As a follower and supporter of Ron Paul and his ideas, I heard many mentions of Robert Taft in his speeches. Two years ago, I knew that there was a president named Taft, but I couldn't tell you anything he did or when he was in office. But the Taft in 1952 was President Taft's grandson, and a serious Republican presidential contender in his day. For those of us who were born since then, Robert A. Taft has become an historical footnote.
Taft and Paul have many parallels. Taft argued against the United States entering World War Two, until we were attacked and war was declared. Paul voted in Congress for the U.S. to stay out of Iraq, and then advocated to leave Iraq as quickly as possible. Iraq never attacked the United States. Paul argued that this nation went to war unconstitutionally, because it had not formerly declared war, but used an illegal police action, similar to what President Truman did in Korea. Taft riled against the FDR's New Deal of expanded government controls and deficit spending. During Paul's ten terms in Congress, he has pressed vigorously for spending cuts, reversing decades of government expansion. In his day, Taft was the leading spokesman for the conservatives in the Republican Party. Today, Paul is one of the last of the purists, often voting against his own party.
Harry S. Truman became President in 1945 to finish out Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth term. Truman was then elected as president in 1948. During that term, in support of UN resolutions and as part of NATO, he committed U.S. ground forces to support the democracy of Korea from the communist threat from their north. Today, instead of communism, the specter of terrorism has pushed the United States into long and expensive engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan.Robert Taft, who had run unsuccessfully for president in 1940 and 1948, was running again on a platform that was critical of Truman's running of the war and against government spending. America was tired from back-to-back wars. The draft still in effect from the First World War was now being used to commit young men to a new war in Asia. On March 29, 1952, President Truman announced he would not run again. Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson eventually became the Democratic Party nominee. Still, the Republicans continued to run against the record of Truman administration.
Although Taft had a strong showing in the 1952 primaries, Eisenhower's liberal/moderate supporters, the same ones who nominated Thomas Dewey in 1944 and 1948, controlled a modest majority of the Republican Party. They wanted to capitalize on Ike's popularity due his wartime service. His "win fast and come home" approach to the Korean conflict gave the Republicans hope of taking back the Whitehouse for the first time since Herbert Hoover lost to Roosevelt in 1932. Eisenhower was committed to NATO as a counter to communism. Taft was critical of all multi-national organizations, such as NATO and the United Nations, as is Ron Paul today. After nearly sixty years, the United States still has army troops along South Korea's northern border.
This election proved to be the third defeat for Taft. Although Eisenhower won the nomination, the Republicans came to realize that they needed Taft's supporters to win against Truman in the general election. Eisenhower made a number of policy concessions with regards to reduced government spending and lowered taxes. It was enough to get a dejected Taft to endorse the Republican nominee.
Taft was allowed to speak out on the subject of "creeping socialism", as part of his attack on the Truman administration. In 1950, Taft gave a speech to the Maine Republican State Convention, in which he links Truman with socialism:
It is said that Harry Truman is no socialist. That makes little difference if all his policies lead to socialism. We are in danger of complete government control not only because of his policies, but because the totalitarian philosophy has affected the thinking of a lot of other people in this country who ought to know better. There was a time when men expected to solve their own problems, when they were solved by cooperative effort and local effort. Today the first thought is to turn to Washington for money and action. The organization of pressure groups has been a dangerous factor in that movement. Every pressure group, whether from business or labor or professions, concentrate their interest on Washington activity. Their paid lobbyists find it much easier to seek a federal statute than to go out and educate the people or even their own members, to achieve by their own efforts a solution of their own problems. ([link edited for length])
You could have replaced the name "Harry Truman" in the above with any number of today's presidential contenders, in either the Democratic or Republican Parties, and it would have passed for a Ron Paul speech.
Rolling forward to 2008, John McCain has a strong commitment to NATO. He believes that military intervention is the right path for defeating international Jihadist Islamic Terrorism. He does not believe in setting time goals or defining exactly what victory this surge (a mere euphemism for the Vietnam-era term "escalation") has accomplished. His wartime leadership covered a squadron of carrier-based attack bombers. Admirable, but not an Admiral.
