Your list...

Wilson, Jackson, FDR, Grant and Carter... the worst five Presidents in US history, according to F. Ryan.

Obviously, I am aware of the percentage of progressives on the list... 60%.  Also, that 60% of the list are 20th Century Presidents.  Wilson is the worst because he was the most progressive President until FDR, and FDR only remained third-worst because of his leadership during WWII... am I right?  I'm no fan of Wilson, and it pains me to ask this, but I'm looking to understand better why he makes the worst of the worst list.

Wilson was a progressive... liberal, leftist, centralist, statist, call it what you will... and ushered in the busiest 100 days the country had seen in decades, unrivaled in the 20th Century until FDR was sworn in, in fact. He did more to change the Fed than anyone had in the 35 years before him.  I'm curious as to what changes he made that were so bad.  The anti-trust laws?  The Federal Reserve?  The income tax?  The League of Nations?

His anti-trust actions were (in my eyes) simply an extension of what the Republicans had been doing under Roosevelt and Taft... and Wilson only did it to pander to the right.  The Federal Reserve was, is and will continue to be the best means by which we can regulate our national currency and national debt that I have heard of.  Failings within the early years of its existence were fixed in the 1930s, and the Reserve has proven itself time and time again since then.  The income tax was a means by which Wilson could lower tariffs across the board without reducing Federal revenues... and proved to be a necessary evil in light of the cost of fighting and winning WWI.  The League of Nations was a failure from the moment it was conceived... it was so impotent and twisted that it couldn't have infringed on a nation's sovereignty if it had wanted to, and was little more than a means for the US and other signatory nations to meet in a single room and waste breath.

I'm asking what it was that he did as President that makes him dead last?  He's low on my list, too, mind you... so don't think I'm defending him.  In fact, here's my last five:

Out of 42 past Presidents...

38)  John Tyler
39)  Millard Filmore
40)  Franklin Pierce
41)  James Buchanan
42)  Andrew Johnson

Wilson comes in at #29... Carter at #35... Nixon at #37... Grant at #31... and FDR is sitting pretty at #7.

Obviously, my list is centered around what I still believe to be the single most divisive period in American history... the Civil War.  The three Presidents preceding Lincoln did nothing to stop the conflict and actually might have sped it up, while Johnson coddled the radical Republican wing of Congress and turned Reconstruction into Federal retribution, souring relations between North and South for another 50 years.  That's why Lincoln is #2 on my list, behind Washington.

I can't think of another President that fundamentally changed the role of Executive authority in this country more than Lincoln... and he changed it forever (meaning until today).  Not Wilson, not FDR, and certainly not Obama... yet he is hands-down one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known, let alone the US.  Is it only because you so despise anything and everything "progressive" that things like the Federal Reserve, the Federal Highway system, TVA, SSI and the dismembering of Ma Bell are seen as utterly evil, but Lincoln is lauded as "great"?

This isn't me trying to pick a fight... and you don't even have to answer.  I know your positions on this topic, and this isn't anything we haven't talked about before, but if you wanted to continue... that's what I'm asking.