r/Presidents

I always found this fact odd, you would think that ideologically Truman would be nowhere near the top of his ranking.

Source for the quote:

Just a little reminder that Reagan’s political shift conveniently came around the time that Democrats started supporting more intense Civil Rights measures, and Republicans like Barry Goldwater were courting Southern voters through raising attacks against the Civil Rights Act.

Reagan opposed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act when they passed, so whatever distorted impression he gave later is inaccurate.

There’s a reason that MLK Jr’s family were outspoken critics of the Reagan admin.

Also, before anyone says anything, the ONLY reason why Reagan signed the bill for a day dedicated to Dr. King was because of the overwhelming Congressional support for such a measure. He had initially opposed it.

There had been candidates who were governors of southern states but they weren’t in office at the time of their candidacy. Strom Thurmond ran for president while he was governor of South Carolina but he was not a major party candidate. Clinton was also the first sitting governor to be elected since FDR.

This may be a stupid question, but here goes.

One of Nixon’s most admired US presidents was Woodrow Wilson; Nixon greatly respected Wilson’s approach to foreign affairs, particularly praising Wilson’s advocacy for American intervention worldwide to stabilize American interests abroad. Additionally, while Nixon wasn’t ideologically a progressive on the economic front, I always got the impression that he leaned towards progressive policies when it came to aid for the poor, the elderly, the disabled, etc. He wasn’t personally, deeply interested in these policies, but he was willing to support them if it meant that he could garner votes.

All of that being said, if Nixon was so economically progressive in his policy platform (particularly when compared to later Republicans), and if he liked Wilson so much, why did he run for his first Congressional race in 1946 as a Republican?

Was California so red at the time that it would have been unthinkable to run as a Democrat anywhere in the state?

Whenever I read about Nixon, he doesn’t seem like a fiscal hawk in the way that Ike and many other Republicans were. Thus, it seems odd that Nixon would have identified as a Republican.

For me I was never a big fan of one president. But I chose Ike because I like studying WWII and he was the Supreme Allied Commander. I also agree with his politics the most of all the presidents. He’s also what I think a president should be. A figurehead that isn’t super political that the people like.

Would Alan Rickman have made a convincing Warren G Harding on film?

Image Sources: https://juhaszillustration.com/editorial-art-2/

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Revolutionary War and earlier focused today