Historical-political ask mainly adressed to my American LJ friends

[florencisalesas]

... but to any other ones, of course! This is not a closed survey (I am not American and I have my own opinions about it as well he he he ;P)

Who has been for you the most important figure in the history in the US politics and why?

*He or she hasn't to be a president necessarily but he or she must have been clearly important for the history of the

Comments

[sfwriter]

I hate to pick only one person, and I'm not well enough studied in the subject to be sure, but for me a good candidate would be Benjamin Franklin. (Maybe not the most important, but certainly one of the most interesting, and without his work in Europe I'm not sure what would have happened to this country in its early days.) Either him or good old Thomas Jefferson. Have to look into it some more, really.

[florencisalesas]

Ha! You choice my favourite one, Benjamin Franklin! :D And I am sure you are best learned about all it than lot of people, me included of course. If in my case I choice him I know it won't be an excessively polemic choice, because nearly everybody should agree he was a very important figure of its time for lot of reasons indeed. He is also so far away in the time that those few enemies he could have can't give us too much problems.

I understand it is a very difficult question to reply with only one name and I am very grateful you gave more than one (Mr. Jefferson in your case).

Thank you very much :)

[eithnepdb]

Sorry Flo but it's a tie ;)

Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower.

Harry Truman for his brilliant common sense and that he had to lead the country through one of the most stressful periods of our history. He also had to make one of the most horrible decisions a human could be in a position to make - the use of the atomic bomb. I don't think he did this lightly and in fact I think it haunted him the rest of his life.

Dwight Eisenhower for his sheer military prowess and the ability to work for a resolution and not get evolved in wars of the ego that so often plague military leaders. As a political leader he wasn't a shining star but he did a good job.

It's tough to stop there - we have had so many important figures throughout our brief history - and of course by important I don't necessarily mean good ;)

[florencisalesas]

Thank you very much for your opinion, so interesting - and with a deep human touch - as ever. It's easy to criticize from the easy point of view of such guy who never has to take important decisions, even our job is to criticize and denounce any thing which could be better for everybody, of course.

You choice a Democrat and a Republican: this is what I say a real tie ;D

"by important I don't necessarily mean good". Good point. Well, there are so lot of important figures who rank so high into the "horrible for all the world" section! Too much really.

Have a nice day :)

[lolanoone]

To put it simply, Richard Nixon showed Americans that our government could lie to us. Before then, from what I gather from older folks, people believed that whatever the president does was for our own good and we can "trust" them. You can read my rather recent journal entry for more explanations on other aspects of Nixon's administration.

[florencisalesas]

This is what I call an original opinion! (and I didn't say nothing about your icon yet :D)
Thank you very much for your curious and interesting participation :)

[phunkforfree]

I'm a little ashamed, because I really don't know much about US history (I learned the most I had ever known when I helped my parents study for their citizenship exams!), but I'm going to say Thomas Paine, because he was pretty much the first guy to talk to the average person on a level that they could understand. And in doing so, he convinced people (not just prominent figures--average people, as I've said) to do something about their situation. And without all those people on board for the "American" cause, I'm not sure how well the American Revolution would have turned out. And I've always been a fan of unpretentious people who try to reach out to the "little guy

[florencisalesas]

You can't imagine how happy I am to see you here again

[phunkforfree]

I also like FDR. I'm sure he wasn't perfect, but to lead a country during sudden poverty, and actually restoring it (over four presidential terms, of course) is pretty impressive. And the "Fireside Chats"--again, talking to the regular people.

But his wife was pretty cool, too.

[phunkforfree]

Also, the woman on the bus was Rosa Parks. According to her, though, if I remember correctly, she didn't get up from her seat because she was "just tired". I don't think she meant for it to have such a huge impact, but, either way, it sure did!