Who are the top five most important people in Amer. Political history?

For the heck of it, no Presidents, too easy.

5. Joe McCarthy
4. Earl Warren
3. Ben Franklin
2. Henry Clay
1. Alex Hamilton

Thoughts?

Edit for spelling

boot joe

good catch.

Famous for Gerrymandering. Ask any Texas Dem how they feel about it.

Madison without a doubt.

George Marshall perhaps.

No way McCarthy. He was a cartoon figure and his impact has been blown out of proportion.

Rules say no pres, but Madison was important

And I thought I knew my American history. Can't believe I missed that one. Jeesh.

Not necessarily in that order. Yours are intriguing, with the exception of McCarthy. Presidents can't be "too easy" if they are relevant to this thread. OK, if it must be, take the three out, and put in Hamilton (agreed), Thomas Paine and Susan B. Anthony. Earl Warren, Franklin and Clay good choices, too. With presidents, have to add FDR, as well.

Judicial review was huge. HUGE I SAY.

On edit: damn these slow fingers. I've been beaten to it.

Benjamin Franklin
Alexander Hamilton
Henry Ford
Martin Luther King
Wm. Randolph Hearst

Ford & Hearst are more there as symbols of larger realities and it's definitely not based on whether or not I like them!

Martin Luther King
Frederick Douglas
Eugene Debs
Abbie Hoffman
and Henry Wallace

though I believe that our history is taught wrong and that we focus too much on the 'stars' and individuals, when true change comes from the large groups of people and the many unsung heroes who organize locally to bring about social justice

eom

He saved this nation *NOT* only from the depression, but from Fascism. He was the greatest president of the past century and saved this nation from sinking.

I'd say he was one of the top five important in American History.

FDR was important, but no Presidents

Ben Franklin
Martin Luther King
Albert Einstein
John Marshall
Alexander Hamilton

just kidding. :D

You have to admit Kroc left a GIGANTIC impact on the world.

listed in chronological order:

1. Daniel Shays (By leading the so-called Shays Rebellion, provided the spark for the creation of a strong federal government embodied in the Constitution)

2. John Brown ("Freedom fighter" who used religious arguments for the emancipation of slavery, as well as violence. Brought about the creation of the Confederate States Army and provided the spark to the US Civil War)

3. Mother Mary Jones (Tireless advocate for labor. Worked on behalf of America's "have-nots" in the labor movement. Unionized many workers and in so-doing elevated the average Americans' standard of living. Instrumental in pushing for worker rights, work standards, and abolition of child labor)

4. Eugene Victor Debs (Union President of American Railway Union and Socialist Party President nominee who helped in pushing the country toward a liberal agenda as far as worker rights and human rights. Anti-war advocate of World War I. Jailed for violating the Trading With The Enemy Act by speaking out against US involvement in World War I.)

5. Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon insider who leaked the "Pentagon Papers" to the press revealing the truth to the people about US ambitions and operations in southeast Asia sparking the end of the bitterly dividing Vietnam War)

But make room for either Warren or Marshall (John, even though George did great)

Not a politician, but he saved a president from a coup.

The 1933 "coup" was such a half-assed mismanaged affair, I can't imagine that it could have ever got very far. The very notion that they'd pick Smed Butler, author of I Was a Gangster for Capitalism, to be their Mussolini, shows what uninformed clods they were.

Still, had they chosen a better "Leader" and been less inept, their failure would have been more spectucular and a huge distraction from FDR's plans for recovering from the Depression.

Butler's a hero, of course, but not a pivotal character in our history.

King redefined patriotism and the American dream in the 1950s and 60s. If there ever put another head up on Rushmore, that's who it should be.

Marshall from the Supreme Court did more than any other person to ensure that we have a truly balanced federal system of checks and balances. His decisions are still quoted today. He's second probably only to Hammurabi as a lawmaker in world history.

Hamilton's economic policies (activist, pro-growth, pro-business, pro-industrial development, and centralizing to the federal government) are the reason we regard the Washington Administration as a political success. Had Hammy not been around, I doubt the country would have ended up stretching to the Pacific coast.

Ford, for all his anti-semitism and chumminess with Nazis, is the man who put Palmerism--the first scientific principle of business and industrial efficiency--to work in America. That industrial efficiency is the reason that the country was strong enough to win two world wars when we lacked the military traditions to be a conventional military power.

Roger Sherman of Connecticut is the guy who actually defeated Washington and Madison on a number of important political votes at the 1787 Constitutiona Convention. He outmaneuvered the high federalists on questions about how representatives would be apportioned (a very big deal at that time) and brokered compromises on trade and slavery importation issues that--however much they are denounced today--ensured the final passage of the Constitution among the 13 states. The government we have today is generally the way Roger Sherman intended it to look... and quite different than the way Madison, the "father of the Constitution" envisioned it.

Lincoln, JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X

They all killed a better future.

If you're talking importance you have to include Kissinger & MacArthur. Also, Sam Houston, Henry Clay, Jefferson Davis, Aaron Burr, Brigham Young, Henry Cabot Lodge, Huey Long, Upton Sinclair, Fiorello LaGuardia, Spiro Agnew, Eleanor Roosevelt, Barry Goldwater, George Wallace . . . thoughts?

He lied to Congress about Vietnam to protect his baby, The Great Society. Voting Rights legislation, Civil Rights legislalion, and other social reforms characterized LBJ's term. LBJ rammed some very significant social legislation through a Democratic Congress.

But Vietnam bit LBJ in the ass. Or the lies did. His and McNamara's. In March 1968, shortly after the big Tet offensive in Vietnam, LBJ went on TV to say, "I shall not seek, nor will I accept my party's nomination for President of the United States." Words I would love to hear from the little Emporer's mouth come, say, March 2004.