Left-Wing Bloggers Select The 20 Worst Figures In American History

by John Hawkins | August 12, 2003 1:22 am

I’m sure most of RWN’s readers remember the Bloggers Select The 20 Worst Figures In American History[1] article from last week. Well, that went over so well that I decided to do it again, but with left-wing bloggers making their selections this time.

I ended up asking more than a hundred left-wing bloggers for their choices and 36 responded. All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-20 selections. Also, I made a decision to combine the votes given to the Rosenbergs and Julius Rosenberg into one group since most people put the two of them together. Some people may disagree with that decision, but I thought it was the best way to go.

Well that’s enough about the rules — without further adieu, the worst figures in American history according to left side of the blogosphere are as follows…(Cont)[2]

***Update***: A few things of note…

— Because there were some bloggers complaining about all the contemporary figures on last week’s list, these selections were probably skewed a bit away from those sorts of people (Bush, Cheney, Robertson, etc). A couple of people even mentioned that in the emails they sent me.

— I think some of the min-trends were kind of interesting. Alger Hiss didn’t make the left’s list at all and the Rosenberg’s barely made it. On the flipside, Jefferson Davis, Forrest, & Wallace didn’t make the right’s list.

— I also note that Robert McNamara seems to be taking the fall for LBJ over Vietnam. Given how big of a screw up that was, perhaps even moreso from the left’s perspective than the right, I’d think that someone would have finished higher than #18 for that screw-up, but that’s just me. But then LBJ is my top 5, so I’m biased.

— To me, the weirdest selection by far on either side was Richard Mellon Scaife. I say that because I don’t consider him to be a particularly important figure on the right (although I wouldn’t mind getting some of that moola he supposedly dishes out to right-wing groups he supports). Of course, Scaife sort of fits into that whole “Conservatives have had so much success in the last 20 years because of think tanks & radio stations funded shadowy rich guys” theme that seems to pop-up every so often on the left. On the other hand, maybe some lefties are just more bitter about the Arkansas Project[3] than I thought.

— This was a lot of fun and I will be doing it again — this week as a matter of fact.

***Update #2***: Rex Stetson: Armchair Vigilante[4] (what a great name for a blog) does some more statistical analysis of both lists.

Endnotes:
  1. Bloggers Select The 20 Worst Figures In American History: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/special/worstfigures.php
  2. (Cont): https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/blogsel/leftworst.php
  3. Arkansas Project: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/scaifeside050299.htm
  4. Rex Stetson: Armchair Vigilante: http://rexstetson.blogspot.com/2003_08_10_rexstetson_archive.html#106071608192828355

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