So why exactly is Andrew Jackson an avatar choice

[JAbuchan08]

he always sounded like a real jerk to me. Does he have some sort of redeeming features?

[I Know How To Do it]

1. Oh, I thought that was Kerry.

[hobbit709]

2. He wasn't a coward

and he didn't have much use for the Bank of the United States.

[Mutley]

3. I've wondered that too.

Maybe it was some revisionist history going on but my various history teachers over the years have always made Jackson sound like an asshole.

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Because he's considered to be the founder of the modern Democratic Party?

Or one of them, anyway...

[NoPasaran]

5. One of the founding fathers of the Democratic Party

Victor at New Orleans
Vanquisher of the Bank
Hero of the Common Man

Huzzah for Old Hickory!

[Xithras]

10. He was also a slaveholder and was personally responsible for genocide.

Jackson was no hero. He personally authorized the expulsion of Indian tribes from the south, usurped our democracy by deliberately ignoring the courts rulings when they said that Cherokee lands didn't belong to the US, and crafted the law that created the trail of tears and led to the deaths of countless Cherokee, Seminole, and other southern indians.

The man is a blight on history.

[NoPasaran]

13. Yeah, whatever

:boring:

[sniffa]

15. wow

i'm gonna nominate this thread now, so hopefuLLy more peopLe get to read your defense of jackson.

[UrbScotty]

6. He was the first President to officially be called a Democrat.

Why they have Cleveland too, I don't know.

[WeRQ4U]

7. From the "One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band" of course.

Grampa liked to sing about him.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Seems to me he was sensible about coprorations the way Ike was sensible

about the military industrial complex.

[Sequoia]

9. Mr. Trail of Tears

......The Cherokee, on the other hand, were tricked with an illegitimate treaty. In 1833, a small faction agreed to sign a removal agreement: the Treaty of New Echota. The leaders of this group were not the recognized leaders of the Cherokee nation, and over 15,000 Cherokees -- led by Chief John Ross -- signed a petition in protest. The Supreme Court ignored their demands and ratified the treaty in 1836. The Cherokee were given two years to migrate voluntarily, at the end of which time they would be forcibly removed. By 1838 only 2,000 had migrated; 16,000 remained on their land. The U.S. government sent in 7,000 troops, who forced the Cherokees into stockades at bayonet point. They were not allowed time to gather their belongings, and as they left, whites looted their homes. Then began the march known as the Trail of Tears, in which 4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

By 1837, the Jackson administration had removed 46,000 Native American people from their land east of the Mississippi, and had secured treaties which led to the removal of a slightly larger number. Most members of the five southeastern nations had been relocated west, opening 25 million acres of land to white settlement and to slavery.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html

[JAbuchan08]

11. Okay so I changed my avatar

seeing as I don't remember why I chose it in the firstplace..

[alarcojon]

12. You mean "Sharp Knife"?

as he is known to American Indians?

[undeterred]

14. He invented the ATM

and so he got his picture on the $20.