…I did have Aaron Burr on my list (there must have been a glitch in the final total). For that matter, I had precisely two people on my list (Burr and Benedict Arnold) and stopped there because those two raised the bar pretty freaking high… although I would have probably added the Rosenbergs, if I had thought of them.
This isn’t meant to be a criticism of John’s polls, by the way: they’re interesting and fun.
I had Jefferson Davis on mine. Now, had I thought of the non-political, my list would’ve been a bit longer.
Probably in response to a similar Internet meme, I once went to the trouble of figuring out the Bottom Ten Worst Americans, assigning one for each quarter-century since 1750 to keep things in perspective. 2000-2024 is a work in progress.
1750-1774: Andrew Oliver, Stamp Act commissioner
1775-1799: Benedict Arnold, jealous traitor
1800-1824: Aaron Burr, murderous traitor
1825-1849: Wilson Lumpkin, architect of the Trail of Tears
1850-1874: Edmund Ruffin, secessionist activist
1875-1899: Henry Billings Brown, authored Plessy v Ferguson
1900-1924: Woodrow Wilson, racist Typhoid Mary of Progressivism
1925-1949: Alger Hiss, smug traitor
1950-1974: Robert Moses, destroyer of cities
1975-1999: Timothy McVeigh, terrorist
Dammit, Ken, don’t make me hang my head in shame like that. 🙂