Who are the political figures which you admire the most?

[Kergstan]

Who are the political figures (Presidents,revolutionaries, philosophers...) who inspired you?
And did you abrutly ever changed idea about someone you used to admire or hate in the past?

To me those figures are Thomas Sankara, Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Abdullah Ocalan, Sub-comandante Marcos, Lenin among others.

I changed opinion drastically about Hugo Chávez, while i still admire parts of his stay in power i dislike how misleading he was, the endemic corruption and mismanagement during his rule and the birth of the boliburguesia.

[Sundiata]

John F. Kennedy, the first and only Catholic President of the United States.

[Romextly]

Scipio Publius, John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II

[Sundiata]

Scipio Publius, John F. Kennedy and Pope John Paul II

Great choices.

[Ethel mermania]

Washington, Lincoln, MLK. ed koch. Daniel patrick Moynihan.

[Fartsniffage]

Alfred the Great.

[State of Turelisa]

Martin Luther for encouraging the schism in the Catholic church with his controversial Ninety-five Theses, which began the Reformation.

Margaret Thatcher for her radical reforms which reduced inflation and increased the national rate of productivity, by privatisation of industry, making secondary industrial action illegal, and keeping a firm grip on public spending and borrowing. She also was the last Prime Minister to try and advance traditional social values by encouraging self-sufficiency, and at a time when hard-Left councils were allowing literature promoting homosexuality as a lifestyle to be read in schools under their local authority, introduced the counter-measure of Section 28 and created the National Curriculum.

[Sundiata]

Martin Luther for encouraging the schism in the Catholic church with his controversial Ninety-five Theses, which began the Reformation.

...

[Rusozak]

John F. Kennedy, the first and only Catholic President of the United States.

Kind of a weird qualifier. I do admire Kennedy, but more for how he pushed the nation towards going to the moon.

[Sao Nova Europa]

As far as modern politicians go, I do admire Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan for bringing back to the mainstream the ideals of limited government and free markets (though both had to make compromises of course, and personally I am more socially liberal than either of them). Bill Clinton and Tony Blair come close as sensible, third way centrists. For contemporary politicians, I would say Emmanuel Macron for his vision of the EU and his attempts to reform the French economy.

For older historical figures, I would say Winston Churchill for his wartime leadership and Eleftherios Venizelos and Charilaos Trikoupis (both reformist Greek politicians: the first doubled the size of Greece during the Balkan Wars while the second was a modernizer trying to make the Greek state efficient and to build up Greece's infrastructure).

I do admire Napoleon, Alexander the Great and John Komnenos as historical political figures, but I would most certainly not vote for them or want them to rule over me.

[Major-Tom]

Ataturk, Mandela, Bhutto, Attlee, LaFollette, Pedro II, Lula, FDR, & many many more I'm not thinking of for historical political leaders/influential figures. As for those in modern day, there are few leaders I have a deep admiration for, barring people like Jacinda Ardern, though there are plenty of leaders to have a grudging respect for.

[Kergstan]

Ataturk, Mandela, Bhutto, Attlee, LaFollette, Pedro II, Lula, FDR, & many many more I'm not thinking of for historical political leaders/influential figures. As for those in modern day, there are few leaders I have a deep admiration for, barring people like Jacinda Ardern, though there are plenty of leaders to have a grudging respect for.

Oh shi i forgot the great Mandela..

Zulfiqar or Benazir Bhutto? When it comes to the second i admire her too but not to a very large extent.
As for Lula i based part of my high school final thesis on him, especially the ''fome zero'' and ''bolsa familia'' programs as i was in gastronomic high school.

[Kubra]

Garibaldi all the way, nicest dude to ever lead people into, um, brutal marches and brutal battles.

[Major-Tom]

Ataturk, Mandela, Bhutto, Attlee, LaFollette, Pedro II, Lula, FDR, & many many more I'm not thinking of for historical political leaders/influential figures. As for those in modern day, there are few leaders I have a deep admiration for, barring people like Jacinda Ardern, though there are plenty of leaders to have a grudging respect for.

Oh shi i forgot the great Mandela..

Zulfiqar or Benazir Bhutto? When it comes to the second i admire her too but not to a very large extent.
As for Lula i based part of my high school final thesis on him, especially the ''fome zero'' and ''bolsa familia'' programs as i was in gastronomic high school.

