Who is DU's GREATEST AMERICAN?

Tired of the pod people's picks, then nominate someone of REAL substance not a B actor. I'm going with Thomas Jefferson (putting his faults in historical context)

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Kept us from becoming Fascists, at least temporarily....

followed by MLK, George Washington.

He thought it was immoral even though he had them. There's so many great choices it's very hard to choose. George Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, FDR, JFK. Very hard to pick.

Since I learned about him on DU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

Saved capitalism...saved the country from the Depression and managed the Victory of WWII.

He didn't own any slaves.

He was at the forefront of the largest successful civil rights movement. A beautiful speaker with an open heart. May he rest in peace.

:thumbsup:

He led us out of the depression and through WWII.

without a doubt.

FDR
Ben Franklin
Thomas Jefferson
MLK
Abraham Lincoln

He went throught/was going through
more changes & learning to get to
where he was/was going. One of the most
genuine individuals. Fascinating, brilliant,
funny as hell, passionate, who knows where he
would have gone, what he would have become.

Dr. King and Rosa Parks all the way...

Poppy Bush even said it publicly when presenting Saint Ronnie with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1993:
http://www.medaloffreedom.com/RonaldReagan.htm
"...When Ronald Reagan's favorite President died in 1945, the New York Times wrote, 'Men will thank God on their knees a hundred years from now that Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House...'"

Almost everything positive in modern American society is a direct result of FDR's reform: Social Security, the Federal Reserve Bank, environmental conservation, farm subsidies, the right to collective bargaining, the SEC, federal housing, on and on. Not to mention his holding the Allies together in the darkest days of WWII.

FDR's New Deal is the legacy that the right wing is attempting to undo. :grr:

:patriot:

And his wife is somewhere very near the top herself.

Her contributions utterly define the term "humanitarian." :thumbsup:

If you don't know who he is, you should.

But Margaret Sanger is right up there too.

another gilded age (if we weren't already in it), then steered us through the depression AND most of WWII, and the fact that the neocon theocrats are trying to destroy the legacy and/or programs of the New Deal should be more than enough argument for the greatest American. He literally saved millions of people, while these repugs want to take us back to before that time.

In chronological, not preferential, order:

Thomas Jefferson
Teddy Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Eleanor Roosevelt
Martin Luther King, Jr.

:smoke:

n/t

If he hadn't defeated the Brits, where would we be now?

I find it hard to go with just one.

Off the top of my head FDR seems to be the greatest--he saved this nation at a time of great peril and led us through a terrible war.

My Greatest are:FDR, Lincoln--he got us through the Civil War, Martin Luther King Jr.--a great awakening to true Civil Rights for all Americans, George Washington--brave soldier, competent leader, set the example for all future presidents by actually leaving office at the end of his second term and not trying to stay on or seize power. This was a real worry for people at the time, and number five would be Benjamin Franklin--diplomat, philosopher, journalist-- I think of his presence worked as a mentor to bring forth the best ideas from Jefferson, Madison, et al.

I am sad there are no women on the list for me at this time but reality is that during the first 200+ years of this nation women were denied an active presence in the great formative moments of our nation.

I certainly believe that Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the greatest of Americans and would be in a list of the top 20.

It's not an easy choice in some respects because of the influence of slavery on his life and some of the choices he made in regards to slavery.

FDR is my close second pick.

But George Washington had to make a nation out of nothing. He a much bigger and more fundamental challenge than any future president or figure. Many of the other candidates I can think of were certainly great men and women yet their accomplishments were to fix a problem (or bounded set of problems) or improve the lot of some group of people. In a few cases they actually saved the nation, FDR, Lincoln, perhaps MLK and JFK. But Washington was key in making the nation and faced some early and significant challenges to the very existence of the nation at a time when it was by no means assured that this nation would continue or succeed in any way.

18th century George Washington/James Madison
19th century Thomas Jefferson/Abraham Lincoln
20th century Franklin Roosevelt/Martin Luther King
21st century Al Gore/?

But I really believe FDR would have to be my #1: He had the Great Depression and WWII...MAJOR WORLD events that he brought this country through with strength, courage, inspiration and true leadership.

Bob Dylan, Susan Sarandon, Winslow Homer, Maria Muldaur, Marlon Brando, Leonard Bernstein, and many more.

Politicians and generals are interesting, but hardly as valuable as people who contibute to society.