Rank the US Presidents

#326
#326
Kingston Vol said:
I have started an ambitious goal of reading a biography of every American President. Just started so all I can tell you is George Washington kicked ass.

Very interesting to read about how little interest he had in being President and how much he hated the pomp and circumstance of the public aspects of the job.
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You should Read David McCullough's biography of John Adams titled John Adams. Excellent read, and it won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography.
 
#328
#328
Weezer said:
I don't think you can blame the KKK entirely on NBF. For one, it's not like he was the only one who held those racist views at the time. And then you have to remember, his version of the KKK disbanded. Another group formed later and adopted the name. I don't think it fair he inherit that guilt. He carries the blame for his own sins committed during his life, but he shouldn't be blamed for sins committed by others, even if somewhat in his name. He did what he could to change.
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I realize the group would have formed without him, but he did play a huge role in its formation. And it was a racist violent group from the outset. The 20th century revival simply expanded their hate to other groups.
 
#330
#330
Kingston Vol said:
I'm not sure if I agree about Founding Fathers - at least not all of them. Washington, for example, was not an intellectual and he carried that insecurity with him throughout his life. It helped him govern.

I think most of our issue today regarding our elected leaders is that they (and we) have all grown up as the world's preeminent superpower and #1 on the global stage. I think there is something to be said for struggle molding our leaders (and populace) beforehand.
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There have been multiple studies into the vocabulary and grammatical education level of Presidents. We've been on a very steady decline since the 60s with our last President speaking at below a 5th Grade level:

flesch-scale-trump-use-this.webp


Meanwhile, here is the opening of George Washington's Farewell Address:

AMONG the vicissitudes incident to life no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the 14th day of the present month. On the one hand, I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and, in my flattering hopes, with an immutable decision, as the asylum of my declining years—a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary as well as more dear to me by the addition of habit to inclination, and of frequent interruptions in my health to the gradual waste committed on it by time.
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#331
#331
ClearwaterVol said:
I realize the group would have formed without him, but he did play a huge role in its formation. And it was a racist violent group from the outset. The 20th century revival simply expanded their hate to other groups.
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In all actuality, the group did form without him. NBF was not a founding member and was brought in after their numbers had begun to grow. He WAS the first Grand Wizard. He was brought in to lead. But, people also forget he ordered the disbanding of the first Klan.
 
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#332
#332
agent|orange said:
There have been multiple studies into the vocabulary and grammatical education level of Presidents. We've been on a very steady decline since the 60s with our last President speaking at below a 5th Grade level.

Meanwhile, here is the opening of George Washington's Farewell Address:
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As a country, we've moved away from that type of speaking. It's not limited to Presidents. We've moved away from eloquence, and toward directness, straightforward-ness, over the decades.
 
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#334
#334
Weezer said:
As a country, we've moved away from that type of speaking. It's not limited to Presidents. We've moved away from eloquence, and toward directness, straightforward-ness, over the decades.
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No, we have become less educated as a nation. The reason people no longer speak that way is because they can't
 
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#336
#336
landscapingvol said:
No, we have become less educated as a nation. The reason people no longer speak that way is because they can't
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I actually don't disagree that we've become less educated as a nation. Hell, I think some posters on here prove that. But I disagree on the evolution of how we speak. People who who speak so eloquently and descriptive today tend to get labeled as "long-winded". Yet you can find that language in some writings. Maybe it ties in with how we've become a culture always in a rush over time?
 
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#338
#338
Weezer said:
I actually don't disagree that we've become less educated as a nation. Hell, I think some posters on here prove that. But I disagree on the evolution of how we speak. People who who speak so eloquently and descriptive today tend to get labeled as "long-winded". Yet you can find that language in some writings. Maybe it ties in with how we've become a culture always in a rush over time?
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Speech has definitely changed over time, absolutely. The degradation of our vocabulary has simply gone hand-in-hand with the degradation of everything else in this country over the last 60 years.
 
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#341
#341
It has
agent|orange said:
Speech has definitely changed over time, absolutely. The degradation of our vocabulary has simply gone hand-in-hand with the degradation of everything else in this country over the last 60 years.
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And the degradation has certainly increased it's downward slope in the last 20 years.
 
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#343
#343
Weezer said:
As a country, we've moved away from that type of speaking. It's not limited to Presidents. We've moved away from eloquence, and toward directness, straightforward-ness, over the decades.
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And I have to agree with this as well. The language style from the 18th and early 19th century is gone. It is humorous, but after reading Alexander Dumas' "Three Musketeers," I found myself speaking with more linguistic flourishes than normal, for the immediate period following the completion of the tome.

It is a pity that.
 
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#345
#345
GroverCleveland said:
It has


And the degradation has certainly increased it's downward slope in the last 20 years.
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I would absolutely agree with that. My mom was an educator and guidance counselor in the 80s and has iterated that the decline was well set-in during her time teaching in Nashville. She grew up in a po-dunk dirt poor Appalachian town and remembered having tougher tests and a better overall education than at her Nashville-area school.

My mom cited the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" of 1965 as the start of it. When she taught around 20 years after going through grade school herself, she couldn't recognize it. And this was in the 80s.
 
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#347
#347
Franklin Pierce said:
Long Live The Memory of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
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The one true tactical genius that came out of the War Between the States.

And courage ran strong the family line. His great-Grandson, Nathan B Forrest III was the first American general officer killed in WWII. Flying a bomber mission in a B17, he stayed at the controls of his plane in order to give his crew time to bail out, winning the DSC.
 
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#348
#348
agent|orange said:
I would absolutely agree with that. My mom was an educator and guidance counselor in the 80s and has iterated that the decline was well set-in during her time teaching in Nashville. She grew up in a po-dunk dirt poor Appalachian town and remembered having tougher tests and a better overall education than at her Nashville-area school.

My mom cited the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" of 1965 as the start of it. When she taught around 20 years after going through grade school herself, she couldn't recognize it. And this was in the 80s.
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A lot of leniency in our schools/colleges. "Can I have an extension?" was a popular request for a project deadline when I was at USC. And... I don't remember seeing any of those requests denied :oops::oops:
 
#349
#349
agent|orange said:
I would absolutely agree with that. My mom was an educator and guidance counselor in the 80s and has iterated that the decline was well set-in during her time teaching in Nashville. She grew up in a po-dunk dirt poor Appalachian town and remembered having tougher tests and a better overall education than at her Nashville-area school.

My mom cited the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" of 1965 as the start of it. When she taught around 20 years after going through grade school herself, she couldn't recognize it. And this was in the 80s.
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Well, she has not seen anything yet. What is about to happen in the name of "equity" to public education is going to make the last 35 years look like a Renaissance.

And will only serve to increase the differences between the Haves (who will go to private schools) and Have Nots (government indoctrination schools)
 
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#350
#350
The US Department of Education, started by the renowned moron Jimmy Carter, is a fantastic example of a Federal version of a proverbial Mongolian Cluster....
 
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