Hating Woodrow Wilson

Introduction

Franklin Roosevelt has easily held the top spot on the conservatives' list of worst presidents, but Woodrow Wilson, who was in office from 1913 to 1921, has given him strong competition in the last couple of years.

Why is that? The many followers of Glenn Beck would know the answer, as explained in a Sunday Magazine article in The Times a week ago. The Fox News host has railed against the 28th president's leadership of the Progressive Era's expansion of federal and police power that has been detailed by conservative scholars like Ronald J. Pestritto and popularized in "Liberal Fascism," a 2008 book by Jonah Goldberg, a National Review columnist.

Why is Woodrow Wilson singled out and not, say, Theodore Roosevelt, who in popular history is far more associated with the Progressive cause? What in the current political climate is continuing to fuel the criticism of Wilson?

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