I thought this a brilliant challenge, one ripe with possibilities. Be sure to Check out the Post at All Things Beautiful which has lots of links to various people's list. I have decided to take the challenge myself.
10. The Current New York Times Editorial Board. In the past, the name New York Times was synonymous with quality journalism, with great reporting that could be relied upon for its factual accuracy. That time, when the paper earned the title, the Paper of Record, has long disappeared. In an age when sensationalism sells and the 24-Hour news cycle, the New York Times has sold out, trying to remain the paper of record by trying to scoop every news story, it efforts have resulted in the paper becoming little more than a nationwide tabloid, full of half-truths, innuendo and unsubstantiated rumor. This list of factual errors is too long to document and its credibility may never be recovered.
9. Chief Justice Earl Warren. Now the Warren Court did a lot of great things for America, including helping end Jim Crow. But the Warren Court did something as a matter of practice that we as a nation are paying for now--they legitmized the process of legislating from the bench. Today we pay the price by the bitter Supreme Court nomination hearings we must endure, the charges and counter-charges of "judicial activism" and vitrolic debates about what a Supreme Court nominee did or has done in the past and how that will affect their future rulings. The tragedy of the Warren Court is that despite all the good they did, their legacy is marked by how we treat and view the the court system today, not as an impartial arbiter of last resort, but the first place to go when you don't get your way and you are too lazy to lobby the legislature.
8. Justice Billings Brown--None other than the author of the Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court opinion. Interestingly, the opinion itself is quite short and does not contain the phrase "separate but equal. In discussing the purpose of the 14th Amendment, Brown wrote:
The object of the amendment was undoubtedly to enforce the absolute equality of the two races before the law, but in the nature of things it could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon terms unsatisfactory to either. Laws permitting, and even requiring, their separation in places where they are liable to be brought into contact do not necessarily imply the inferiority of either race to the other, and have been generally, if not universally, recognized as within the competency of the state legislatures in the exercise of their police power.
The Plessy decision set race relations in this country back 40 years and paved the rocky road to race relations today.
7. John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln's assassin lead to the ascension of Andrew Johnson to the Presidency, which led to the first impeachment of a president and, oh, yeah a radical Reconstruction which damaged sectional politics to this day. Had Lincoln survived to complete his second term, he may nor may not have succeeded in healing the wounds of the Civil War, but he more than likely, from his stature as the President who led us through the Civil War, been able to control the Radical Reconstructionists, making the transition a little easier.
6. Nathan Bedford Forrest. A Southern Civil War general who was effective if not particularly brilliant in wartime. However, his post-war activites get him on this list. Forrest founded the Ku Klux Klan. Enough said.
5. Jesse Jackson. This "reverend" had made race relations a joke in this country. Jackson's crusade to get American corporations to pay reparations for involvement in the slave trade, an activity that was legal 200 years ago, has cost American's millions of dollars and countless hours listening to his tirades. Jackson's knack for showing up at the most inopportune time to take any event and spin a racial angle makes us sure that we will continue to see his name, despite ourselves.
4. Timothy McVeigh. This monster shattered the heartland and murdered hundreds, including scores of children. A domestic terrorist, whose dispute with the government ended in actions still difficult to comprehend, surely deserves a special place in Hell.
3. Aldrich Ames. This traitor's greed led to the deaths of dozens if not hundreds of American operatives in the USSR. By selling the names of CIA operatives and Russian moles to the KGB, he signed the death warrants of many for a few thousand dollars.
2. John Walker Jr. Another traitor who was by many degrees worse than Ames. Walker sold American cryptological secrets to the Russians, putting the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk had we gone to war with the USSR. But what makes Walker higher on the list is that he recruited his son into his betrayal.
1. Richard Nixon. Nixon's paranoia and penchant for power have led to a situation where the trust in government has been eroded. Watergate led to the era of "gotcha journalism." Nixon's actions in the Pentagon Papers case, his legal troubles following Watergate and the distrust he sowed whereever he went symbolize all that is bad in the American government. His actions led to one of the most profound constitutional crises in our history. The stain on our history is felt today, with distrust of the government, the limitations on political speech and fear. Despite his successes, Nixon will always be remembered as the only President ever to resign in disgrace.
There is my list, thanks.
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