Right Wing News, a conservative blog, recently polled other conservative bloggers to compile a list of the worst Americans in history. The list is, frankly, laughable; if nothing else, the fact that about a third of the twenty-five people named are still alive (and most of those are still politically active) suggests a certain lack of historical perspective.
If I were to compose such a list, I'd probably start with John Calhoun and Andrew Jackson, then turn to a handful of the perpetrators and villains of the Slavers' Revolt: Alexander Stephens, Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Henry Wirz certainly, and I could add a few more names without difficulty. I could probably be persuaded to add Presidents Buchanan and Polk to the list as well.
Oddly, there are a few names on their list that I might also include: John Wilkes Booth, perhaps, and possibly Woodrow Wilson and Richard Nixon - but I suspect my reasons for including those last two are not the same as those of RWN's friends.
