Quote:So FDR gets a free pass because he happened to live during a time with History's, perhaps, worst villain?


Nevermind that putting citizens in internment camps, no matter how you look at it is worse than spying on them.  

 

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It's a period of history that we like to gloss over.  It's sad but true.  It happens in every country -- historical revisionism.  It's worse in some countries.  I was lucky enough to be in a history class that actually went over it.  And my wife, as a history teacher, makes sure to go over it with her US History students.  Because it's important to know -- so we don't repeat the mistakes of the past. 

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Without condoning the internment of U.S. citizens, you cannot discount the times in which it occurred. Given your criteria and ignoring what was going on at that time, the list of top 5 U.S. presidents would start with Washington, and include Jefferson, for not insisting that slavery be abolished. How could the immorality of that practice escape one of the greatest minds in history? Jefferson not only owned slaves, he used his position of authority and dominion to make a slave his concubine.  I'd say 400 years of kidnapping and enslaving people trumps just about anything else. Andrew Jackson committed genocide.

 

When you make a list like that, you have many candidates for number 1.

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