Name Two Presidents

Post Reply New Topic

In the 20th or 21st century, two, and only two, US Presidents did all of the following, who were they?

1: Imprisoned hundreds or thousands of US Citizens as being "unreliable" or "dangerous" to a war effort.

2: Used the power of government to explicitly shut down press outlets that opposed a war effort.

3: Performed dictatorial acts such as dictating industrial production.

Who were they?

I'm guessing Lincoln and FDR, but that's just a guess. Well, FDR isn't a guess but I'm not sure of Lincoln.

"In the 20th or 21st century"

FDR, bush, johnson...i think that's it; but i could very easily be wrong on this.

bush bush?

Stack the deck much?

It would have been too long a list had I gone before the 20th century.

No, it would not have been too long a list, since you asked for only 2 presidents. Any 2 would have sifficed. As it stands, you've pretty well determined that one of the answers would have to be our current president.

You are remarkably ignorant. Bush has not shut down press outlets nor imprisoned hundreds or thousands of citizens for opposing his war, nor has he dictated industrial output.

there's been roughly 23 presidents in the requested time period. there's 23 more in total. i was able to generate 3 and i'm sure with a little research, there'd probably be more.

so....you're either pissed about FDR or Bush being singled out because they're the most obvious example...so which side are you posturing on? the democrat dictator or the neo-con dictator? either one was wrong in many of their actions and FDR even took a third term (which was unheard of and many, many americans were angered about it).


so instead of skirting around it, which president are you whining about being singled out?

how about effectively manipulating the media through propaganda distributors like the retired generals that were put on the federal payroll to give positive news about the war in iraq?





does this include farm subsidies or the corn ethanol push? how about re-writing labor laws to force larger production without cost?




does this include cointelpro-style disinformation and slander against people who oppose the war effort? there's ways of cutting off people without locking them up. that's the nice thing about such a docile country like this...they'll b***h and complain but they'll never actually do anything so there's never really any need to lock people up for too long.

FDR and Truman; both did all three during WW2. Such are the excesses of a liberal government, a failing economy, and a real threat to national security. Pacifism was considered tacit support of our enemies back then, which explains the first two actions. The enemy had so mobilized its production of war instruments that the free market had to take a back seat to global stability. The global stability issue was no joke, back then -- Japan and Germany together had zero chance of occupying a single city in the lower 48, but global trade was already so important that our fragile, Post-Depression economy could not bear exclusion of the Axis powers were the Allies to fail. Of course, at that time, the British Empire had more land and people than the U.S., Germany, and Japan combined...

As an aside, think it worth noting that Republicans held the Presidency of 36 of 56 years since Truman, although that has more to do with the party swap of the South as a result of the civil rights movement; whites from the South switched from race to religion, having voted against the "Party of Lincoln" for the "War of Northern Aggression" nearly 100 years.

1. FDR, Wilson

2. FDR, Wilson

3. FDR, Wilson, and Truman (but Mr. T failed at it)

A Bush is a crazy dictator comment. Which doesn't satisfy the actual question of the OP. Clever.

Mr. T was President? How'd I miss that!?

Anyway, Dogbrain, if you're just going to throw random facts out with no real context to provide a flimsy defence of Mr George "Incompetent Fool" Bush...

In the 21st century there has been one President who: embroiled the U.S.A into two military quagmires of his own making; ruined the international reputation of his country; created a extremely partisan domestic political situation, resulting in a an atmosphere of fear and a crippled congress and senate; seriously undermined civil liberties; set back scientific progress; routinely lied (even in the face of all evidence against him); employed ignorant condescending lying control freaks; proved to be useless in the face of any emergency (more than once); publically endorsed torture; led the economy into the worst crisis since the Great Depression (not that I'm saying he caused it, he just led the way); worked to destroy the boundary between Church and State; completely ignored the threat of global warming and generally behaved in exactly the opposite way that a statesman should.

Who was he?

Ahh... I'll play.

FDR - His crimes have already been hashed out to minutia here. Although I would point specifically to the internment of thousands of Japanese immigrants and American citizens of Japanese descent specifically.

Richard Nixon, mostly for his "enemy list", and the illegal methods he used to target the media outlets on that list.