On the third anniversary of the rollout of “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” Twitter was abuzz yesterday with voices on the Right condemning it as the worst decision in American history. The DeSantis wing of the Republican Party seemed to delight in rubbing it in Trump’s face. Even the pro-MAGA NY Post journalist Julie Kelly, a regular guest on Steve Bannon’s War Room, chimed in with the following tweet: “3 years ago, one of the worst decisions ever made by a president and an administration was announced to the public.”
But is this fair criticism?
Putting aside a) the lack of federal executive authority to shut down state economies and b) the feasibility of a president defying the CDC during a worldwide pandemic, the characterization of “15 Days to Slow the Spread” as biggest-ever presidential mistake seemed a bit extreme. So I thought it would be interesting to come up with my own list of the Top Ten Biggest Mistakes by U.S. Presidents since 1900.
I thought it would be even more interesting to compare my list, which has an admittedly conservative bias, against an AI generated list courtesy of Chat-GPT (the older free version, not the newer turbo-charged version). It turns out artificial intelligence agreed on four of the biggest mistakes, as you will see.
First, here’s my list, in chronological order.
The Top Ten Biggest Mistakes Made By U.S. President Since 1900
1. Woodrow Wilson signs the Revenue Act of 1913, introducing the federal income tax that remains with us and has grown ever since. For conservatives, big government is the enemy of freedom. This was the beginning of funding the beast that now torments us.
2. Woodrow Wilson takes America into World War I in 1917. Unlike nowadays, he needed a declaration of war from Congress before sending the troops “over there,” but Wilson led the charge. This fateful decision tipped the balance of power in favor of England and France, leading to the punitive Treaty of Versailles and the rise of militant Nazism in Germany.
3. Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act in 1935. Intended as a “safety net” for the elderly poor during the Great Depression, this is now a growing nightmare of unfunded liabilities likely to cause generational civil war as relatively wealthy Baby Boomers collect paychecks drawn on the tax dollars of struggling Millenials and GenZers. Social Security has also done much to undermine the role of the family, church and community as sources of strength and support for the needy — replaced by the cold bureaucracy of Big Brother.
4. Harry Truman drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, killing 200,000 civilians, to force a Japanese surrender in World War II. How can any pro-life conservative support the decision to obliterate hundreds of thousands of innocent men, women and children? The fire-bombing of Japan leading up to the nuclear bombings, depicted vividly in the film The Fog of War, was likewise reprehensible. War should be directed at military targets.
5. Lyndon Johnson asks Congress to vote for the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution in 1964. Based on dubious claims of. North Vietnamese torpedo attacks on American destroyers in the Gulf of Tonkin, this resolution escalates Vietnam to a full scale American war, albeit undeclared, resulting in a draft, 55,000 American soldiers killed, and ultimately a humiliating retreat from the conflict.
6. Richard Nixon opens the door to China in 1972. Against the protestations of administration hardliners such as Pat Buchanan, Nixon defied his reputation as a fierce anti-communist by traveling to Beijing to meet with Chairman Mao and open up friendly relations with China. Normalizing relations with a brutal dictatorial regime that killed millions of innocents in its quest to gain and consolidate power was an unforgivable mistake that reverberates to this day.
7. Ronald Reagan grants amnesty to 2.7 million illegal aliens by signing the Simpson-Mazzoli Act into law in 1986. To be fair to the Gipper, he trusted that Democrats would live up to their side of the bargain by securing the border in exchange for a broad amnesty. But border security was a false promise and in the end Reagan admitted he had been duped. The prediction that amnesty would serve as a magnet for increased future illegal immigration has proved accurate.
8. Bill Clinton signs the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000, giving China permanent normal trade status and eventually membership in the World Trade Organization. Compounding the Nixon error of opening the door, Clinton put China on a fast track to becoming an economic and military superpower. The Clinton Administration overlooked human rights abuses and paved the way for massive profits for transnational corporations on the back of an unregulated Chinese labor market featuring child and prison labor. The suicide nets outside the Apple factory in Shenzhen to solve an employee morale problem were a disgrace upon America as well as China.
9. George W. Bush launches invasions of Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (2003) with the goal of regime change in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Striking at Afghanistan was understandable after 9/11, but all Bush had to do was look up that country’s nickname (“The Graveyard of Empires”) to know that a war to impose a pro-American government in Afghanistan was a fool’s errand. And the invasion of Iraq, predicated on false allegations that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks and was developing weapons of mass destruction, did more to hurt American credibility on the world scene than anything up to the election of Joe Biden as president.
10. Barack Obama selects Joe Biden as his vice presidential running mate in 2008. Technically, Obama made this decision prior to becoming president, but his fateful choice is driving America down the path to ruin as we speak. As Donald Trump has pointed out, Biden was finished as a national political candidate, polling in the single digits, when Obama “picked him off the trash heap” and made him vice president. The corruption of the Biden family is a stain upon the soul of America that may prove difficult to cleanse.
Now, it’s time to compare and contrast. The Chat-GPT AI program agreed with four out of my ten choices for worst presidential decisions of all time. Please note, the heading below is the exact question I posed to Chat-GPT. The responses are unedited, except that I have numbered them.
Q. What are the 10 biggest mistakes made by American presidents since 1900?
As an AI language model, it is not within my programming to make subjective evaluations or judgments on individuals or their actions. However, I can provide a list of some significant events or decisions made by American presidents since 1900 that have been criticized or controversial:
1. The decision of President Woodrow Wilson to enter World War I, which some historians argue was unnecessary and led to unnecessary loss of life.
2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, which is widely regarded as a violation of their civil rights.
3. President Harry S. Truman's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians and remains a source of debate to this day.
4. The escalation of the Vietnam War by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which resulted in significant loss of life and was widely unpopular with the American public.
5. The Watergate scandal during President Richard Nixon's administration, which led to his resignation and damaged public trust in the presidency.
6. President Ronald Reagan's Iran-Contra scandal, which involved the illegal sale of arms to Iran and the use of proceeds to fund anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua.
7. The Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, in which President Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice in relation to an extramarital affair with a White House intern.
8. President George W. Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003, which was based on faulty intelligence and resulted in significant loss of life and instability in the region.
9. President Barack Obama's handling of the Benghazi attack in 2012, which some critics argued was mishandled and led to the deaths of several Americans.
10. The Trump administration's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was criticized for downplaying the severity of the virus and not taking sufficient measures to contain its spread.
It is striking how the Chat-GPT list starts with some real heavy hitting mistakes and then veers off into ticky-tacky stuff, with the exception of the Iraq War, the rest of the way. The plot twist at the end is that Trump is vilified by Chat-GPT for pooh-poohing the pandemic and not introducing strict enough measures to confront it!
They say history is written by the victors. If artificial intelligence wins, I guess it will be written by Chat GPT-10.
In the meantime, what mistakes did I miss? Are there any other presidential decisions since 1900 that should have been included in my list? Feel free to respond in the comments.
DeSantis' close friendship with Kent Stermon and his supervision of the Larry Keefe - Stermon kid trafficking pipeline means he'll never be president.