Ranking the Political Leader From Best to Worst
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
To rank the political leaders from best to worst, common grounds of comparison must be established other than heroic. The influence that each of these men had on the nation in terms of leadership, philosophy and political acumen must also be incorporated to accurately rank these individuals and their respective contributions.
As his thoughts transcended over the course of the nation's history, Thomas Jefferson has the right to claim the highest, most excellent ranking of the men in question. Jefferson's belief in "the people", to him the agrarian class and not the urban classes, were the core of the American political system. He believed that the farmers through their rural living were the "wellspring of civic virtue and individual vitality, that farmers are the best social base of a democratic republic". Jefferson's philosophies, rather rightly or wrongly, were influential up to the time of the 1929 Depression. Heroically, Jefferson defended his philosophy against the Hamiltonians who, in essence feared the masses and wanted government to control them, while he took the opposite approach and believed that the people should be protected against the aristocratic classes of his time. Ironically, as the years passed, Jefferson's concept of laissez-faire was adopted, and he was cited by, those very interests which he espoused to have government control. During his time, Jefferson established a political philosophy that was embraced, to one degree or another, from the 1700's on, his intellectual prowess was such that man of this time and the current period acknowledge his acumen and his ability to politically maneuver and inspire leadership can be shown through his acquisition of the Louisiana Purchase. As will be seen, the opening of the new territories ordained Jefferson's most exalted status among American leaders...