Ask any conservative to name the top Presidents of the United States, and you’re likely to get a fairly standard list. Washington, Lincoln and Reagan will probably lead it, and a certain type of conservative will probably also tell you Theodore Roosevelt makes the list. But what about the other 40? Surely they’re not all hankerers after socialism?
Obviously not. That’s why the following are the top five Presidents underrated by conservatives.
5. Bill Clinton
Yes, you read that correctly. Though much of Clinton’s accomplishments can be laid at the feet of his willingness to acquiesce to Gingrich’s Republican-controlled Congress (who Clinton inadvertently helped elect), he still gets some credit for listening to what the people wanted. You know, unlike a certain recent Democratic President. And let’s be honest – party aside, anyone who can say with a straight face that, “The era of big government is over,” deserves a nod from the Right. Bill Clinton set out to be the next John F. Kennedy, but he ended up as the next Harding. Speaking of…
4. Warren G. Harding
Why does a scandal-ridden womanizer who died in office make this list? Well, for one thing, he gave us President “Silent Cal” Coolidge by making the famed stoic his Vice President, but that’s not the relevant point. Harding actually did quite a bit to roll back the clock after Woodrow Wilson’s runaway expansion of government power, while overseeing the beginnings of an economic boom. Under Harding, unemployment dropped by ten percent, while he sliced income taxes and spending and smoothed over relations with foreign nations without compromising American interests. He might have been an S.O.B., but he was our S.O.B.
3. Calvin Coolidge
Coolidge only makes number three not because he’s not that good, but because he’s not that underrated, at least among the smart set. Reagan said Coolidge was his favorite President, and Coolidge has been getting a lot of love from figures like Glenn Beck recently, as well as an increasing amount of scholarship. Still, in the pantheon of conservative Presidents who get cited as inspiration, Silent Cal could use more love. He may not have said much, but people should say more about him.
2. Millard Filmore
Whereas Coolidge is a great President who’s a little underrated, Filmore is a good President who’s completely ignored. A lot of people criticize him over his willingness to compromise with the South during the compromise of 1850, and there’s a larger historical debate to be had there. However, it’s certainly arguable that Filmore managed to stave off the Civil War at a time when the United States was recovering from previous conflict and might not have won. He also gave statehood to California and New Mexico, and negotiated a joint effort by Britain, the United States and France to keep Venezuela out of Cuba. Now that the two countries are allied under the banner of communism, a bit of Filmore’s persistence in fighting that menace would be welcome.
1. Grover Cleveland
Before there was Reagan or Coolidge, there was Grover Cleveland – the best Democrat to ever be President. Cleveland was known for many things, one of them being his rock-ribbed insistence on not spending Federal money on pet projects of legislators. He would even send statements back with his vetoes of spending projects, lecturing the legislators on Constitutional principles. He also is the only President to serve two terms non-consecutively – a minor point, but it shows how “Miss me yet” has bipartisan appeal as a campaign slogan.
