谁是美国历史上最好的总统?（三）

Curtis R. Emma
Who was the greatest US president?
Historians pretty much unanimously consider Lincoln to be the greatest president for his ability to calculate his every action to unite a fragmented unx government, and ultimately the country as a whole. While emancipation was a distant secondary obxtive, Lincoln realized that it gave a higher purpose to what was initially considered to be a “white man's war". He struggled to deal with ineffective general staff and eventually recognized/promoted Grant and Sherman who were openly disdained and underestimated by others, yet instrumental in ending the bloodshed. Furthermore, he set a plan for reconstruction that would unite instead of punish the south for their transgressions. Unfortunately his assassination resulted in a series of ineffective leaders who twisted reconstruction into a profit motive, setting the tone for another hundred years of southern poverty and discrimination that arguably might have been avoided.
FDR is usually ranked as the second best president. His social programs gave the country hope during the depression, and he sexted some of the most brilliant military leadership that led to a successful two front war all while manipulating a fiercely isolationist population to support the Allied war effort. His lend-lease policy provided much needed industrial and financial support to the British and Soviet unx during the darkest days of their war effort.

谁是美国最伟大的总统?
历史学家几乎一致认为林肯是最伟大的总统，因为他有能力计算他的每一个行动，以统一一个分裂的联邦政府，并最终统一整个国家。虽然解放奴隶是一个遥远的次要目标，林肯意识到，它赋予了最初被认为是“白人战争”的更高目标”。他努力与效率低下的总参谋部打交道，最终认可/提拔了格兰特和谢尔曼，他们被其他人公开蔑视和低估，但他们在结束流血冲突方面发挥了重要作用。此外，他还制定了一个重建计划，该计划将统一而不是惩罚南方的违法行为。不幸的是，他的遇刺导致了一系列无效的领导人，这些人将重建扭曲成盈利动机，为南方又一个百年的贫困和歧视奠定了基调，而这些本来是可以避免的。
罗斯福通常被列为第二好的总统。他的社会计划在大萧条时期给这个国家带来了希望，他挑选了一些最杰出的军事领导人，在操纵极度孤立主义的民众支持盟军战争的同时，成功地发动了两线战争。他的租借政策为英国和苏联在战争最黑暗的日子里提供了急需的工业和财政支持。

I would argue that Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower should share 3rd place. Teddy had his faults as a bloody warmonger but he was undoubtedly brilliant and instrumental in placing the U.S. as a serious world power after a long succession of ineffective and corrupt presidential administrations. His championing of National Parks prevented the destruction of our greatest treasure. Panama Canal, etc.
Eisenhower is responsible for the construction of our interstate highway system, along with educational and scientific reform that ultimately kept us ahead of the Soviet unx in missile technology. Carefully balancing a policy of restraint that prevented Russia from seizing western Berlin while overseeing the reconstruction of western Europe. He helped to silence policy makers who wanted Germany reduced to an agrarian shadow of a civilization, recognizing that a strong and friendly Germany would be an essential barrier to Soviet aggression in Europe, necessary to maintain the future balance of power. Finally, he was wise enough to warn us of the dangers of the military industrial complex (which we then ignored to our own detriment, leading to our currently dysfunctional approaches to education and healthcare)

我认为泰迪·罗斯福和艾森豪威尔应该并列第三。泰迪·罗斯福作为战争贩子也有他的缺点，但在经历了一系列低效和腐败的总统政府之后，他无疑是杰出的，在将美国打造成一个重要的世界大国方面发挥了重要作用。他对国家公园的支持阻止了我们最宝贵的财富（巴拿马运河等）遭到破坏。
艾森豪威尔负责建设州际高速公路系统，以及教育和科学改革，最终使我们在导弹技术方面领先于苏联。在监督西欧重建的同时，他小心翼翼地平衡了一种克制政策，这种政策阻止了俄罗斯夺取西柏林。他帮助压制了那些希望德国沦为大不如前的农耕文明的政策制定者，他们认识到，一个强大友好的德国将是苏联侵略欧洲的重要障碍，是维持未来力量平衡所必需的。最后，他足够明智地警告我们军工复合体的危险（我们后来忽视了这一点，对自己造成了损害，导致了我们目前在教育和医疗方面的功能失调)。

4th place goes to Washington for refusing a crown, instituting civilian executive leadership and setting precedent for a limited 2 term presidency. He was arguably the noblest of our presidents, placing his duty to country above self-interest when he had the public support to easily become a despot. He warned against the dangers of a two party system, but unfortunately could not prevent the rift that Adams and Jefferson would create.
Although Adams was very unpopular as a president, his administration has been more favorably reuated in recent years. He was forced into signing the Alien and Sedition act to prevent a war with France that would have undoubtedly destroyed our new nation. He was most responsible for convincing the continental congress to unite against the British, championing Washington to lead the military, and recognizing the talent of Jefferson to draft the Declaration of Independence (with some important input from Franklin).

