Who else should be added to this list? (This was chrono. Not based on badassedness.)
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I personally have mixed feelings on Abe and Reagan. They weren't evil or anything, but I don't believe they were as great as everyone seems to think.
As far as I'm concerned, the North were the bad guys during the civil war. Contrary to what most believe, the civil war wasn't about slavery. That's a horribly simplified narrative used to dumb down the masses. Lincoln himself said if he could end the war without freeing a single slave he would. The civil war was caused by a mess of complex factors ranging from abolitionist movements (which is basically the old timey abortion) to federal overreach by enacting tax and tariff policies that heavily skewed the benefits to the north while essentially penalizing the south for trying to maximize their profits by exporting their products oversees rather than selling them at a loss to the northern factories.
Combine this with a constant fear of federal overreach that turned out to be true, when the federal government started overriding state laws and manually enforcing their ridiculous taxes and tariffs using the military and marshal services, and it's no wonder that the south seceded and declared war. That's basically where we are today without Q and the Plan.
Regan on the other hand was actually a really good president, but I think he failed big time on gun control and amnesty for illegals. Those tow specific failures are still having detrimental effects to us today, and in my opinion it's a large stain on his legacy, to say the least.
But I digress, you asked for who to add to the list, Teddy Roosevelt and Andrew Jackson come mind. Teddy......well he's self explanatory. I hate all of that stupid Alpha Male/Sigma Male/Beta Male crap (basically the male version of astrology) but if it ever actually applied to anyone, then I'd say Teddy is that most alpha of alpha males.
Andrew Jackson is basically Angry, Southern, Violent Trump. Hated career politicians, wealthy man of the people, came in out of nowhere, burned everything around him, destroyed the American central bank, handed the government back to the people, all while killing most of his political opponents in literal duals, and fighting off assassination attempts by beating his would be assassins to death with his bare hands and walking cane. And to top it all off, on his death bed his only regret was that he didn't kill his vice president, since he hated the ground he walked on and considered him a worthless, feckless politician with no spine.
Not entirely accurate since the makers of this video, like most historically ignorant people, try to paint Jackson as a literal murderous lunatic, but gives you the general gist in a funny little sub 4 minute video and can act as a jump point for your own research into, quite possibly the greatest president in history.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SupNaQeJrq0&ab_channel=Cracked
The north had moved to largely factories and the south was still mostly faming. The North knew the easiest way to end the war was to destroy all the business in the South. Also DC was the largest slave trading city in the US.
Tell me more about your mixed feelings of Lincoln and Reagan. What did we give up by the control of these Presidents. I’m still trying to learn our real history.
Please see the reply I commented to u/cathole953 for more info. He gives some good info, needed some slight clarification.
Well with Lincoln it was mainly an issue of states rights. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pro slavery, but the blatant federal government overreach that happened leading up to the civil war pretty much kills any narrative of the North being "the good guys". It's A REALLY long and complex story, but the short version that hits the most blatant problem, was that cotton and tobacco, the two most abundant cash crops in the south, were selling for 3-5X as much in Europe at the time. Europe was still recovering from Napoleon at this time and trying to sort things out, so pretty much everything was mess. Ergo, the relied on mass imports from other areas of the world, and the US was prime import territory for them in terms of cotton and tobacco.
So obviously, wealthy southerners did just that, and the north didn't like that. This is around the time the industrial revolution REALLY started kicking in, and northern factories started popping up using "modern" tech. But these were the type of factories where they essentially used slave labor in all but name which eventually led to the formation of unions and the rise of the robber barons.
Anyway, the north wanted the souths dirt cheap cotton and over crops to feed their production, but few southerners would be willing to sell to them in the quantities they were wanting. Combine with the civil war era equivalent of virtue signaling in the form of abolition (because THEIR slave factories were so much better because they paid them a dollar a month) and it all led to a string of federal overreaches where tariffs were levied that would ONLY effect southern states, resulting in GDP drops, and their economies taking a massive hit.
When southern states still refused to comply and started passing laws combatting the federal overreach, the feds just started forcing the military and marshals service to enforce their baseless laws. Then the abolitionists gained momentum and, struggling southern states saw that as the last straw since they knew that as things were, they'd never recover if slavery were abolished as well. So they seceded and started the civil war.
Mississippi is a wonderful example of all this. Believe it or not, Mississippi was wealthiest state in the union at one point. Then after years of unjust tariffs, the civil war, ridiculous reconstruction regulations, etc. Mississippi has been devastated to the point that, to this day, it's now the poorest state in the union. Most other southern states eventually figured out new ways to boost their economies and adjusted. Some took longer than others, but Mississippi has never fully recovered.
So yeah, Lincoln isn't the hero everyone thinks he is. As for Reagan, well as I said, he was pretty good, but it's because of Regan we have the Hughes Amendment to the NFA. So Reagan is the reason you can't own a Machine Gun. Likewise, Reagan is the one who started this Amnesty for illegals crap when he gave millions of illegals citizenship. In other words, Reagan gave us our single biggest setbacks in terms of gun rights and the fight against illegal immigration.
I love the help on this topic, but you have a few key things so jacked up it hurts to read.
Abolitionists were not abortionists. Nothing in common. Abolitionists wanted to end slavery, and had a thing about states rights vs. Federal.
The big issue of the whole war was states rights. One of the big reasons the South hated the north was two fold. Abolitionists wanted to free slaves, which they believed abborhant, yet no one wanted them to migrate to the north because of prejudice. South wanted the cheap labor, as it was a cheap, effective way to keep profit on the tobacco and cotton crops they relied on.
There were many instances where southerners also believed slavery was wrong, but saw no solution that wouldn't crash their economy.
The north played a vindictive, shortsighted game to pressure the south by driving textile prices down while also seemingly taking the moral high ground on slavery. They offered no real alternative that didnt end up ruining the south, at least in the eyes of the cotton farmers..
Read period letters from before CW started, check the newspapers, read the Lincoln letters.
Abe was a fantastic president that the early cabal undermined. He was plagued with the worst generals, bad advisors, and few supporters of note.
Abe's whole presidency was the preservation of the Union at all costs, otherwise it would be the end of them.
France, England and Spain were all still buttsore from 1776, and more than anything would love to see a divided nation they could start slicing up, retaking their colonies. Lincoln believed, for better or worse, two nations would not be strong enough to fend off invasion, least considering the North and Souths interdependence of economy.
Each side found allies from the old world.
Abe made a deal with the federalist to suspend states rights to prevent secession and call it a rebellion. Invented a bunch of taxes to support saving the union, then was assassinated before he could repeal them (he always intended to remove them and give states back their power.)
Abes flaw in perfect hindsight was to overstep federal power to save the union, which only condemned it to what we have now. So yes, you are correct that the South was right for that part.
However, neither side had what you would call the moral high ground. Both had broken views and both were at fault. There was no good side bad side during that war.
I know there are holes/gaps in this, but history is too long to flesh out in one comment.
Wasn't really comparing abortion to slavery in that kind of terms. More that it was THE hot button issue of the day where everyone took the moral high ground. Which is rather funny when you consider what I said about the north having slavery in all but name in their factories. Because as I said, paying someone a dollar a month, if that, while forcing them to live in inhumane living conditions while working 20 hour days 7 days a week is SOOOOO much better than actual slavery. At least the slaves actually were taken care of in most cases since they were viewed the same as livestock, and how many farmers are going to beat their mule or horse to death?
It's even more accurate to compare them when you consider that and look at all of these deranged leftists that claim the moral high ground on things like gun control, war, etc. because people lose their lives, but then turn around and demand their "right" to kill babies.