Liberal and Conservative Raters
The Murray-Blessing 1982 survey asked historians whether they were liberal or conservative on domestic, social and economic issues. The table below shows that the two groups had only small differences in ranking the best and worst presidents. Both groups agreed on the composition of nine of the top ten Presidents (and were split over the inclusion of either Lyndon B. Johnson or Dwight D. Eisenhower), and six of the worst seven (split over Jimmy Carter or Calvin Coolidge). Conservatives placed Democrat Harry S. Truman at a higher ranking.
| Rank | Liberals (n=190) | Conservatives (n=50) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Abraham Lincoln | Abraham Lincoln |
| 2 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | George Washington |
| 3 | George Washington | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
| 4 | Thomas Jefferson | Thomas Jefferson |
| 5 | Theodore Roosevelt | Theodore Roosevelt |
| 6 | Woodrow Wilson | Andrew Jackson |
| 7 | Andrew Jackson | Harry S. Truman |
| 8 | Harry S. Truman | Woodrow Wilson |
| 9 | Lyndon B. Johnson | Dwight D. Eisenhower |
| 10 | John Adams | John Adams |
| ... | ||
| 30 | Calvin Coolidge | James E. Carter |
| 31 | Franklin Pierce | Richard Nixon |
| 32 | James Buchanan | Franklin Pierce |
| 33 | Andrew Johnson | Andrew Johnson |
| 34 | Ulysses S. Grant | James Buchanan |
| 35 | Richard Nixon | Ulysses S. Grant |
| 36 | Warren G. Harding | Warren G. Harding |
Read more about this topic: Historical Rankings Of Presidents Of The United States
Famous quotes containing the words liberal and/or conservative:
“But alas! I never could keep a promise. I do not blame myself for this weakness, because the fault must lie in my physical organization. It is likely that such a very liberal amount of space was given to the organ which enables me to make promises, that the organ which should enable me to keep them was crowded out. But I grieve not. I like no half-way things. I had rather have one faculty nobly developed than two faculties of mere ordinary capacity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)