Who Was/Is the Most Divisive Post-War President?

Define divisive. Nixon was pretty much despised by everyone (as was Johnson) at point where they left office. Do you mean inspired most partisan rancor during their terms? Because if that's the case I don't see how that couldn't be Obama with Clinton and W following a bit behind.

Like I say, I'm not sure there is an all-encompassing definition. Each party throws the term around indiscriminately. And I don't think there's a correct answer.

Nixon inspired a lot of partisan rancor well before Watergate--long before he was even president.

And yeah, I think Obama's a reasonable choice for #1.

Johnson. Turned a whole quarter of the country into GOP territory.

Although I voted "Obama, duh" before I thought about it for longer than ten seconds

yeah, johnson tore apart the country -- for good (civil rights) and bad (vietnam) -- in a way that none of the others did.

I find Obama's divisiveness hard to evaluate because of one complicating factor he shares with at least his two predecessors--the ever-more entrenched partisan rancor--and the other complicating factor, the obvious one, that makes him unique. And the two work in opposite directions; it's not like you can say, "Well, what if he'd been president in 1956, would he have been as divisive then?"

Surely Eisenhower was the least divisive by a few country miles.

only one of these presidents was so divisive that richard milhouse nixon could successfully run to replace him on the slogan "bring us together"

Yeah I agree with that except like everyone hated Johnson so isn't that unity in a certain sense?

Makes me think of that Lester Bangs quote:

"Boy, they used to drag poor ole LBJ into everything. I bet if he was in now and some cat like David Crosby made a really fucked album and got called on it, he’d probably say that he was so preoccupied by Lyndy’s machinations that he couldn’t think straight..."

Is Reagan being downplayed here or am I offloading a lot of Thatcher baggage onto him? Because there's no way Thatcher doesn't win the UK equivalent of this.

Reagan

xp!

reagan is divisive sure but in a field with LBJ, Nixon, Carter, Clinton, GWB and Obama? there's just too many good choices.

Gallup has tried to measure this, using the difference in approval ratings between party affiliation:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/181490/obama-approval-ratings-historically-polarized.aspx.

http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/nohpb7ssukeqjds5n0iyia.png

Seems less straightforward than that to me. Johnson, over the entire course of his presidency, ranks as the second least divisive, after Carter, and that doesn't sound right. And not because everyone disapproved of him, which explains Carter's low score; like Kennedy, he gets a 40% approval rating from the other party, which is impossible for either side today. That's why I think you have to build in some kind of adjustment for era. Nixon's 41-point gap, Reagan's 52, and W.'s 61 might be relatively comparable with an adjustment.

Reminds me a bit of this thread: U.S. Presidents - Cold War and New Millennium Edition

Look at that: after Ike the most popular GOP prez w/Dems is Poppy.

No offense, clem, but I don't get what we're measuring even after the explanations. The president most responsible for heightening partisan differences? The president most disliked by both parties? I agree with your first sentence: "divisive," like "controversy," is a meaningless word beloved of commentators.

It's Nixon, obviously, followed by Obama and Clinton.

It's so hard to judge because Obama's divisiveness is apples to the oranges of every other president's divisiveness. Most (I said most) of the people who dislike Obama dislike him for imaginary shit (which of course all stems from a more obvious dislike).

(xpost) I'm not sure! I just thought it would produce some interesting discussion, and obviously I was thinking of Trump, too.

I was too young, so please tell me, posters, if Reagan was loathed by Dems with the same intensity as Nixon and Clinton, and I don't mean by the left (aka The Nation, Village Voice, MoJo) either; we know it did.

If I did have to narrow it down, intensity of disapproval is most interesting to me. Which is why I picked Nixon. I agree with Old Lunch, and posted something similar above: Obama's divisiveness is a mix of imaginary grievances, historical trends, and the most obvious factor of all. With Nixon, at a time when presidents still could earn a measure of approval from the other side, the left was setting off bombs every day.

i agree that intensity of disapproval is more interesting than high contemporary partisanship disapproval rating. that means it has got to be LBJ or Nixon I think. LBJ literally so divisive that he divided the democratic party. Nixon probably responsible for more yelling at television sets than any potus ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qRZvlZZ0DY

people are too exhausted, too busy trying to eat and have housing, and too aware that it's all a con to be 'divisive' now. except for the morons.

