Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
James Poulos, Ed. ·
Aug 14, 2010 at 1:29pm
So there's a list going around of the 20 Worst Americans as judged by 43 bloggers. NR's Jim Geraghty pokes a bunch of big holes in the list's inclusions and omissions --
I don’t think it’s healthy to mix the categories of “people who bug me” and “history’s greatest monsters.” Even if the Simpsons did put Jimmy Carter atop that list first.
-- and to that I give a big cosign. But rather than haggling over America's Most Horrendous, it'd be more fun to crowdsource a top 20 list of best Americans. Wouldn't it? And who better to ask than Ricochet members?
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Comments :
Aug '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
There are so many... From a "what makes American Freedom Special" perspective, I'd include several Founders, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Coolidge, Reagan... really just in this category there's a lot to choose from.
But we've had great inventors, great businessmen, great scientist, great philanthropists, and great artists, too...
There's so much to choose from.
Are we looking for greatness in any category? Or is it more "men/women who have made America a special place"?
And are they people who are still living, or does it include all of American history?
Jun '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
In the sports category I'll go with Cal Ripken Jr. Best pundit (or blogger?) would have to be Victor Davis Hanson. Best celebrity: Sarah Palin (given that she doesn't have any sort of official role at the moment). Best governor without question would be Chris Christie. Well, there's a start.
Aug '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
If inventors are on the list, there's not only Thomas Edison with his light bulb, but Jacob Perkins with the first in-home refrigerator. Maybe refrigerators aren't something we first think of as "great inventions", but they sure have improved food safety and convenience.
I'm sure dozens of other inventors have done similar things. (Where did the modern American toilet come from, and aren't we glad we have it?)
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
If we're restricted to those now living, it's gonna be a pretty short list.
Washington, Adams, Madison, Jefferson, Hamilton, Franklin. Nathan Hale. The American soldier. Milton Friedman, William F. Buckley. Ronald Reagan. John Dos Passos. Thomas Edison. William Morton (inventor of anasthesia). Clara Barton.
I just naturalized Hayek, Von Mieses and Margaret Thatcher.
Oh...and whoever invented the bull terrier.
Jun '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
In no particular order whatsoever, here's a few that jump to mind, given lack of definition of what constitutes "best":
Various Founding Fathers; Abraham Lincoln; Ronald Reagan; Ben Franklin; Henry Ford; Jonas Salk; Alexander Graham Bell; George M. Cohan; Walt Disney; Martin Luther King; Susan B. Anthony; Elizabeth Stanton; Clara Barton; Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager.
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Back in the '80's and '90's, I used to do a lot of campus recruiting. One question I asked of every soon-to-be graduate was, "Name one person, in all of human history, that you most admire." The answers would make you weep: "Madonna"; "Magic Johnson"; "John Lennon". I don't recall anyone every naming a Founding Father, though this 95%-white group did often name Martin Luther King or Harriet Taubman.
Early on in an interview of a lovely young lady, I asked the question. Without skipping a beat, she answered, "Winston Churchill".
"When," I responded, "can you start?"
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Jim Chase: In no particular order whatsoever, here's a few that jump to mind, given lack of definition of what constitutes "best":
Various Founding Fathers; Abraham Lincoln; Ronald Reagan; Ben Franklin; Henry Ford; Jonas Salk; Alexander Graham Bell; George M. Cohan; Walt Disney; Martin Luther King; Susan B. Anthony; Elizabeth Stanton; Clara Barton; Charles Lindbergh, Chuck Yeager. · Aug 14 at 2:15pm
I'm sorry, I know he had already passed from the scene, but I just can't forgive Walt Disney for Miley Cyrus.
Jun '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Kenneth
I'm sorry, I know he had already passed from the scene, but I just can't forgive Walt Disney for Miley Cyrus. · Aug 14 at 2:34pm
That's funny. I'd suggest redirecting any animus you may have for Cyrus, Spears, et. al. at Michael Eisner. That's what I do.
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
All time greatness, MFR. The USA all-star team, including all of American history.
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Silent Cal Coolidge!
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
I've got a soft spot for George Rogers Clark and the other frontiersmen who helped open up the West.
May '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Other than the "compassionate" part, George W Bush.
