Robert A. Taft

[[File:Robert Taft 1939 stands at microphone.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Robert A. Taft in 1939]]
{{uspolitics}}
'''Robert Alphonso Taft Sr.''' {{lived|1889|1953}} was an extremely powerful [[United States]] [[United States Senate|Senator]] from the end of the [[Great Depression]] up until the beginning of the [[Dwight Eisenhower|Eisenhower years]]. Basically, the leading member of the [[conservatism|conservative]] faction of the [[Republican Party]], his views would best be described as [[libertarianism|libertarian]], and many [[paleoconservatism|paleoconservatives]], [[paleolibertarianism|paleolibertarians]], and other libertarians cite him as an influence. Despite the fact that his nickname was "'''Mr. Republican'''", many of his views are different from those of the modern GOP, mainly because he was a sincere [[small government]] conservative and wasn't a [[Religion|religious]] zealot.

Just to make things perfectly clear, because the {{wpl|Taft family|Taft dynasty}} abounds in U.S. political history:<ref group=note>Check the link for more information. Though they are much more publicly visible, the Kennedy and Bush clans are small beer by comparison.</ref> The Robert Taft in question was the son of President [[William Howard Taft]]. His son, Robert Taft Jr., was later a Congressman and also Senator, and his grandson Robert "Bob" Taft III was Governor of [[Ohio]].

==Views==
During the early 1930s, Taft criticized the ideology of Roosevelt administration member {{wpl|Rexford Tugwell||,}} an {{wpl|Italian Fascist}} sympathizer,<ref>James Q. Whitman, ''Of Corporatism, Fascism and the First New Deal,'' p. 747.</ref> as "socialistic" and excoriated him as "the worst administrator who ever lived."<ref>Steven A. Chichester, ''"Make America Over": Rexford Tugwell and His Thoughts on Central Planning,'' p. 5.</ref>

Taft was elected to Ohio's Class III Senate seat in 1938, and led the "{{wpl|Conservative coalition||",}} which was a coalition of conservative Republicans and [[DINO|conservative]] [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] who opposed [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]], with both cliques raving about it being "creeping socialism." However, he had a history of getting in spats with racists prior to being elected Senator, such as when he denounced the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and opposed their bills to [[Authoritarianism|outlaw dancing on Sundays]] and force [[Bible]] verses down the throats of schoolchildren while he served in the Ohio House of Representatives.<ref>James T. Patterson, ''Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft'', pp. 100-101</ref> He broke from the Southern Democrats in his support for [[civil rights]], supporting anti-lynching legislation and desegregation efforts.{{fact}} However, Taft was also hilariously [[moderate]] on some domestic policies (by current libertarian standards), supporting [[Social Security]] and public housing programs after he looked at them, thought about them, and decided they were the least bad option.

Taft is probably best known for being a non-interventionist, opposing most American policies that were aimed at aiding the Allies against the [[Nazism|Nazis]] prior to the bombing of [[Pearl Harbor]]. After the bombing, however, he supported American intervention in [[World War II]]. However, despite taking a more aggressive stance towards the [[Axis]] after Pearl Harbor, Taft remained one of the very, very few politicians sane enough, along with like-minded Colorado governor {{wpl|Ralph Lawrence Carr}}, to denounce [[Japanese American internment]].<ref>Eric Foner, ''The Story of American Freedom,'' p. 241.</ref>

Taft also, in a controversial move, condemned the [[Nuremberg Trials]] as basically being a [[kangaroo court]], which was more politicized than he believed it should have been.<ref>Walter Ruch, [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10E11F9395F15738FDDAF0894D8415B8688F1D3&scp=4&sq=%22robert+a.+taft%22+nuremberg&st=p "Taft condemns hanging of Nazis as unjust"], ''[[The New York Times]]'', October 6, 1946</ref><ref group=note>[[John F. Kennedy]] actually admired this position, putting Taft in his book ''Profiles of Courage'' in response.</ref> Some tried (and try) to [[Godwin's law|pass Taft off as a Nazi sympathizer]] due to his non-interventionist policies and critiques of the Nuremberg trials, which isn't correct since Taft despised [[Adolf Hitler]] and the Nazis, supporting a strong [[United States Armed Forces|Navy]] to keep them out in case they overran [[Europe]]. Even his controversial foreign policy was more toned down than the modern [[isolationism]] "championed" by [[Ron Paul]], with Taft strongly supporting the [[United Nations#League of Nations|League of Nations]] in his early years and some sort of international court of law.

Taft also pushed through the 1947 Taft–Hartley Labor Act, which was an anti-[[Labor union|union]] bill that is most well known for [[Right to work|outlawing closed shops]]. Policymakers point to the bill as the main reason why union power has slowly declined since the 1950s. Guess he was willing to use [[government]] when it came to unions, eh?

==Quotes==
{{cquote|As a matter of general principle, I believe there can be no doubt that criticism in time of [[war]] is essential to the maintenance of any kind of democratic government ... too many people desire to suppress criticism simply because they think that it will give some comfort to the enemy to know that there is such criticism. If that comfort makes the enemy feel better for a few moments, they are welcome to it as far as I am concerned, because the maintenance of the right of criticism, in the long run, will do the country maintaining it a great deal more good than it will do the enemy, and will prevent mistakes which might otherwise occur.|||Taft reveals himself to be an American-hating [[RINO]].<ref>[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Robert_Taft Taft on Wikiquote]</ref>}}

==See also==
*[[Herbert Hoover]] - Taft's idol, for a time at least.
*[[Barry Goldwater]] - The next scary conservative icon, whose electoral drubbing by [[LBJ]] in 1964 showed exactly what would have happened had Taft gotten the GOP's nomination. Both men were sincere believers in [[civil liberties]] and weren't personally bigoted, but inspired subsequent bigots and authoritarians.

==Notes==
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==References==
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Taft, Robert}}
[[Category:Civil rights]]
[[Category:Conservatism]]
[[Category:Former United States Senators]]
[[Category:Great Depression]]
[[Category:Libertarians]]
[[Category:Ohio]]
[[Category:United States presidential candidates]]
[[Category:United States history]]

Categories: Civil rights, Conservatism, Former United States Senators, Great Depression, Libertarians, Ohio, United States presidential candidates, United States history