Fox News reported on some new presidential rankings, which purportedly show Barack Obama as the #6 president in U.S. history and Donald Trump dead last, and MAGA was not happy.
Fox News on Sunday posted an article about the new rankings by the Presidential Greatness Project, which Fox describes as “a group of self-styled experts.” It states that Abraham “Lincoln topped the list of presidents in the 2024 Presidential Greatness Project expert survey for the third time, following his top spot in the rankings in the 2015 and 2018 versions of the survey.”
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“Rounding out the top five in the rankings were Franklin Delano Roosevelt at number two, George Washington at three, Theodore Roosevelt at four, and Thomas Jefferson at five,” according to the report. “Trump was ranked in last place in the survey, being ranked worse than James Buchanan at 44, Andrew Johnson at 43, Franklin Pierce at 42, and William Henry Harrison at 41.”
The report states that Obama and Joe Biden “ranked an average of 6th and 13th, respectively, among Democrat respondents, and 15th and 30th by Republicans.”
As bad as Trump is, Democrats are pretty much equally inept when it comes to dealing with climate change. All but the most progressive Dems are just as beholden to fossil fuels interests. We needed Gore to win back in 2000 for any real difference to be made. Now we’re doomed regardless.
The Inflation Reduction Act was the most powerful climate law ever passed in the US, and it was significant enough that it forced European countries to pass similar legislation.
It certainly doesn’t fix climate change suddenly, but it’s incorrect to say Democrats are as bad. They’re at least meaningfully trying. Trump and Republicans are actively wanting to make things worse.
>The Inflation Reduction Act was the most powerful climate law ever passed in the US
by what metric
Most spending towards climate change, at $369 billion.
And, from a political perspective, it forced other countries to make similar legislation.
the Organic Act preserved vast swathes of the united states against development. the bureau of land management established under truman has done the same with other federal lands (with varying degrees of success).
how can you quantify the relative value of these against the IRA? i don’t think the simple summing of budgetary allowances is a good metric to decide whether it’s teh most powerful climate law ever passed.
Let me rephrase – most powerful climate change law ever passed. Not overall climate and environment. The establishment of the EPA would be a strong contender for the most powerful environmental law ever passed, that’s for sure.
if the money is spent correctly, maybe. i haven’t read it, but I’m wary it may spend 200billion on clean coal and the rest on hydrogen fuel cells (as examples)
Are Democrats just as bad? No. But they are equally inept. They align themselves with business interests and favor preserving the status-quo over the dramatic systemic change that is required to address climate change. Anything they allow to pass is like putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. Far too little, far too late. Neo-Liberal incrementalism is what doomed the world, reactionary conservatism is mearly a by-product.
The law isn’t about preserving the status quo though. It has massive subsidies and provisions to create a brand new status quo. The idea of the law is to build up American green energy companies so that they’ll be global leaders in the space.
I agree it isn’t the full solution, but it is still significant, and it’s trying to make some systemic changes.