Seems less straightforward than that to me. Johnson, over the entire course of his presidency, ranks as the second least divisive, after Carter, and that doesn't sound right.

I think that probably is right though (Johnson started out very popular 64-64) and then ended incredibly unpopular (would be interesting to see polls from final year).

Strange to say, as hated as Nixon was by those who hated him and as awkward and self-pitying as his public persona was, he was not more divisive than Reagan, the smiling avuncular charmer. My memory is that Nixon had pretty good approval ratings until Watergate broke wide open in 1973 and he crashed and burned.

If I were forced to rate the whole post-WWII crew, I'd lean toward Reagan, in that he quite openly and deliberately dismantled, impaired, or corrupted whole departments of the government. His administration put a wrecking ball to half a century of progressive social policy, while his cabinet officers and appointees treated Congress with open scorn and contempt.

Obama. "YOU LIE!" still blows my mind.

Obama doesn't act divisively. He just is divisive. Even when he's asleep.

My memory is that Nixon had pretty good approval ratings until Watergate broke wide open in 1973 and he crashed and burned.

True--between 50 and 60 for most of the first term (even higher near the beginning), hits a peak of almost 70 early in '73 (some combination of reelection, SALT, and China--China mostly). Straight down after that.

I'd weight that, though, against how intensely he was despised by that 40% right from the start. Students, people who couldn't stand him personally, people who remembered back to Hiss and Jerry Voorhis and Helen Gahagan Douglas.

http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/ap_ronald_reagan_library_21_jc_150915.jpg

what a lineup

the fractional extra width of the gap preceding nixon made me actually lol

Settled: the Megadeth guy says Obama.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/dave-mustaine-says-obama-is-the-most-divisive-president-we-ve-ever-had/

the fractional extra width of the gap preceding nixon made me actually lol

― denies the existence of dark matter (difficult listening hour)

notice who replaces Nixon in the he's-allergic sweepstakes

http://cdn.theatlantic.com/static/mt/assets/politics/Wovaloffice5.banner.reuters.jpg.jpg

That'll make a great slide show one day. Next up in the pariah position, W. probably (pending what happens this year).

LBJ by miles

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

It's still baffling to me that Obama inspires as much hate as he does on the right even though rationally I know that it has to be race and the perception of otherness -- Johnson makes sense because of what the country was like at the time, what he accomplished, and his sort of tank-like way of getting it done. Carter I sort of get because he came across as some kind of namby pamby liberal to the right. Clinton had the whole "slick" thing that people loved or hated, and to people who hated him it was perceived as a sign of corruption and criminality. But Obama is so conciliatory in his rhetoric, he's not really that far left, and Obamacare is hardly a national shakeup on the scale of the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act (not to mention the Great Society programs).

Clinto was loathed by the left for more than perceptions of corruption and criminality.

*Clinton

Oh no doubt, but I was going partly based on the wide gap in democrat vs republican approval in the poll #'s cited above. Obama is the widest, Clinton second among Dems. Carter is actually the lowest gap because his approval wasn't very high among Democrats. Johnson actually surprisingly high among republicans -- I think part of it is probably a difference in party alignment at the time, part of it is following Kennedy, and part of it is just that politics was not as polarized.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Agree with three of the zeros completely (Eisenhower, H.W., and Ford--one extremely divisive pardon, but I don't think he was especially divisive otherwise), one of them somewhat (J.F.K.--Oliver Stone tells me there was some hatred out there), and one not really (my understanding is that Truman was very divisive).

truman more divisive for his peri-war acts probably

Truman's approval rating in 1952 were the lowest ever recorded. Before his surprise reelection he was loathed by the left and right.

*was

Baseball writer Bill James was on a real Truman kick a few months ago. Just despises him, argues that his current standing can be traced back to post-Watergate overreaction (searching for "simpler times" and such) and the Merle Miller book. Anyway, if he was hated by everybody, that gets back to the idea that maybe he wasn't divisive at all.