Benazir is the one I know more about, she was certainly not without flaws, but her steadfast attempts to advance literacy, women's rights, and economic mobility where it was dangerous to do so is admirable. In the end, she was killed for it.

Lula was a cool guy, still is, also not without faults and I can see why he became polarizing, but he put his soul and all his energy into lifting people out of poverty.

[Dresderstan]

Caesar, Napoleon, Lincoln, Grant, Ike, Churchill, Washington, Hamilton, De Gaulle, MLK, Gandhi, FDR, Teddy, Alexander The Great, Catherine The Great, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Louis XIV, Kennedy, Richard the Lionheart, Henry II, and a few more, but these are just the easy ones off the top of my head.

[Disgraces]

PERÓN

[Chan Island]

I don't really admire any given figure per se. Some of them I think were great at some things, but then were less good at others. Others I think could have been great and are admirable, but were dealt a bad hand which tainted history's view of them.

Margaret Thatcher

Cringe

[Radiatia]

Benjamin Disraeli, although I admire him as much for his contributions to literature as to politics.

However his politics (one-nation Toryism) strongly influenced my own views and I further admire him for overcoming antisemitism in the 1870s to become Britain's first (and to my knowledge only) Jewish Prime Minister.

[Rojava Free State]

Andrew Yang, Bernie Sanders, Rashida Talib, and Rob Ford. One for their politics, one for the memes and two for both.

[New Bremerton]

Liberal New Atheists such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Maajid Nawaz (anti-woke liberal and ex-jihadist terrorist turned Muslim reformer)

Anti-feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers, Karen Straughan, Cassie Jaye, James Damore, and Warren Farrell, not to mention our very own Ostroeuropa

Coleman Hughes (liberal, Democrat critic of Black Lives Matter; he's black in case that wasn't clear)

Douglas Murray (critic of Islam and mass Muslim immigration to Europe)

Liu Xiaobo, Chen Guangcheng, Ai Weiwei, Tank Man, Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Li Wenliang, and other anti-CCP dissidents, internal liberal reformers, and whistleblowers within China

Anti-corruption activist Clare Rewcastle-Brown, who fought to free Malaysia from a corrupt, authoritarian regime. She's the only reason the old regime collapsed in the first place. She should be bestowed honorary Malaysian citizenship.

Chris Chappell of China Uncensored and America Uncovered (the former program exposes the CCP's sinister machinations; the latter sets the record straight on all things related to America for a foreign audience in an unbiased and impartial manner)

Jimmy Lai (founder of Apple Daily, a HK-based pro-democracy tabloid)

Chris Patten (last governor of HK prior to the city's fateful Handover to the CCP in 1997; stands with HK)

David Ben-Gurion (founded a nation-state and refuge for Jews fleeing persecution against all the odds)

Tsai Ing-wen (current president of Taiwan and major thorn in Xi Jinping's backside; stands with HK)

Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Nathan Law (leading members of Demosisto, a pro-democracy political party in HK)

Anson Chan, Martin Lee, Emily Lau, Claudia Mo, Leung Kwok-hung, and other high-profile pro-democracy leaders in HK

Nikki Haley (ardent supporter of Israel)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (New Deal and victory in WWII helped end Great Depression and MAGA)

John McCain (Vietnam War veteran and advocate of military justice against murderous butcher Bashar al-Assad)

John Locke (founding father of liberalism)

Political figures I used to admire:

Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir Mohamad (huge disappointments who let me and the rest of my country down)

Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, George Galloway, and other controversial, far-left public figures

Barack Obama (huge foreign policy disappointment; betrayed Israel's trust toward the very end, cowed by Russian meddling in Syria and Ukraine)

Donald Trump is a special case. Here is a man I strongly admire in some ways (e.g. populist/anti-establishment, standing up to China, standing with HK and Taiwan, standing with Israel, advocating men's rights, All Lives Matter as a counter to BLM, lawsuit against race-based affirmative action in college admissions, tough immigration policy) yet remain fiercely critical of in other ways (e.g. "law and order" and heavy-handed response to BLM protests and riots, failure to contain coronavirus pandemic domestically, trade war against EU and other allies, betraying the Syrian Kurds in their time of need, signing off on an expensive arms deal with Saudi Arabia, failing to halt the inhumane and callous intervention in Yemen, pledging to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, failing to adequately distance himself from the far-right).

