Right Wing News has compiled two lists of “Worst Figures In American History” as determined by right-wing and left-wing blogs. The introductions to both lists begin “Out of all the gangsters, serial killers, mass murders, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks in all of American history…”, so you can be sure that both these lists should be taken with a giant grain of salt. After all, they were compiled by political junkies. Before I get into the absurdity of these lists, here they are :

Now both lists eventually descend into partisan choices, but it’s pretty revealing how much sooner the right-wing list does than the left’s. I’m not saying the left’s list is perfect, but looking at the two lists side-by-side, it’s very clear which one I agree with. Rather than nitpick the lists to death (that’s what the comments section is for), the one thing I think worth mentioning is that for all their assurances that their racist past is behind them, the right-wing’s list has Jesse Jackson almost tied with Nathan Bedford Forrest, the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.