排在第四位的是华盛顿，因为它拒绝加冕，建立了文职行政领导，并开创了有限的两届总统任期的先例。他可以说是我们总统中最高尚的，当他得到公众的支持，很容易成为一个暴君时，他将对国家的责任置于个人利益之上。他警告两党制的危险，但不幸的是，他无法阻止亚当斯和杰斐逊将造成的分歧。
虽然亚当斯作为总统非常不受欢迎，但近年来，人们对他的评价有所好转。他被迫签署了《外国人和煽动叛乱法》，以防止与法国的战争，这场战争无疑会摧毁我们的新国家。他主要负责说服大陆会议联合起来对抗英国，支持华盛顿领导军队，并认可杰斐逊起草《独立宣言》的才能(富兰克林也提供了一些重要的意见)。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Jefferson was ultimately successful in tarnishing his reputation and limiting him to a single term. Yet despite Jefferson's unparalleled intelligence as a polymath and diplomat, it is hard to dismiss his moral hypocrisy as the man who wrote a lot of pretty words about human equality while profiting from slavery financially . At least Washington had the decency to eventually free his slaves and Adams was an abolitionist. The Adams-Jefferson correspondence in their waning years stand as some of the most insightful meditations on government philosophy since Plato.
For these reasons, I would rank Madison as a better president for his central role in authoring our final constitution and his leadership during the War of 1812.

杰斐逊最终成功地玷污了他的声誉，并将他限制在一个任期内。然而，尽管杰斐逊作为一名博学者和外交家有着无与伦比的智慧，但很难忽视他道德上的虚伪，因为他写了很多关于人类平等的漂亮话，同时从奴隶制中获利。至少华盛顿最终解放了他的奴隶，而亚当斯是一个废奴主义者。亚当斯和杰斐逊晚年的书信是自柏拉图以来对政府哲学最深刻的思考。
基于这些原因，我认为麦迪逊作为总统更好一些，因为他在起草最终宪法和领导1812年战争中发挥了核心作用。

Lincoln
F.D.R.
Eisenhower
T. Roosevelt
Washington
Madison
John Adams
Jefferson
Wilson. Incredibly intelligent. Lied about keeping us out of the war but it was the right choice, as the war would have dragged on for a decade. If he was given more respect during peace negotiations we may have prevented WW2.
Coolidge. Coolidge deserves respect for restoring public confidence following the unprecedented scandals of the Harding administration, and being the first 20th century president to champion black civil rights. No small task considering he inherited the most corrupt cabinet in history.

林肯
富兰克林·德拉诺·罗斯福
艾森豪威尔
西奥多·罗斯福
华盛顿
麦迪逊
约翰·亚当斯
杰斐逊
威尔逊：难以置信的聪明。谎称不让我们参战但那是正确的选择，因为战争会拖上十年。如果他在和平谈判中得到更多的尊重，我们可能已经阻止了第二次世界大战。
约翰·卡尔文·柯立芝：柯立芝在哈丁政府前所未有的丑闻后恢复了公众的信心，是20世纪第一位支持黑人民权的总统，值得尊敬。考虑到他继承了历史上最腐败的内阁，这是一项艰巨的任务。
原创翻译：龙腾网 https://www.ltaaa.cn 转载请注明出处

Truman. He was effective in overseeing post-war occupation, and he prevented the use of nuclear weapons against China during the Korean War. It would have been a horrific miscalculation.
Reagan (He accelerated Soviet collapse by scaring the shit out of them and forcing them to try and keep up with defense spending they could not afford. On the other hand he arguably brought us closer to nuclear war than Kennedy, he pursued an evil war backing the Contras with drug money. Worst of all, his racist drug war resulted in a permanent underclass and incarcerated more citizens than any other country while throwing away billions to the DEA who have failed in every measurable way to prevent drug addiction. I have the most mixed feelings about his administration out of any. His relatively high ranking says more about the failures of other presidents than his own triumphs. He made the world safer and made us the most powerful civilization in history, yet created social injustice that will likely persist for many decades to come.)

