If you had to choose one president from history to be resurrected and take over the presidency who would you choose? Why? And what do you think he would do?
Only rules are that the president must be from before the 2000s election year and had held office for at least half a term (two years)
(So no William Henry Harrison)
The parties switched their positions in the mid 1900s so the party of chosen president would switch (republicans will become democratic and vice versa)
So who do you choose?
LBJ. Most of the same advantages as FDR in terms of economic policy, but added benefit of being strongly pro-minority rights as well instead of bending to Dixiecrats at the cost of half the country.
His Vietnam record is... dicey, I'll admit, but it positions him well for understanding the current need to defend Ukraine.
His tendency to show off Jumbo and loom over people also plays well with how an inexplicable number of people seem to actively seek out machismo as a key politician trait.
Teddy Roosevelt.
I'm going to start by saying I understand his record in regard to racial minorities is uneven, with the better side of that unevenness being "....that's...really problematic, Ted," and going downhill from there. I'm not overlooking this. I'm weighing it against the fact that the original post did not indicate he'd have access to his historical cabinet from the 1900s, and so he'd be in a position where the most egregious of his racial views would be held in check by the people who would fill those roles in the modern day. And hey, he did value learning, so like...maybe we can also extrapolate at least a 50/50 that his better angels would come to the fore in what would be a necessary study of the last 110 years of US history. I'm picking a crisis president here--someone who can fix the worst of the damage we've suffered since 2016.
So why would I pick him? Here are five reasons, and they're in no particular order, except for the first two which are ABSOLUTELY my #1 and #2:
1) THE SQUARE DEAL. If you like the New Deal, you should know FDR cribbed it from his older cousin. TR fought for a balance between big business and the rights of the individual--the average Joe can't get $1000/hr and a pony for working in fast food, but neither can Jeff Bezos pay you in scrip or demand you piss in a bottle because using a proper bathroom will lower your numbers. It was off the back of this beginning that we'd later get the New Deal's minimum wage, Social Security, and the 40-hour work week as law. TR was also so big on anti-corruption that one of his nicknames in the day was "The Trustbuster." He went up against people like Rockefeller and Carnegie--I think he could be the hero we need against Amazon, Google, Disney, et. al. in creating a market rather than a monster. Likewise, I think that he'd be able to use the benefit of history to see why modern labor demands are actually in line with his goals and ideas (1902 Roosevelt didn't have the New Deal to look back on, but 2026 Roosevelt would).
2) NATURAL CONSERVATION WAS A MASSIVE PART OF HIS PLATFORM. I want to pause here and note that the way he went about it was not always right and in some cases was really fucking wrong. When I said his racial policies began with "that's....really problematic, Ted" and only got worse from there, part of that getting worse was "we're going to remove Natives from their own land to make national parks." I think any "hey Ted please help us with our current environmental woes" would have to be prefaced with an understanding from him that we respect the rights of all people these days, and protecting Natives in this bullet point is part of why I said picking him was contingent on him having a modern cabinet. So with the understanding that we are putting a leash on his "but they're brown" impulses: I think he'd be fascinated to learn about green energy and modern conservation, and I think he is exactly the kind of person who'd look at climate change, the assholes responsible for huge amounts of it (hey--remember what I said about him being The Trustbuster?), and the first thing he'd say is "you shouldn't have messed with a bull moose." I also think learning about Native-led conservation and the "primeval wilderness was a myth" thing might actually go a really decent way toward tempering his anti-Native views. It might have the unfortunate side effect of him swinging into magic pixie dream Natives, but like...given the choice between two bad choices, magic pixie dream Natives would probably be better. I will remind that I am picking him as a crisis president. I would love for him to be racially perfect. He wouldn't be. But he might help us survive long enough to get a president who's really good on racial issues. Digging out of MAGA's hole is the goal here.
3) HE WAS BOTH A BRAWLER AND A SCHOLAR. Ask him "brains or brawn?" and he'd say "yes." His athletic tendencies would endear him to the more conservative crowd and his love of learning would make him ideal in terms of catching up on modern policy and weighing consequences.
As a weird side-effect, I actually think he might put the final nail in the coffin on trans sports bans. Not because I think he'd understand trans people (he absolutely would not) or support trans rights in general (I don't think he'd have enough understanding to say one way or the other), but because I think his reaction would probably be "....so your problem is that you'd be forced to be a better athlete in order to compete? Well then, be better. We should all aspire to the strenuous life." Like he would basically answer "Atlanta" to "what is the capital of Georgia" by solving for the square root of two and adding aquamarine, but he'd get there. That's the important part.
4) HIS FOREIGN POLICIES WEREN'T ALWAYS GREAT. HIS METHOD OF ACHIEVING THEM WAS. TR is the guy who introduced "speak softly and carry a large stick" to the western world. TR stopped an entire-ass war by speaking softly and raising the stick. He didn't even have to hit anything. One of the two countries involved? RUSSIA. And he hated bullies. He would make Putin cry.
5) HE BELIEVED IN PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY. I mean, this one is really just what it says on the tin. It's been lacking in politics for an extremely long time.
So that's my pick. Imperfect and there are definitely things I wish we could just excise before turning him loose. But I think he's a lot of what we need to meet the moment.
I'm gonna go FDR, because my #1 priority since like 2014 has been the Supreme Court, because if you don't have the Supreme Court you don't have anything, and FDR has been the only president in the last 100+ years that made it a priority too and managed to cow them.
Plus the economic, industrial, and labor policies. To crib off PB, maybe a modern cabinet and Congress can curb the racism.
He was also a wartime president and could perhaps understand the fuckery of Russia, China, Iran, etc
Honestly? Since it's entirely speculative? Richard Milhous Nixon I want to see what Nixon does to the MAGA GOP and Russia and like. Everything. I want a Nixon Green New Deal. What even is that. Fuck 'em all, you get Nixon, we get an insane foreign and domestic policy, and we get the coolest buttons ever.
En serio Truman but like. Chaos option my dudes.
Not on theme really, but...
You ever hear a man in his 60s say "he always jacks me off" to mean, that guy really bothers me?
I had to explain what that means today to anyone listening and he did not believe me.
