Presidents are judged by their ability to implement
policies, and people love to rank presidents based upon “greatness.” Policy
vision, communication and negotiation skills, and effective use of powers are
all aspects that make a president great if they succeed in these areas. First,
they have to have a policy vision that the people will approve, next, they have
to have good communication and negotiation skills to get the government and people
on board, and then, they have to use their powers effectively to implement
their policy vision.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Ronald Regan have been
two of the greatest presidents. The key points of Roosevelt’s presidency that
makes him great is: he was elected at the height of the Great Depression and he
attacked the financial crisis with a vision for a “New Deal,” he was
responsible for the significant expansion of the size and the role of the
federal government, and he created job programs by suggested creation of new
agencies to train and put people back to work. Regan thought that tax cuts were
essential, and he wanted to reduce the size and scope of the government. He was
a good communicator, because of his previous acting. He focused on building up
the military, and he sparked a military spending war with the Soviets that
strained its economy.
A president I was previously unfamiliar with is
Millard Fillmore. I learn that he was the last Whig president, and the last
president not to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican
parties. I also learned that he was the only Whig president that did not die in
office or get expelled from the party. He was not an effective president, and
he is in the bottom ten of historical ranking of presidents. One reason he was
not an effective president is because he backed the Compromise of 1850 that delayed
the Southern state’s secession by allowing slavery to spread.
I commented on the blogs of Katelyn Dozier, Mathew Cooper, and Robert Johnson.
Communication and negotiating skills are definitely qualities of a great president. They should also have the powers to implement their policy vision, that is unless that president is Barack Obama and the policy vision is Obamacare. I agree that Roosevelt is one of the greatest presidents of our time, along with Reagan. I find it interesting you chose those two. Roosevelt called for more government in the "New Deal" to pull our country out of the depression, and Reagan had an opposite vision, seeing as the call for more government was no longer needed. I can honestly admit, I have never in my life heard of Millard Fillmore, and from what you've said about him I can understand why.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog on this chapter! I too did some research on FDR and was intrigued on his view of expanding the government and the programs that were being offered whereas Reagan took the opposite approach and wanted to limit government. I will agree that both of these presidents were great in their own times during their presidency and made strides that help the United States. Great information on Millard Filmore too! I did not know that he was the last president affiliated with the Whig party and not tied to the general democrats or Republican Party.
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