Best President of the Progressive Era, and Why?

[Frodo]

Just to continue off of my previous threads on the Jacksonian Era and Gilded Age:

The Progressive Era here covers the period from the mid-1890s to the Great Depression.  It was a period of unrest that saw the rise of the labor union movement, the Muckrakers, women's suffrage, and a host of other movements and causes that sought to reform our society, our government, and our economy to make it more efficient and just.  It also saw the rise of the Fourth Party System.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

McKinley.

[DC Al Fine]

Coolidge, but there's several good ones in there.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

TR.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Teddy, followed by Wilson (who is pretty overrated by historians but is treated rather unfairly by internet libertarians)

[Cryptic]

TR.

Reasons:
Trust Busting.
Willing to negotiate with workers and unions.
Increased regulation of business in a time it was desperately needed.
First President I'm aware of to promote conservation. 
Improved the quality of food sold by making it illegal to have misleading labels. 
Good approach to foreign policy (speak softly and care a big stick). 
Also, got the ball rolling on healthcare by being the first President to talk about it as an issue. 

[The Mikado]

TR.

Reasons:
Trust Busting.
Willing to negotiate with workers and unions.
Increased regulation of business in a time it was desperately needed.
First President I'm aware of to promote conservation. 
Improved the quality of food sold by making it illegal to have misleading labels. 
Good approach to foreign policy (speak softly and care a big stick). 
Also, got the ball rolling on healthcare by being the first President to talk about it as an issue. 

...Aside from the second one, and even that's questionable, every point on this list is misleading at best and propagandistic at worst.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Technically most of those were passed by Congress and signed by TR. His role was just using the bully pulpit to push through his own agenda.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

TR, because he enacted a lot of great reforms in the meatpacking industry and other areas.  Like progressivism or not, and I believe that they may have gone too far, these were very necessary for the health and safety of the public.

[Marokai Backbeat]

Teddy, followed by Wilson (who is pretty overrated by historians but is treated rather unfairly by internet libertarians)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Also, LOL@Coolidge votes. He was anything but libertarian, people.

[DC Al Fine]

Also, LOL@Coolidge votes. He was anything but libertarian, people.

He cut spending, reduced taxes, and paid off some of the national debt. That is more than enough to top the list in my book.

[Modernity has failed us]

Calvin Coolidge, duh.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Also, LOL@Coolidge votes. He was anything but libertarian, people.

He cut spending, reduced taxes, and paid off some of the national debt. That is more than enough to top the list in my book.

...as well as poisoning moonshine wells to kill Appalachians?

[DC Al Fine]

Also, LOL@Coolidge votes. He was anything but libertarian, people.

He cut spending, reduced taxes, and paid off some of the national debt. That is more than enough to top the list in my book.

...as well as poisoning moonshine wells to kill Appalachians?

Link?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2010/02/the_chemists_war.html

[DC Al Fine]

It appears he ordered a change in a denaturing formula to stop people from changing stolen industrial alcohol into drinkable stuff. Certainly not a great thing to do, but c'mon, poisoning the hillbillies is a bit much.

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

How in the hell can anyone with a brain vote for Harding, Coolidge, or Hoover? These are the men that got us into the Depression.

[renegadedemocrat]

TR, not even close. Although Wilson was also very good.

[Phony Moderate]

Wasn't Coolidge a raving protectionist? Well, maybe not a raving one, but....

[Sasquatch]

TR

[alexmanu]

TR, such an easy choice.

[SPC]

Harding or Coolidge were least objectionable of this group, although their nativism, protectionism, and prohibitionism leave room to be desired. Hoover was better in his post-Presidency efforts, but had the above problems plus laid the groundwork for massive government intervention in the economy.

[nolesfan2011]

TR the anti corporate power, progressive, strong America trust buster. Rest were average or bad (ie Wilson). TR was a great politician, great military leader, great diplomat, with good vision and a spine and he took steps on regulation, public health and safety, workers rights etc.

[TNF]

Wilson.

He did pretty much everything T.R. said that he was going to do.

Seriously, Wilson gets a bad rap because of things he did in WWI, but I assure you that FDR did, well, pretty much most of what Wilson did, and interned an entire race of human beings. And we all love FDR on the left. So I think Wilson gets a little too much sh**t, in some regard. Yes, we was a weasley racist bastard, but so was Theodore "Blood for the Blood God" Roosevelt. Wilson passed more good legislation than any president up to that point, and made the New Deal possible by setting up the foundations for it (income tax, federal reserve, co-operation between labor and government, proving that government intervention in the economy could work)

So, my final ranking is:

[1] Woodrow Wilson
[2] Theodore Roosevelt
[3] William Howard Taft
[4] William McKinley
[5] Herbert Hoover
[6] Calvin Coolidge
[7] Warren Harding

Harding is an odious slimeball and probably would be considered the worst President in American history were it not for Richard Nixon.