杜鲁门：他有效地监督了战后的占领，并在朝鲜战争期间阻止了对中国使用核武器，这将是一个可怕的误判。
里根：他把苏联人吓得屁滚尿流，迫使他们努力跟上他们负担不起的国防开支，从而加速了苏联的崩溃。另一方面，他可以说比肯尼迪让我们更接近核战争，他发动了一场邪恶的战争，用贩毒的钱支持反政府武装。最糟糕的是，他的种族主义毒品战争导致了一个永恒的下层阶级，监禁的公民比其他任何人都多。）同时向缉毒局投入了数十亿美元，缉毒局在预防吸毒成瘾的每一个可衡量的方面都失败了。我对他的政府的感情是最复杂的。他相对较高的排名更多地说明了其他总统的失败，而不能说明他自己是成功的。他让世界变得更安全，让我们成为历史上最强大的文明，但也创造了可能在未来几十年持续存在的社会不公。

Tie between Johnson and Obama. Lyndon Johnson’s civil rights and social reforms like medicaid took a lot of political acumen, but his escalation of the Vietnam War resulted in the unnecessary deaths of millions and cemented a serious cultural divide. He was dealt a seriously bad hand to be fair…
Obama likewise deserves accolades for federally legalizing marriage equality, negotiating an effective halt to Iran's nuclear weapons program, normalizing relations with Cuba and attempting healthcare reform. His economic reforms were more effective than he is credited for.

约翰逊和奥巴马势均力敌。林登·约翰逊的民权和社会改革，如医疗保险，需要大量的政治智慧，但他让越南战争升级的做法导致了无数人不必要的死亡，并巩固了严重的文化鸿沟。说句公道话，他输得很惨。
同样值得赞扬的是，奥巴马在联邦范围内将婚姻平等合法化，通过谈判有效地制止伊朗的核武器计划，使与古巴的关系正常化，并尝试进行医疗改革。他的经济改革比人们所认为的更有效。

However, his healthcare policy was ineffectively implemented. Excluding pre-existing conditions and extending coverage to age 26 were great, but ultimately resulted in marketplace plans that cost a fortune for only catastrophic coverage and insane deductibles. He hypocritically refrained from any significant drug policy reform allowing citizens to continue to be incarcerated for personal use that he himself admitted to. He set bad precedent with the use of drone strikes and his weak stance on Russian aggression in Syria and Ukraine along with continuation of ineffective North Korean policy has put us in a precarious position. His endorsement of an incompetent and unlikable democratic candidate in 2016 and empowerment of Russian interference resulted in the election of a corrupt, mentally ill narcissist who will likely go down as the most ludicrous and disastrous administration since Harding, if not Pierce.

然而，他的医疗保健政策没有得到有效实施。排除预先存在的疾病并将保险范围扩大到26岁的做法非常棒，但最终导致市场计划只为灾难性保险和疯狂的免赔额花费了一大笔钱。他虚伪地避免进行任何重大的毒品政策改革，允许公民继续因个人使用而被监禁，他自己也承认了这一点。他在使用无人机袭击方面开了一个不好的先例，他在俄罗斯入侵叙利亚和乌克兰问题上的软弱立场，以及继续推行无效的朝鲜政策，使我们处于危险的境地。他在2016年支持了一位不称职、不讨人喜欢的民主党候选人，并授权俄罗斯进行干预，结果导致了一个腐败、患有精神疾病的自恋者当选，他很可能成为自哈丁(如果不是皮尔斯)以来最荒唐、最灾难性的政府。

As stands, I agree with most historians in ranking Franklin Pierce as the worst U.S. president. His ineffective administration and southern sympathies accelerated the root cause of the Civil War, which almost destroyed the U.S., killed more Americans than WW2, and created a scar that remains to this day. Andrew Johnson is a close second for screwing up reconstruction and Buchanan is often ranked the worst for failing to prevent the Civil War (though I'd argue it may have been too late by the time he was elected.)

就目前情况来看，我同意大多数历史学家将富兰克林·皮尔斯列为最糟糕的美国总统。他无能的政府和对南方的同情加速了内战的根源，这场战争几乎摧毁了美国，杀死的美国人比第二次世界大战还多，并留下了至今仍然存在的伤疤。安德鲁·约翰逊(Andrew Johnson)紧随其后，因为他搞砸了重建工作，布坎南(Buchanan)经常因为未能阻止内战而被评为最糟糕的(尽管我认为他当选时可能已经太晚了)。

While historians often agree on the top 10 and bottom 10 presidents, rankings jump every few years based on current political climate. Ultimately, there are so many presidents that are hard to judge due to either incomplete terms (Taylor, Garfield, Kennedy), political disasters inherited, or a really bipolar track record. For example, how can one really assess someone like Nixon, who possessed incredible political brilliance and accomplished monumental things like restoring Chinese relations, but was also morally corrupt and personally unlikable?

