CatholicVote’s Picks for Best US President of All Time
The United States of America is celebrating 247 years of independence, and it’s time to look back and decide a very important question: Who was the greatest US president?
From George Washington to Joe Biden and the 44 men in between, which one was the “POTUS with the mostest”?
We polled CatholicVote employees and found some surprising answers!
President George Washington
The first, and according to some, best, George Washington took the reins as our general in the Revolution, and then again as our first president. T Pogasic and C Hall both chose Washington as their winner.
“Aside from being a great general he was a big-brained, humble king who would have made a FANTASTIC Catholic,” Hall said. “Early on in his life, he worked hard to tame his choleric nature into one of virtue and temperance, which I really admire. And, obviously, he’s the father of our nation and an adoptive father.”
President Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge, in the opinions of A Iafrate and B Burch, was the greatest president of all time.
“Nobody else in American history more perfectly personified the phrase ‘less is more,’” Iafrate stated. “He presided over the ‘Roaring Twenties,’ a period of profound American prosperity that only ended because his successors failed to continue his sound economic policies.”
Known as the “Great Refrainer,” Silent Cal had the courage to take a step back and let the people live their lives in peace. He was one of the first to believe that government often is the problem, NOT the solution — a line of thinking which undoubtedly influenced many great conservative leaders that followed him, such as President Ronald Reagan.
President Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt
T Pogasic calls him “Bronze Age Masculinity incarnate,” and others at CatholicVote agree.
Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He expanded the National Parks, won the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the Russo-Japanese War, reached a Gentleman’s Agreement on immigration with Japan, and sent the Great White Fleet on a goodwill tour of the world. One of this president’s favorite phrases was “walk softly and carry a big stick…”
Roosevelt was also our youngest president to date: He was sworn in at the age of 43.
(CatholicVote employees also appreciate his performance in the movie “Night at the Museum.”)
President Abraham Lincoln
J Mercer joined the conversation with his picks, saying that “without Washington, there is no country. Without Lincoln saving the Union, it unravels.”
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president, and hardly needs an introduction. Perhaps one of our most well-spoken presidents, Lincoln made history by successfully getting the country through a civil war that preserved the Union, ended slavery, and created the possibility of civil and social freedom for African-Americans.
His speeches are still relevant today as the divided American people struggle to find common ground. Lincoln famously said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.”
President Ronald Reagan
CatholicVote would be remiss not to mention our first and only Catholic president, beloved of all Catholics and a special favorite of a current CatholicVote intern. (It’s a joke! We know he wasn’t Catholic!)
As our 40th president, Reagan worked to stimulate economic growth, curb inflation, increase employment, and strengthen national defense. He also played a crucial role in the fall of the Iron Curtain, famously proclaiming “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
“Reagan’s leadership won the Cold War,” J Mercer stated. Reagan also “set the ship of American confidence back to where it needed to be.”
Reagan’s Christian faith was his strength, and he spoke freely to the American people about the importance of God. “If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.”