Unlike 1952, McCain didn't have to worry about a close race in the primary. His nearest competition, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, conceded their convention delegate votes and endorsed McCain well before the convention. The Republican Convention became a surreal celebration of the interventionist policies of the George Bush administration and lip service to long-abandoned fiscal constraints, with a sprinkling of praise to the much weakened "moral majority".
The last primary season holdout was Ron Paul. His supporters raised millions of dollars in the weeks that led up to the Super Tuesday primary back in February. For all that effort, the Paul delegates registered at the convention in the dozens. In protest, many Paul supporters staged their own rally in Minneapolis, drawing about one-fourth as many as those who attended the Republican national convention, just a few miles away. Ron Paul was the only top candidate not to get a speaking opportunity at the Party's convention. Weeks later, he held a press conference to support non-Republicans, and then finally to endorse Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin on September 22nd.
By snubbing the Paul contingent, GOP may have lost that critical 10% in funding and boots on the ground that could turn what may be (or may have been) a close election against the Democratic nominee Barack Obama.
The money part of the equation is making a difference. Last year, John McCain agreed to take public funding as a result of his early mismanagement of his campaign budget. Staunch Republican supporters kept their purses closed in part to McCain's involvement in the failed immigration legislation that was scorned by Republican conservatives as amnesty for illegal immigrants. Last week, McCain stated he will close his Michigan office due to lack of funding ([link edited for length]) in order to concentrate on toss-up states, such as nearby Ohio and Indiana.
With the general election just a few weeks away, John McCain is no better than tied with Barack Obama. Many polls show him behind by a few points. Some pundits are putting Obama ahead because of recent deterioration of the national economy ([link edited for length]).
In attempt to appease the social conservatives, McCain chose an unknown Alaskan governor as his running mate. Unlike Taft or Paul, Sarah Palin does not bring years of public statements on foreign or national policy to the table. Her executive credentials in the last twelve years include being mayor of a 6,500-person town for four years, chair of the state's oil and gas commission for two years, and the governor of the least populated state in the union for less than two years. Her experience pales in comparison to Eisenhower's coordination of the invasion of Normandy, leading to the defeat of Hitler.
By the McCain camp not including Paul's small government enthusiasts, it may have handed Obama a victory next month. Up to the election, some Ron Paul Republicans might actively campaign for the Democrats, if Obama is seen as pushing for a quicker end to the war in Iraq. But they're more likely to do something even more harmful to the McCain campaign on Election Day. They just may not vote at all.
©2008 Bob Nightingale, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Last modified: Tuesday, October 7, 2008
The views expressed in this article are those of Bob Nightingale only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Bob Nightingale is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: rtbohan
Date: 2008-10-07 15:34:44
Good article on Taft and Eisenhower. Truman, however, was not running for re-election in 1952, He undoubtely wanted to, but by February 1952 his approval rating was at 24%, and he was knocked out of the race when he finished behind Senator Estes Kefauver in the New Hampshire primary.
Posted By: blakmira
Date: 2008-10-07 16:36:17
Back in 1952, they didn't have Diebold and ES&S. Elections were sometimes tampered with, but now they are downright engineered for fraud with no trace.
Since the Diebold Corp. (particularly the CEO) is Bush's buddy, and since Bush gave the nod to McCain, I really don't see Obama winning -- unless they gave him a really long list of puppet commands and not-to-do's (under threat of...) if they allow him to win. And if Obama is told to go down for the count (so to speak), his disappointment will be one of his best acting jobs -- which won't be hard for him. He'll be very, very well paid.
The sanctimonious McCain stiffs would never have allowed Ron Paul in their exclusive party. He upsets the private bankers and military industrial complex crowd way too much and goes against all they hold dear -- continuous war, big government, NWO and the Federal Reserve.
Back when I had hopes that Ron Paul might actually beat the system and win just one primary seems like a long time ago. I'm older and wiser now. All that's left to do is pretend my third party vote will count on the absentee ballot I'll be mailing in, as I refuse to go near that ridiculous touch-screen machine again.
There's a lot of things that need to be changed. Change won't be coming via the presidency, people. The sooner you acknowledge that, the wiser you will be.
Posted By: Bob N.
Date: 2008-10-07 19:36:04
rtbohan,
I was up early. Dog ate my notes. Excuses, excuses.
I cleaned it up. Thanks for the catch. --Bob N.