[Federal Republic Of America And The Cari]

Caesar, Napoleon, Lincoln, Grant, Ike, Churchill, Washington, Hamilton, De Gaulle, MLK, Gandhi, FDR, Teddy, Alexander The Great, Catherine The Great, Charlemagne, Joan of Arc, Elizabeth I, Louis XIV, Kennedy, Richard the Lionheart, Henry II, and a few more, but these are just the easy ones off the top of my head.

Good choices

[Federal Republic Of America And The Cari]

Liberal New Atheists such as Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Maajid Nawaz (anti-woke liberal and ex-jihadist terrorist turned Muslim reformer)

Anti-feminists such as Christina Hoff Sommers, Karen Straughan, Cassie Jaye, James Damore, and Warren Farrell, not to mention our very own Ostroeuropa

Coleman Hughes (liberal, Democrat critic of Black Lives Matter; he's black in case that wasn't clear)

Douglas Murray (critic of Islam and mass Muslim immigration to Europe)

Liu Xiaobo, Chen Guangcheng, Ai Weiwei, Tank Man, Hu Yaobang, Zhao Ziyang, Li Wenliang, and other anti-CCP dissidents, internal liberal reformers, and whistleblowers within China

Anti-corruption activist Clare Rewcastle-Brown, who fought to free Malaysia from a corrupt, authoritarian regime. She's the only reason the old regime collapsed in the first place. She should be bestowed honorary Malaysian citizenship.

Chris Chappell of China Uncensored and America Uncovered (the former program exposes the CCP's sinister machinations; the latter sets the record straight on all things related to America for a foreign audience in an unbiased and impartial manner)

Jimmy Lai (founder of Apple Daily, a HK-based pro-democracy tabloid)

Chris Patten (last governor of HK prior to the city's fateful Handover to the CCP in 1997; stands with HK)

David Ben-Gurion (founded a nation-state and refuge for Jews fleeing persecution against all the odds)

Tsai Ing-wen (current president of Taiwan and major thorn in Xi Jinping's backside; stands with HK)

Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, Nathan Law (leading members of Demosisto, a pro-democracy political party in HK)

Anson Chan, Martin Lee, Emily Lau, Claudia Mo, Leung Kwok-hung, and other high-profile pro-democracy leaders in HK

Nikki Haley (ardent supporter of Israel)

Franklin D. Roosevelt (New Deal and victory in WWII helped end Great Depression and MAGA)

John McCain (Vietnam War veteran and advocate of military justice against murderous butcher Bashar al-Assad)

John Locke (founding father of liberalism)

Political figures I used to admire:

Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir Mohamad (huge disappointments who let me and the rest of my country down)

Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, George Galloway, and other controversial, far-left public figures

Barack Obama (huge foreign policy disappointment; betrayed Israel's trust toward the very end, cowed by Russian meddling in Syria and Ukraine)

Donald Trump is a special case. Here is a man I strongly admire in some ways (e.g. populist/anti-establishment, standing up to China, standing with HK and Taiwan, standing with Israel, advocating men's rights, All Lives Matter as a counter to BLM, lawsuit against race-based affirmative action in college admissions, tough immigration policy) yet remain fiercely critical of in other ways (e.g. "law and order" and heavy-handed response to BLM protests and riots, failure to contain coronavirus pandemic domestically, trade war against EU and other allies, betraying the Syrian Kurds in their time of need, signing off on an expensive arms deal with Saudi Arabia, failing to halt the inhumane and callous intervention in Yemen, pledging to appoint pro-life justices to the Supreme Court, failing to adequately distance himself from the far-right).

EVEN FUCKING BETTER

[Rojava Free State]

Marcus Aurelius was a really introspective guy. His thoughts were like a stream of consciousness, endlessly philosophizing.

[Kyundao]

For me it's Calvin Coolidge, Lee Kuan Yew and Confucius.

[Latvijas Otra Republika]

Never found idolizing any real stranger as something you should do, would rather form my own ideas. People will only end up disappointing you.

Unironicly - If there are any I’d say Aldis Gobzems, guy might be a little off sometimes but he’s doing big things. Like Donald Trump as well, Julian Assange isn’t too bad.