What made Woodrow Wilson such a bad president?

23 comments

  1. He was a lot of talk. He was an academic who’s ideas were poorly put into practice. His handling of WWI and our entrance thereof was a mess.

  3. * Wildly, virulently racist

    * Poor economic and foreign policy, based more on theory than practice

    * Botched handling of the first world war, half-assed isolationism

  5. Massive turn towards illiberal authoritarianism in the US. All in the name of progress, doncha know.

  6. Woodrow Wilson usually ranks above average, sometimes even top 10, especially for foreign policy. He was, however, a virulent racist and disappointed many black Americans who crossed party lines to vote for him.

    He also expanded the power of the federal government, which conservatives don’t like.

  8. Historians have a much more favorable view of Wilson than the general public, ranking him well above average. Wilson, more than any of his predecessors, took steps to protect ordinary citizens from large corporations. He established the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the graduated income tax, and labor laws. Wilson was the first President to criticize European imperialism, both formal and informal.

    However, Wilson receives much criticism for his record on race relations and civil liberties, for his interventions in Latin America, and for his failure to win ratification of the Treaty of Versailles. Today it’s Wilson’s support of segregation that sullies his reputation among the general public, who may not know much else about him.

  10. The racism and authoritarianism during the war.

    The racism is the saddest for me, on paper a lot of his ideals were excellent, it’s just unfortunate he applied them to whites only.

  11. This is a man who screened Birth of A Nation at the White House. A film so racist it was widely condemned and given the time period that is saying something.

  12. Racism aside, he believed he could ‘fix’ other countries and authorized a number of operations disrupting sovereignty, often easily manipulated by corporations.

    literal quote: “I am going to teach the South American republics to elect good men.”

    This included:

    Setting up puppet state in Nicaragua

    Occupying Haiti and Dominican Republic

    Incursions in to Cuba, Panama, Hondarus.

    Occupied Vera Cruz, Mexico (leading to Pancho Villa’s raid on New Mexico, US)

    Probably would have kept going but WWI took attention thereon.

    ​

    Pros?

    Well, he supported income tax over tariff which was probably good long term.

    He regulated the banks more, setup the reserve system to stabilize that system.

    He pushed for a 8 hour max workday.

    He was anti child labor (when pressed)

    He was anti monopoly.

    Supported a League Of Nations type system, precursor to the UN.

    Committed to the independence of the Philippines.

  14. His belief that the Constitution and the law were obstacles to be overcome instead of sacred duties to uphold. Combined with authoritarianism and elitism, the result wasn’t pretty.

  17. He was a massive racist and the Espionage and Sedition Acts are straight up shit you would read about in totalitarian regimes like the USSR or Nazi Germany. Plus his centralization of power into the War Industries Board during WWI created propaganda campaigns that hyper nationalized Americans and created a largely unjustified fear of communism. You should look up some of the shit the government did during the Palmer Raids to get confessions out of people.

  18. – vehemently racist yet sanctimonious
    – vowed to keep America neutral during WWI, his campaign pitch for his 2nd term was that he kept America out of the war then subsequently went back on that and sent troops to Europe once elected.
    – jailed journalists for speaking out against the war
    – got outmanuevered by the British and the French during peace talks which lead to Germany being unjustly punished for their role in the war thus leading to the rise of Hitler and a second world war 20 years later.

  19. Where do you even start?

    1. Extremely racist, even by the standards of the time. This is a guy who, before he became president was a big reason the Lost Cause Myth became entrenched, segregated the federal government, and reanimated the KKK by showing the extremely racist movie, *The Birth of a Nation*(which glorified the KKK) in the White House.

    2. Authoritarianism- By passing the Espionage and Sedition Acts(both of these, while they still exist, have been interpreted far more strictly since), he walked all over the 1st Amendment. During the First Red Scare, his DOJ also conducted [The Palmer Raids](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palmer_Raids) which arrested over 350k suspected leftists, over 550 of which were deported. It took the Labor Department being the voice of reason to stop them. He cracked down on dissent such as banning the Postal Service from carrying letters critical of WW1 and trying to shut down newspapers that were critical of it.

    3. “Make the World Safe for Democracy”- This one depends on your political persuasion but his unrestrained hawkishness, all over the world but especially in Latin America(some of it justified such as trying to catch Pancho Villa after he raided several border towns, killing Americans). This flowed out of his extreme idealism(which he himself compromised when he felt like it, for instance, by abandoning his principle of self-determination when he didn’t like the country in question.

    4. Personality flaws- In addition to the racism, he was also arrogant, stubborn, and passive-aggressive in the way only a professor can be. He was “my way or the highway” all the time and this wore thin a lot of people. You can see the impact of this very well when he refused to compromise with Republicans, who were suspicious of foreign entanglements and didn’t want American soldiers to be forced to die in other countries’ wars, on the League of Nations. Ultimately, he had planned to try to rally the nation to browbeat his opponents into submission but he had a massive stroke in 1918 that left him paralyzed and killed that option. The treaty would be voted down by the Senate.

    So yeah. . .

  20. “What do you expect when I’m between two men of whom one [Lloyd George] thinks he is Napoleon and the other [Woodrow Wilson] thinks he is Jesus Christ?”

    Georges Clemenceau (French president) during the meetings at Versailles.

    By all accounts, Wilson was a smug, pompous, self-righteous know-it-all do gooder type. These types of people are the worst.

    However, in terms of being an effective president, he is considered to be better than average.

    The real issue nowadays is that he was racist, which is not great. But the modern American internet society is so obsessed with race and calling out racist that any legacy he once had is kind of ruined

  21. He allowed his wife to act as President when he was sick. Ms Wilson was running the country when Woodrow was incapacitated when the VP should have been instead. Ms Wilson was vindictive in how she ran the WH during that time.

  23. Wilson dragged his feet entering WW1, causing Russia to drop out and eventually turn into the Soviet Union. Not only that, but he was incredibly racist and was a heavy nationalist. He was the first president to start interventions in south America (Neglecting the Spanish American war) , a trend that continues to this very day.

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like