« Surely, Andrew Sullivan Fainted after Reading that Torture Works | Main | Funniest NRO predictions for 2006 »
December 30, 2005
Ten Worst Americans
Alexandra von Maltzan of All Things Beautiful has invited the blogosphere to name the ten worst Americans in American history. The Dodo has accepted the invitation.
Without further ado, the Dodo presents his list of the Ten Worst Americans.
10. John L. Stevens
On January 14, 1893, while serving as an American diplomat, Stevens caused a small, peaceful, sovereign nation to lose its sovereignty. Acting without authority from the U.S. government, Stevens ordered members of the U.S. military to provide back-up for the people who led the coup against that nation’s lawful government. As a result of Stevens’ action, the natives of that nation lost their independence.
Six days later, during his 1893 State of the Union Address, President Grover Cleveland stated that the government of that small nation “had been subverted with the active aid of our representative to that Government and through the intimidation caused by the presence of an armed naval force of the United States, which was landed for that purpose at the instance of our minister.”
President Cleveland went on to say, “Upon the facts developed it seemed to me the only honorable course for our Government to pursue was to undo the wrong that had been done by those representing us and to restore as far as practicable the status existing at the time of our forcible intervention.”
As it turned out, the U.S. government failed to undo the wrong that had been done by Stevens. The nation that lost its sovereignty because of John L. Stevens ended up becoming the 50th state of the USA.
9. Lee Harvey Oswald
Although Oswald didn’t live long enough to be tried for President Kennedy’s assassination, the federal government has convincing evidence that Oswald indeed assassinated President Kennedy. Yet, before the assassination took place, Oswald proved himself to be anti-American when he tried to defect to the USSR. However, Oswald was so bad that not even the USSR wanted him. It has been speculated that Oswald shot President Kenney in order to win the favor of the Soviets.
Normally, killing just one person wouldn’t be enough to warrant inclusion on the “Ten Worst” list. However, by assassinating President Kennedy, Oswald very likely changed the course of American history. Furthermore, he deprived U.S. citizens of the right to have their leader of choice.
8. John Wilkes Booth
Ed Morissey of Captain’s Quarters gives an excellent explanation of why Booth deserves to be among the Ten Worst Americans.
7. Raymond Washington
Washington co-founded of the Crips gang. Click here to discover the result of Washington’s action.
6. William Randolph Hearst
Near the end of the 19th Century, Hearst used yellow journalism to stir up American hatred toward Spain. Hearst sent artist Frederick Remington to the Spanish colony of Cuba to report on an alleged war taking place there. Hearst was hoping that stories about war in Cuba would boost sales of his newspapers.
When Remington sent word to Hearst that there was no war, Hearst sent the following reply: “Please remain. You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war.” In short, Hearst wanted a war to take place because he believed that a war would benefit his newspaper empire.
When the U.S.S. Maine battleship mysteriously exploded while visiting Havana, Hearst quickly used the incident to promote an American war against Spain. In the end, Hearst got the war that he wanted, resulting in the loss of human lives.
5. Timothy McVeigh
This domestic terrorist lit the fuse to a bomb that destroyed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. In doing so, McVeigh killed 168 people – 19 of them small children – and injured hundreds more.
4. John Milton Chivington
As an officer in the U.S. Army officer during the 19th Century, Chivington was responsible for the Sand Creek Massacre, in which Chivington led his men in the slaughter of 200 peaceful Native Americans after those Native Americans signed a peace treaty with the USA.
It is speculated that Chivington’s deed provoked some Native Americans to join the fight against the U.S. Army at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
3. Andrew Jackson
As President, Jackson did everything within his authority to remove Native Americans from their lands.
In 1830 Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which called for the Cherokee Nation to leave its home in Georgia. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against such a forced removal, Jackson took advantage of a treaty signed by a small group of Cherokees who had no authority to sign such a treaty. Jackson sent the treaty to the Senate for ratification, knowing that if the Senate ratified it, then Jackson could carry out his plan to remove the Cherokee Nation from Georgia.
Jackson’s action resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Cherokees as they walked 1,000 miles along the Trail of Tears.
2. Nathan Bedford Forrest
Long before the USA had to battle foreign terrorists, U.S. citizens had to fight a domestic terrorist organization founded by Nathan Bedford Forrest. His terrorist group expanded throughout the southern USA, frightening and and murdering U.S. citizens in order to deny those citizens their civil rights. Forrest named his terrorist organization the Ku Klux Klan.
1. James Warren Jones
As an American minister, Jones founded the religious cult called Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. Jones and members his church moved to the nation of Guyana, where Jones founded a colony called Jonestown.
In November of 1978, U.S. Congressman Leo Ryan led a delgation to Jonestown in order to investigate allegations of human rights abuses taking place there. On November 18th, while Congressman Ryan was boarding a plane to leave, a group of armed men from Jonestown attacked Ryan’s delegation, killing Ryan and 4 other people.
Later that same day, Jones ordered the mass killing of Jonestown’s 900+ residents, including the colony’s 276 children. The killings were done either by suicide or by murder. Jones was among the suicide victims.
Posted by Dodo David at December 30, 2005 01:00 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.lifelikepundits.com/cgi-bin/mt3/mt-tb.cgi/1981