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Other than the compassionate part. Other than signing McCain-Feingold while saying he knew it was unconstitutional. Other than caving on a $700 billion expansion of an already bankrupt entitlement program. Other than squandering lives and treasure in Iraq when the real danger was - and is - lran. Other than cozying up to Ted Kennedy on education "reform". Other than reminding us, endlessly, that Islam is a religion of peace. Other than standing silently by while his idiot Secretary of Transportation instituted airline "safety" policies that frisk 90 year old grandmothers while letting underpants bombers skip right on board. Other than appointing mediocre affirmative-action candidates to Attorney General and Secretary of State. Other than nominating Harriet Myers to SCOTUS. Other than engaging in an orgy of spending.
Sorry to sound like a troll, but Bush 43 was a disaster.
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
My favorite Americans in no particular order....
Andrew Carnegie, George Washington, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harry Truman, John D. Rockefeller, George Patton, U.S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Ben Franklin, Thomas Edison, Harriet Beecher Stowe, George Kennan.
Aug '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Weird question: Abraham Lincoln wasn't around during the founding of our country, but he completed a founding project that had to be left undone at the time of the founding. So can he be counted as a Founding Father, too? Or is that just weird?
Either way, I'd count Honest Abe as one of the top 20.
James Madison has to count, for being the "father of the Constitution" and an author of the Federalist Papers (which explain so much of the Constitution), and for the Bill of Rights (though Hamilton's objection to the Bill of Rights -- that by codifying some rights explicitly, we give the government opportunity to ignore rights not explicitly stated -- seems especially prescient today).
What about Hamilton? I haven't figured him out yet...
Jun '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Thomas Sowell (he just turned 80, and is a national treasure). His Conflict of Visions helps explain the difference between the left and the right better than anything I've ever read.
Winston Churchill (20th century's best statesman and his American mother makes him American enough for me).
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Midget Faded Rattlesnake: Weird question: Abraham Lincoln wasn't around during the founding of our country, but he completed a founding project that had to be left undone at the time of the founding. So can he be counted as a Founding Father, too? Or is that just weird?
Either way, I'd count Honest Abe as one of the top 20.
James Madison has to count, for being the "father of the Constitution" and an author of the Federalist Papers (which explain so much of the Constitution), and for the Bill of Rights (though Hamilton's objection to the Bill of Rights -- that by codifying some rights explicitly, we give the government opportunity to ignore rights not explicitly stated -- seems especially prescient today).
What about Hamilton? I haven't figured him out yet... · Aug 14 at 5:33pm
Before you put "Honest Abe" in the top 20, try reading Thomas DiLorenzo's "The Real Abraham Lincoln". Lincoln destroyed Federalism, imprisoned scores of polticial opponents without habeus corpus, shuttered hundreds of dissenting newspapers and raised an illegal army to wage total war on citizens who wished nothing more than to withdraw from the Union.
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Nothing more? Really? They didn't want to, you know, maybe keep a few million of their fellow human beings in slavery?
Lincoln doesn't belong in the top 20. He belongs in the top 2.
Aug '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Kenneth, I'm aware Abraham Lincoln didn't achieve the abolition of slavery via immaculate means, that in the process Federalism took a huge hit and "During the Civil War, Lincoln appropriated powers no previous President had wielded: he used his war powers to proclaim a blockade, suspended the writ of habeas corpus, spent money without congressional authorization, and imprisoned 18,000 suspected Confederate sympathizers without trial." Those weren't good things. But even without justifying the means by the end, I think Abraham Lincoln achieved a great American goal in a nearly impossible situation: in ending slavery, he accomplished something the Founders wished for, but knew was impossible during their own time.
What is the price of a nation where men are no longer slaves?
Jul '10
Re: Who Are the 20 Best Americans?
Peter Christofferson
Nothing more? Really? They didn't want to, you know, maybe keep a few million of their fellow human beings in slavery?
Lincoln doesn't belong in the top 20. He belongs in the top 2. · Aug 14 at 6:01pm
Secession wasn't about slavery. It was about states' rights. Next time you feel enraged about being ruled by legislators from the blue states, you might think about that.
I don't expect many people to agree that Lincoln was a demagogue and a tyrant: history, as they say, is written by the victors. But you might at least try to read DiLorenzo's book for a different viewpoint.