# Top five 'Heroes' of the Democratic Party **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 5, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318 "2015-07-05T16:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/41 "2015-07-06T18:55:22Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > As the first Democrat to win reelection in more than 50 years Bill Clinton certainly deserves to be there. Way more than Obama. Obama just gets an asterisk for being the first (half-) black president. I don’t think history is going to remember him for much anything else. You’re out of your mind. Nothing nearly as consequential as Obamacare or gay marriage happened while Clinton was in office. ---
**Author:** ![ISiddiqui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/97f17d/32.png) [@ISiddiqui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ISiddiqui)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/42 "2015-07-06T19:26:43Z")
The ACA, fine. But I’m not sure you can say the Administration was responsible for gay marriage… I mean, unless Justice Kennedy is on the payroll. I do think Clinton’s rebranding of the Democratic Party into a “third way” type of party was strongly influential. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/43 "2015-07-06T19:49:28Z")
> [@Tzigone](#): > > The OP asks for 5 heroes, but I do need to know if that’s just a list on who we think the should be or who we’d promote with pictures on a parade float? For that, they need to famous, not just important, and it’d probably help if they were recognizable by face and not just name. Well, both, really, but I think the list of who think it should be comes first. Then they can make the pictures for next year’s parade float from that, and if the spectators say “Who dat?”, that’s fine. I’m pretty sure few would have recognized Sally Ride unless the name was on the photo. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/44 "2015-07-06T20:24:24Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > You’re out of your mind. Nothing nearly as consequential as Obamacare or gay marriage happened while Clinton was in office. Eight straight years of economic expansion for the first time in the nation’s history. And balancing the budget. The 90’s were the best economic decade since the 50’s. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/45 "2015-07-06T20:53:56Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > JFK would have been a no-brainer not long ago… to more recent, younger Democrats, perhaps Ted should be there. JFK was a pretty awful president. His biggest accomplishment was being killed and thereby providing LBJ with lots of political capital. ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2015, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/46 "2015-07-06T23:21:56Z")
> [@bup](#): > > Eight straight years of economic expansion for the first time in the nation’s history. > > And balancing the budget. > > The 90’s were the best economic decade since the 50’s. Like I said, nothing nearly as consequential as gay marriage or Obamacare. Those are both specific long-lasting (probably permanent!) things that people will remember fifty years from now, much more than “we had a pretty good economy for awhile when I was a kid.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/47 "2015-07-07T01:08:54Z")
Replace Sally Ride with Molly Ivins. We could use a few dozen like her. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/48 "2015-07-07T05:46:31Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > For the ideal Texas float: > > LBJ > Sam Houston > Sam Rayburn > Ann Richards > Wendy Davis > > They just won’t recognize the names of anyone else. Ooh, Wendy Davis is a good idea! Contrast her to the Clintons. Character matters more than simply being powerful. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2015, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318/49 "2015-07-07T05:53:05Z")
> [@Mosier](#): > > You’re out of your mind. Nothing nearly as consequential as Obamacare or gay marriage happened while Clinton was in office. Um, ending welfare? Establishing the precedent that USA-hired mercenaries cannot be prosecuted for _any_ crime by _anyone?_ Dismantling govenment research, auditing, and accountability offices in the name of “reinventing government”? Yeah, I’d say the Clinton/Gore/Gingrich troika was very successful and very consequential. [ETA: Granted, those are technically “reversible mistakes,” so you may be right.] Now, stick the word “good” in your second sentence (say, second word) and I’d tend to agree. Of course, even DADT was a step in a progressive direction away from what the hard right wanted to do to gay servicemen, so yeah, Clinton was pretty social justice in his way. Kind of a corrupt, oblivious, and reckless bougie, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-heroes-of-the-democratic-party/724318.md?page=2)