Top 10, top 40, top 100, whatever lists, are often worth about as much as the number utilized. Nothing. A number isn’t “good” or “bad,” it is all in how it’s used.

This is especially true of lists ranking the top presidents. We average Americans walk around with very little knowledge of any of the presidents other than the very top and almost no information about the presidents at the very bottom. Thus, when we see public surveys of the best versus worst presidents, one is almost surely to see either Trump at the very top or the very bottom. The dynamic is similar with Obama. Recency bias and ignorance.

In any list, the first three are taken and no one’s replacing them. Abraham Lincoln will always be number one, George Washington will be number two, and FDR will be number three, always – with the exception of a select group of MAGAs that see Lincoln as one of the worst because he started the Civil War and, most of them will tell you, slavery would’ve diminished slowly over the next 30 years anyway and slavery wasn’t worth hundreds of thousands of Americans dead. It is part of being a MAGA.

It is entirely different when historians who spend their lives studying the presidents rank them. In the latest list, the first three are the first three and always will be, Lincoln, Washington, FDR. Interestingly, President Obama comes in at number 10. We suspect it is most likely due to the fact that he inherited the Great Recession and got the U.S. out of it to a thriving economy, while also implementing nationwide healthcare, sort of.

Quite understandly, Donald Trump is fourth from last.

One might say, “How could Trump be fourth from last! How could he not be last!”

Well, the answer is that of the bottom three, James Buchanon (last), Andrew Johnson (Second to last), and Franklin Pierce, (Third to last) all bookend the Civil War. Buchanon’s term led right into the Civil War, Andrew Johnson’s led right after Lincoln, (Johnson opposed the single most important Constitutional Amendment in existence, the 14th Amendment) and Franklin Pierce predated Buchanon, also setting up the Civil War. So one might say that Trump is the single worst president who wasn’t somehow tied to the Civil War.

That seems about right, though it wasn’t for lack of trying. It sure looked to us like Trump tried to ignite his own civil war. We might also point out that Trump’s not done, at least not done impacting the country as an ex-president (We pray to all dogs in heaven that he will not get another term to seek the bottom) Oh, and another way of looking at it, even Herbert Hoover is four places above Donald Trump.

See the list HERE.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of LeftScoop.news. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.