Instigator / Pro
1
1500
rating
5
debates
50.0%
won
Topic
#5820
It Is Appalling That Anybody Would Ever Call Woodrow Wilson A Great (Or Even Good) President
Status
Finished
The debate is finished. The distribution of the voting points and the winner are presented below.
Winner & statistics
After 1 vote and with the same amount of points on both sides...
It's a tie!
Parameters
- Publication date
- Last updated date
- Type
- Standard
- Number of rounds
- 4
- Time for argument
- Three days
- Max argument characters
- 10,000
- Voting period
- Two weeks
- Point system
- Winner selection
- Voting system
- Open
Contender / Con
1
1485
rating
18
debates
41.67%
won
Description
Woodrow Wilson has been put as a fairly good president on countless of ranking lists I've seen, but quite frankly, I think it's appalling that that could ever happen. Woodrow Wilson is, in my opinion, one of the five worst presidents of all time, and you'll find out why if you debate with me.
Round 1
WWI
Woodrow Wilson was much more hesitant than he should've been when it came to entering WW1. After we had lost over 100 Americans on the Lusitania, Wilson remained firm in his belief that we should not enter the war. Then, after the Zimmermann Telegram, it took him a whole month to even begin to consider taking action. That, in itself, is strange. But what's even more strange is that after we had entered the war, he switched from hesitant isolationist policies to bold, publicly-known idealist policies. He became extremely eager to negotiate in the war's peace talks, and then began proposing things like the unsuccessful League of Nations and the Fourteen Points, which included a radical plan to reshape the boundaries of European countries. Wilson's quick switch between policies only proves to me that he had ulterior motives (exerting his influence on other countries).
Sedition Act of 1918
This act was just a complete restriction of basic First Amendment rights, making it illegal to speak out against the government. This act imprisoned almost 1,000 people, and was a total disgrace to everything America stands for. This was only a contribution to his belief in more executive power.
Wilson's Racist Tendencies
Wilson also intentionally segregated the federal government, held up Jim Crow laws, and he even supported the Ku Klux Klan, screening a historical film, The Birth of a Nation, at the White House, which depicted former slaves and other free African Americans as the evil aggressors, and the KKK as the "saviors" of the South.
Espionage Act
Most of the Espionage Act was good and had good intentions (it was designed to keep spies out of the US), but there were some parts of it that just weren't right. Germans and eastern Europeans who were fleeing their collapsing, now-impoverished nations were instantly and without investigation, labeled as spies (due to the Espionage Act), and were deported. Even pacifists who believed that America shouldn't be in the war were deported. There were some parts of the Espionage Act that made it more like the Sedition Act and not a security measure to keep spies out of the country.
Spanish Flu
Woodrow Wilson downplayed the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed approximately 675,000 Americans. He never released a single public statement about the flu, resulting in way more deaths than there probably needed to be. Wilson himself eventually got such a bad case of the Spanish Flu that it hindered his ability to be more involved in the peace talks at the end of WWI, and it caused him to hallucinate about French spies surrounding him.
Woodrow Wilson was much more hesitant than he should've been when it came to entering WW1. After we had lost over 100 Americans on the Lusitania, Wilson remained firm in his belief that we should not enter the war. Then, after the Zimmermann Telegram, it took him a whole month to even begin to consider taking action. That, in itself, is strange. But what's even more strange is that after we had entered the war, he switched from hesitant isolationist policies to bold, publicly-known idealist policies. He became extremely eager to negotiate in the war's peace talks, and then began proposing things like the unsuccessful League of Nations and the Fourteen Points, which included a radical plan to reshape the boundaries of European countries. Wilson's quick switch between policies only proves to me that he had ulterior motives (exerting his influence on other countries).
Sedition Act of 1918
This act was just a complete restriction of basic First Amendment rights, making it illegal to speak out against the government. This act imprisoned almost 1,000 people, and was a total disgrace to everything America stands for. This was only a contribution to his belief in more executive power.
Wilson's Racist Tendencies
Wilson also intentionally segregated the federal government, held up Jim Crow laws, and he even supported the Ku Klux Klan, screening a historical film, The Birth of a Nation, at the White House, which depicted former slaves and other free African Americans as the evil aggressors, and the KKK as the "saviors" of the South.
Espionage Act
Most of the Espionage Act was good and had good intentions (it was designed to keep spies out of the US), but there were some parts of it that just weren't right. Germans and eastern Europeans who were fleeing their collapsing, now-impoverished nations were instantly and without investigation, labeled as spies (due to the Espionage Act), and were deported. Even pacifists who believed that America shouldn't be in the war were deported. There were some parts of the Espionage Act that made it more like the Sedition Act and not a security measure to keep spies out of the country.
Spanish Flu
Woodrow Wilson downplayed the Spanish Flu pandemic that killed approximately 675,000 Americans. He never released a single public statement about the flu, resulting in way more deaths than there probably needed to be. Wilson himself eventually got such a bad case of the Spanish Flu that it hindered his ability to be more involved in the peace talks at the end of WWI, and it caused him to hallucinate about French spies surrounding him.
I have no rebuttal to any of the points that you made.
In my opinion, Woodrow Wilson was an awful President, either him or William Mckinley was the wosrt ever.
But that’s not what this is about. It’s not about whether I think he’s a good President.
It’s about whether it's “appalling” or not that “anybody would call him a great/good President.”
And I don’t believe that it's appaling that someone would call him a great President.
For starters, a large portion of American society today is lamentably very dumb. Give or take, 10% is just plain stupid. They believe that a man can be a woman. They believe that the Earth is flat. They believe that the Moon landing, the Holocaust and 9/11 are all fake. As such, being uneducated about A President from 100 years ago and reading a lie-ridden NYT article (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/books/review/patricia-otoole-moralist-woodrow-wilson-biography.html) about how "Woodrow Wilson achieved a lot”, thus forming an opinion that Wilson was actually a good president does not appall me.
A lot of people are misinformed and/or uninformed. Considering that they believe much worse things, it would not appall me if someone believed that Wilson was a good President.
Round 2
You know what? I’m not even going to try to argue with you here. I have to say, I agree with you a LOT. I wish we could do team debating, because I would very much enjoy debating alongside you. I suppose that this now isn’t much of a debate, as we very clearly have different ways to gauge what’s appalling and what’s not. At this point, I’m prepared to just let the voters decide who wins (although I don’t think any of us is deserving of a loss). On a site where there are so many angry people who just don’t make any sense, I found a bit of relief from your first argument. I’m glad we could get along and agree. Thanks for that.
"I have to say, I agree with you a LOT. I wish we could do team debating, because I would very much enjoy debating alongside you."
Thanks!
I’m glad we could get along and agree. Thanks for that.
No worries.
And I suppose I could create a forum if you wanted to team debate.
Round 3
Forfeited
Fun debate!
Round 4
Forfeited
GG’s.
Makes sense. Buchanan was the Great Procrastinator who saw an impending crisis and just threw up his hands in defeat.
**I meant James Buchanan, not William McKinley.
Anyone want to debate on this with me?