I was recently having a conversation with a fellow writer about FDR, the savior of Americas ‘Greatest Generation’. He was expressing his reconsideration of FDR as a ‘bad’ rather than a ‘good’ president. He seemed to want some feedback so I gave it, “A man who seeks power is evil. So, by definition, the man who holds the most powerful position on earth must be supremely evil or falter miserably like Carter. How can you fault the holder of an evil office for doing evil? Is that not the only rational outcome?”

We are all aware of the dictum that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. We all know our politicians to be liars. Indeed we, by our contradictory desires, demand that they lie to us. A voter faulting a politician for lying is analogous to a woman who marries a man based on his sexual energy faulting him for straying.

After my downer response I began to consider rating our presidents based on their relative evil. What I mean is how can we count a 19th Century president second best to a current one who has exponentially more powerful weapons at his disposal. I will not be making the assessment nationally, religiously, racially or ideologically. I don’t care what the rich boy believed, where he resided, or what gene pool spawned his reprehensible ass. I care what he wrought with the awesome power that fell into his spoiled hands.

As you know, if you have read here much, I see any autocrat—cloaked in the edifying demos or not—as my own personal enemy; a man whose heart I would eat with relish on a Stone Age battlefield. For this reason the book will not be titled The Most Benign Presidents.

My criteria for rating these fellows will be multifaceted and will encompass deaths and misery attributable to their actions. As an individualist I will give consideration for certain achievements. So my Cherokee friends can expect to be pissed off at my assessment of Andrew Jackson. Come on Misha, he killed whites too, with his own bloody hands!

I am interested in your personal picks for top five most evil America presidents. I understand you not wanting to post it here in case the current autocrat’s cronies are listening in. Feel free to contact me through the comments feature, write, call, e-mail, or grab me outside the dojo and scream your hatred of FDR into my face.

Whatever gets it done bro—and you too Akira and Misha.