The Ten Worst Americans of All-Time

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:09pm

There are tons of lists out there of the Ten Worst Americans, and I thought it would be interesting to put a bunch next to each other and see how they stack up, so I found fiteen online.

Some of them are absurd and some show far too obvious political bias. And many of them favor current political figures far too prominently (List Eight being one).

But they are interesting nonetheless. Some of the suspects who show up on quite a few lists include Woodrow Wilson, Aaron Burr, Nathan Bedford Forrest, J. Edgar Hoover, Benedict Arnold, Jefferson Davis, Joe McCarthy, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Jesse Jackson / Al Sharpton.

I didn't expect to see Kinsey on any lists, but he showed up a couple times.

Some of these lists are ridiculous, some are feasible. I think List Fourteen is pretty good, myself, though I don't agree with it completely.

Anyway, I though it would be interesting to see reactions to these lists as well as see others list of the Top Ten Worst Americans.




LIST ONE:
1) Harry Ansliger
2) John Yoo
3) Ted Hall
4) Joseph McCarthy
5) Richard Perle
6) "Rev." Lou Sheldon
7) Harry Blackmun
8 ) Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell/James Dobson
9) Rush Limbaugh
10) The Commenters at Little Green Footballs

LIST TWO:
Aldrich Ames/James Jesus Angleton
Theodore Bilbo
John Wilkes Booth
Aaron Burr
Nathan Bedford Forrest
J. Edgar Hoover
Charles Manson
Joseph McCarthy
Richard M. Nixon
Al Sharpton

LIST THREE:
1. Woodrow Wilson.
2. Jesse Jackson/Al Sharpton (tie)
3. David Duke
4. Madonna.
5. Pat Buchanan.
6. FDR.
7. Bill Clinton.
8. Every man who has contributed to an abortion by being sexually reckless, economically improvident, or unwilling to step up to his responsibilities; every woman who's had an abortion who saw a reasonable path to avoid it.
9. Michael Jackson.
10. Jeff Goldstein.

LIST FOUR:
The Rosenbergs
James Earl Ray
John Wilkes Booth
John Sherman - killed free business
Robert E Lee - his genius prolonged the Civil War
Jimmy Carter
Walter Cronkite - helped media bias grow
Gloria Steinem
Bill Clinton
Edward Kennedy

LIST FIVE:
1) Margaret Sanger
2) Woodrow Wilson
3) The Rosenbergs
4) Henry Blackmun
5 ) Timothy McVeigh
6) Benedict Arnold
7) Aaron Burr
8 ) Jesse Jackson
9) H.H. Holmes
10) Ted Bundy

LIST SIX:
Richard Nixon
Theophilus Eugene "Bull" Connor
William Joyce and Mildred Elizabeth Sisk
Woodrow Wilson
George Armstrong Custer
John Wilkes Booth
Jefferson Davis
Chief Justice Roger Taney
Franklin Pierce
John C. Calhoun

LIST SEVEN:
1: Thomas Jefferson
2: Dick Cheney
3: Rupert Murdoch, even though he's Australian
4: Richard Nixon
5: George Steinbrenner
6: Barbara Streisand
7: Richard J. Daley
8: Jesse Jackson
9: John D. Rockefeller
10: Bill Gates

LIST EIGHT:
1. Antonin Scalia
2. Richard Mellon Scaife
3. Karl Rove
4. Dick Cheney
5. George Bush
6. Tom Delay
7. Donald Rumsfeld
8. Jefferson Davis
9. Joe McCarthy
10. Sun-Myung Moon

LIST NINE:
1) Benedict Arnold
2) Jefferson Davis
3) Nathan Bedford Forrest
4) Carrie Nation
5) Tokyo Rose
6) J. Edgar Hoover
7) Joe McCarthy:
8 ) Walter Duranty
9) Richard Nixon
10) Timothy McVeigh

LIST TEN:
John Wilkes Booth
Nathan Forrest
Margaret Sanger
Paul Robeson
Alger Hiss
Lillian Hellman
Charles Manson
Pete Rose
Timothy McVeigh

LIST ELEVEN:
1. Andrew Jackson
2. Herbert Hoover
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. Richard Nixon
5. Ken Lay & his Enron pals
6. Neil Bush
7. Grover Norquist
8. Newt Gingrich
9. Ronald Regan
10. George W. Bush

LIST TWELVE:
1) Alfred Kinsey
2) Margaret Sanger
3) John Dewey
4) Thaddeus Stevens
5) Aaron Burr
6) Bishop John Shelby Spong
7) Madeline Murray O'Hare
8 ) Jimmy Carter
9) Bill Clinton
10) Walter Duranty

LIST THIRTEEN:
1) Margaret Sanger
2) Alfred Kinsey
3) Ayn Rand
4) Peter Singer
5) Derek Humphry
6) Henry Kissinger
7) Chief Justice Roger B Taney
8 ) Chief Justice Harry Blackman
9) Charles Ruthenberg, John Reed, and Benjamin
Gitlow
10) Aaron Burr

LIST FOURTEEN:
1) J. Edgar Hoover
2) John Wilkes Booth
3) Benedict Arnold
4) Nathan Bedford Forrest
5) Stephen Douglas
6) Richard Nixon
7) Joseph McCarthy
8 ) Aaron Burr
9) John Walker, Jr.
10) Jimmy Carter

LIST FIFTEEN:
J. Edgar Hoover
Aaron Burr
Jefferson Davis
Nathan Bedford Forrest
Bill O'Reilly
George Wallace
Joseph McCarthy
Henry Miller
Mickey Kaus
Joel Schumacher

Updated On: 5/8/07 at 07:09 PM

[Mother's Younger Brother]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:11pm

Hmmm...list 3 has an interesting slant.

