I said at the beginning of this series, “No President has actually failed in their capacity.” The nation is still here. But there are three Presidents who have had the most disastrous impact on American history compared to all others. The nation remained, although warped in the image of these men. Their legacy has left a very sour taste in the mouth of the American people.

Lyndon B. Johnson – There are two reasons LBJ has been terribly consequential for the American people. While most young people today blame the Vietnam War on Richard Nixon, it was in fact a war that begun based on intentionally deceptive reports by the CIA to LBJ and his caving to both their lying and the publics call for war. Johnson had doubts about the veracity of the claims of an attack on August 4, 1964, but still decided to escalate the conflict and begin the most unpopular war to date in American history.

In the U.S., Johnson’s policies were both good and bad. On the one hand, he did sign and support the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This was a tremendous victory for African-Americans and the fight against Jim Crow during Civil Rights. It showed that even a Southern Democrat from Texas believed in the “promissory note” Martin Luther King Jr. described. However, LBJ also began the War on Poverty. This expansion of the already bloated New Deal bureaucracy and social spending has had lasting consequences. The argument I find convincing is that the War on Poverty exacerbated and infantilized the African-American communities and set them up for failure in the economically disastrous 1970s. It was the usual unintended consequence of good intentions. But, it still has repercussions today. Put together, the War on Poverty and the Vietnam War are certainly enough to say that LBJ was a Lemon.

Woodrow Wilson – There is a lot to say about the moralizing and racist nature of Woodrow Wilson. Two of his actions were incredibly destructive to the nation. The first for the nation and the second for the world. Wilson is the only professor to be President. He was something of a dark horse, only winning due to Teddy Roosevelt’s Bull Moose Party splitting the Republican ticket. Wilson was perhaps the most consequential historian in American history. His version of history, today known as the Lost Cause, reinvented the Civil War as a Southern cause for States Rights and Reconstruction as proof that freedmen were incapable of participating in self-government. This perspective, and Wilson’s moralizing tone, created the second rise of the Ku Klux Klan. After endorsing and screening “The Birth of a Nation” on the White House lawn, the KKK rose from the ashes of burning crosses and gave presidential sanction of the worst of Jim Crow’s crimes and segregation.

Internationally, Wilson is a key contributor to World War II. To begin, his push for the Treaty of Versailles in France, while suffering from the aftereffects of a terrible stroke, and creation of the ineffectual League of Nations set the creaky and ultimately fatal foundation for the world cataclysm that was World War II. He couldn’t get France to drop the impossibly brutal war reparations from Germany nor prevent them from the age-old European habit of territory acquisition. To make matters worse, Wilson was unable to even get the U.S. to join the League of Nations. He had created a Frankenstein’s monster of international cooperation and couldn’t even get his own nation to join it. This is all after he campaigned on keeping the U.S. out of war and then immediately joining the war in 1917.

James Buchanan – If ever there was a president to lose the nation, it was Buchanan. His ineffectual leadership and treasonous cabinet tore the country apart. Kansas had two capitols and two constitutions during his presidency. The Dredd Scott decision was embraced by his administration. And of course, the infamous Raid on Harper’s Ferry. John Brown’s martyrdom was concocted because Buchanan refused to override Virginia and prosecute Brown federally.

For the first time in American history, the nation was actually torn apart. Secession was not a new thought, in fact Andrew Jackson had defeated South Carolina’s call for it during the nullification crisis. But, Buchanan was unable and unwilling to do anything to stop South Carolina from seceding. Buchanan is the definition of a “lame-duck” president. Only Lincoln’s rise to the occasion saved the Union. Buchanan’s weak tenure cast the nation into Civil War. Was that a good thing? Ultimately, probably so. But I am not sure we want to celebrate a president who created a Civil War, or at the very least prevented it from occurring.

And there it is. A brief overview of the Lemon Presidents. Thankfully, I think most presidents have been a net benefit in one way or another for the nation. Even some of these had their good marks. Overt partisanship certainly had a hand in these ratings, but that is what makes them fun. You can’t rate them objectively, that is a fool’s errand. Politics is a subjective game. And I think historians would benefit from accepting that.