Wilson is generally considered one of the top 10 presidents ever, and the comments about the 16th and 17th Amendments were also nutty, and the Fed comments were just completely ignorant.
I do not see how you, as a far Left guy, can speak well of Wilson. Merely on matters of race, you should denounce him (as you are fond of denouncing the right) as probably the single most racist president who ever ran the country.
As I said: This guy was
quite literally a Confederate. He opened up
Birth of a Nation. He REINSTITUTED military segregation, and was the head of the openly racist Democratic party at the height of its KKK era.
The 16th amendment has given us an income tax which is miserably bad. It is extremely regressive, punishing the people who work for a living, while favouring those who gain their money from alternative sources. We gave up tariffs and liquor taxes (as well as other sane, non-regressive taxes) for a burden that quite literally punishes productive labour.
The 17th amendment broke the federal system we instituted. Direct election of senators has taken state legislatures out of the consideration of government on the national level, paralyzing the capacity for states to actually affect changes in Washington. The house of representatives was the representation of the people directly, whereas the senate was meant to be the voice of the states. As state elections are inherently more efficient in dealing with the interests of individuals in a given state, we are left with a senate that does not correspond as directly to the interests of their state as they should be.
Even a cursory knowledge of the Federal Reserve's failure to cap inflation can be discerned by a history of inflation in the United States. Inflation was moreorless flat from the revolutionary period to 1913, whereas it has gone up over 2000 times since then. What would cost a dollar in 1913 costs 27.00 today!
You're factually incorrect if you think the Federal Reserve has met its chief reason for existence.
But his most spectacular failure is the sacrifice of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND AMERICAN LIVES for a war which served NO STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE to the United States' interests.
Not a single bit!
The Great War was a war that exclusively concerned Europe. America sacrificed a HUNDRED THOUSAND MEN and spent BILLIONS to get involved in a war which we had no dog in the game at all. A victory of the Central Powers would not have hurt the United States in the least. Our relationship with Germany prior to the war was friendly, and our chief ally before the war, Russia, was defeated well before we even involved ourself, so we cannot even say we assisted them.
Obama will go down in history as one of the greatest presidents ever. At this point, it's just hackery that would cause anyone to deny it.
Trillions upon trillions in debt.
Quite literally breaking the healthcare system with massive costs.
The worst recovery in the history of the United States.
Spectacular foreign policy failures, including the wholescale loss of two wars.
And quite frankly a usurpation of the immigration powers of congress.
Barrack Obama will be very lucky not to be impeached for his failures.