虽然历史学家通常会对排名前10位和排名后10位的总统达成一致，但根据当前的政治气候，排名每隔几年就会有所上升。最终，有太多的总统由于任期不完整而难以判断（泰勒、加菲尔德、肯尼迪），要么是继承了政治灾难，或者是两极的记录。例如，人们如何能真正评价像尼克松这样的人呢？他拥有令人难以置信的政治才华，完成了不朽的事业，比如恢复与中国的关系；但他道德败坏，个人也不讨人喜欢。

No
Who is or was the greatest President of the United States?
My votes:
George Washington: for the simple reason that the presidency was created specifically with him in mind and every single thing he did in Office created precedents that lasted for decades, if not centuries. The two term limit, for example, lasted until 1940 without serious challenge and even then only on the eve of world war.
Abraham Lincoln: he saved the unx. Period. Without him, the United States would not exist as a unified nation. He also expiated America’s original sin, slavery.
Franklin D. Roosevelt: saved America twice, firstly from economic collapse and secondly from fascism. Also saved the world from fascism. Without him, it’s not at all certain American democracy would’ve survived the Great Depression and it’s certain the world wouldn’t have survived fascism.
Theodore Roosevelt: created the modern activist presidency after decades of torpor during the 19th Century and established America as a global power. Laid the groundwork for the modern regulatory state and helped end the age of the Robber Barons.
Harry Truman: saved Europe from either a return to fascism or total domination by Stalin with the Marshall Plan. Decisively ended World War 2. Managed the difficult transition to peacetime. Laid the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement by ending the shameful racist segregation of US armed forces.

谁是或曾经是美国最伟大的总统？
我的投票：
乔治·华盛顿：原因很简单，总统职位是专门为他而设的，他在任期内所做的每一件事都创造了持续数十年甚至数百年的先例。例如，任期两届的限制一直持续到1940年，没有受到严重挑战，即使在那时，也只是因为当时是世界大战前夕。
亚伯拉罕·林肯：他拯救了联邦。当时若没有他，美国就不会作为一个统一的国家而存在。他还为美国的原罪——奴隶制赎罪。
富兰克林罗斯福：拯救了美国两次，第一次是经济崩溃，第二次是法西斯主义。也从法西斯主义手中拯救了世界。如果没有他，美国民主是否能在大萧条中幸存下来是不确定的，而世界也肯定不会在法西斯主义中幸存下来。
西奥多·罗斯福（Theodore Roosevelt）：在经历了19世纪数十年的沉寂之后，他创立了现代激进主义总统制度，并使美国成为全球大国。为现代监管国家奠定了基础，并帮助结束了富豪掠夺者的时代。
哈里·杜鲁门：用马歇尔计划拯救了欧洲，使其免于法西斯主义的回归或斯大林的全面统治。决定性地结束了第二次世界大战，成功过渡到和平时期。通过结束美国军队可耻的种族隔离，为民权运动奠定了基础。

Kaiser Kuo
Who in your opinion was the greatest American who ever lived? Why?
I’m going to go with Benjamin Franklin. He embodies so much of what is best in Americans: that restless energy, that boundless curiosity, that expansive intellectual breadth, that irreverent wit, that noble vision. He was at once folksy and erudite, humorous and deadly serious of purpose. As one of the architects of a brilliant political system that was the institutional expression of the values of the Enlightenment, we owe him a tremendous debt. A debt, too, is owed Walter Isaacson for that terrifically readable biography of Franklin that cemented for me his place as primus inter pares in a pantheon of great Americans.

你认为谁是有史以来最伟大的美国人？为什么？
我选本杰明·富兰克林。他体现了美国人身上很多最优秀的品质:永不停歇的活力、无限的好奇心、广博的知识广度、不卑不亢的智慧和崇高的远见。他既随和又博学，既幽默又严肃。作为杰出政治体系的缔造者之一，这一体系体现了启蒙运动的价值观，我们欠他一大笔人情。沃尔特·艾萨克森(Walter Isaacson)为富兰克林撰写的那本极具可读性的传记，也让我对他有了一份感激之情。这本传记为我奠定了富兰克林在伟大的美国人的万神殿中的首要角色地位。

Jay Valenci
Which president had the greatest positive impact on America?
I'm a fan boy of FDR. He invented the concept of the social safety net that buffers us against hard times to this day. Unemployment insurance makes losing your job a little less catastrophic. Social Security has made a comfortable retirement possible for millions of seniors. The FDIC protects your savings in the bank.

哪位总统对美国的积极影响最大?
我是罗斯福的粉丝。他发明了社会保障网的概念，使我们在困难时期得以缓冲，直到今天。失业保险使你在失去工作面临的灾难程度更小社会保障使无数老年人过上舒适的退休生活成为可能；联邦存款保险公司保护你在银行的存款。