with China, leading ultimately to the PRC being able to outmaneuver the US – and that only because he blinked, and Mao didn’t.
As I’ve come to understand it, Nixon was more or less forced to establish relations with the PRC due to the “dollar dilemma” and related monetary issues. Of course Kissinger probably thought he could use the Sino-Soviet split as a wedge to get China onto his side as well, but the impetus of the whole thing was balance of payments and the contemporary birth of the treasury bill dollar standard.
Poetry.
True, but the only real reason Nixon established ties with the PRC was to use them to put pressure on the USSR, who back then was leagues ahead of China in industrial capacity and overall ability to challenge US interest.
Not a single lib uttering the name of George W. Bush since Obama became president really kicked off my disgust of liberals
Literally the OG election rigging Christofascist destroyer of the Middle East (no not him alone of course but he always comes to mind with hate)
George W. Bush’s retirement paintings do make me wonder if deep deep down underneath the surface he is screaming in eternal pain from the weight of his sins…
“Wow Trump makes me really miss W!”
I agree, Clinton not only destroyed Serbia, opened Mexico and the Balkans up to neoliberalism, destroyed welfare, and gave a boost to the prison industrial complex, but he also was also a “skillful” groomer, using his authority over Monica Lewinsky to pressure her into an affair, and also being besties with Jeffrey Epstein. Also, I wouldn’t say there’ve been no good presidents, for example, Marx’s penpal Lincoln ended slavery.
The Lincoln-Marx connection is rather overstated. Marx sent letters, Lincoln likely did not. There is often an attempt to rehabilitate Lincoln that I understand from a certain angle, it would be nice if they were not all absolute bastards and it would mean there is a unique, historically progressive force within Amerika somwhere that we can celebrate. Unfortunately, Lincoln is not worth rehabilitating, either. He was notably unkind to natives (as in, perpetuating violence unto them which he would not even grant confederates, because he was a racist settler https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/largest-mass-execution-us-history-150-years-ago-today/). His actions in office while commendable, stemmed only from pragmatism and a desire to maintain national cohesion (“preserve the union” 🤮) and Lincoln personally detested black Amerikans, from a speech given in 1858 for his U.S. Illinois senate bid:
We got no need for this piece of shit. Amerikan revolutionaries are reflected in Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, John Brown, W.E.B. Du Bois, Malcolm X, MLK, Fred Hampton, Goyaałé, Helen Keller, and many more.
I agree, we shouldn’t whitewash him, but we can also appreciate that he wasn’t the worst by president standards.