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:13pm

very interesting, especially list 3

[jasonf]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:42pm

Someone please explain to me -- Thomas Jefferson???

[luvliza89]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:45pm

It's BARBRA Streisand.

kthaxpeace

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 7:51pm

jasonf, that person's reasoning was that Jefferson "undercut all the good things he wanted to enshrine in our constitution by upholding the right to own slaves by his Southern brethren. This still is damaging the republic."

[Rose_MacShane]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 8:06pm

15 worst lists and not a single mention of Paris Hilton? For shame, bloggers.

[thevolleyballer]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 8:32pm

I first thought it read "The Ten Worst Amendments of All Time", and that bitch about bearing arms and assembly came to my mind...

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 8:35pm

Uh, maybe I missed something, but why is Streisand on one of the lists?

[TheHumanTorch]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 8:40pm

i think its funny that Margaret Sanger is on one of the lists

[luvliza89]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 8:40pm

Barbra's obviously on there because she forgot the words to "America The Beautiful" while singing it.

Clearly.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 9:52pm

wonderfulwizard, the person who made that list with Steissand stated that she was on there for "paving the way for the likes of other big-voiced divas like Celine Dion and Mariah Carey that America has to suffer through.."

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 9:54pm

Oh god. That's ridiculous.

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 9:55pm

Bill Clinton was a good American.

And WHAT pray tell did Al Sharpton do to deserve this? Am I missing something?

People do not like Aaron Burr.

Number 8 in the third list is just...weird.

Can I say something random? K good. When I was little (like..6) I didn't know who Jesse Jackson was, I just knew the name. My parents, as they are foreigners didn't really know anything about him either. And I used to go around telling people I had a crush on Jesse Jackson and we were going to get married. Just for the mere fact that I liked his name.
And then I watched THE BRADY BUNCH and found out the truth.

Thank goodness Bill O'reilly is there. Whew.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 9:58pm

I think Aaron Burr is unfairly maligned.

He did a lot of good, despite being a egocentric ass.

People seemed to cite him merely for shooting Alexander Hamilton. But, come on, it was in a duel, it wasn't Burr's fault that Hamilton had such ****ty aim, and Hamilton was much ruder and coarser to Burr than Burr ever was to Hamilton during their political lives.

But, then again, he did try to take a large chunk of the Louisiana Territory for himself.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:00pm

"i think its funny that Margaret Sanger is on one of the lists"

Why do you find Margaret Sanger funny? Some believe she was a white supremacist. They feel the purpose behind the push for birth control was directed toward black people and that they shouldn't reproduce at all.

Updated On: 5/8/07 at 10:00 PM

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:02pm

But I feel like there are Americans who actually could be worse than Aaron Burr. It's weird that I'm sympathizing with Aaron Burr. And I can't stop saying his name....Aaron Burr.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:05pm

I agree, Anna.

The problem with much of these lists is that they are focused on the present and/or they focus on one event as opposed to people who did things with a large impact (people like Nixon, Hoover, etc.)

[misschung]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:22pm

every woman who's had an abortion who saw a reasonable path to avoid it.

what?
also, the Rosenburg's werent really American, were they?
Personally, Howard Stern would be on my list.

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:27pm

I like how it says "who saw a reasonable path to avoid it". That doesn't even make sense to me.

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:30pm

So who does everyone believe belongs at the top of the list?

[AnnaK<3LMIP]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:32pm

Bill O'Reilly. I rank him higher than even John Wilkes Booth. And that Booth was a BAD American. And anyone who was mean to Ruby Bridges when she went to school. Everytime I read the children's version I get when I was younger I cry. We can group people can't we?

[Gothampc]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:34pm

"So who does everyone believe belongs at the top of the list?"

Jimmy Carter should be in the Top 5.

[misschung]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:34pm

OJ Simpson

jk

[StickToPriest]

Posted: 5/8/07 at 10:36pm

But I think saying someone like Bill O'Reilly is too insular to the present. That's giving him way too much importance to say that he is the worst American of all-time. He doesn't have enough power or influence to reach that level. Not by a longshot. Especially compared with the likes of Nixon, Hoover and the rest.

I think that you have to exclude people like Timothy McVeigh and Charles Manson too, because, while they are horrible people, they and/or their actions didn't have enough power or influence to rank up there.