Taft Runs in 1952 and wins

Robert Taft was a isolationist and come to think of it the Cold War was in full swing and Korea was essentially on fire so how would the Cold war materialize?
 
You have to explain how Taft would win in the first place. An isolationist Republican isn't exactly on the top of my list of "who will win the '52 election"
 
You have to explain how Taft would win in the first place. An isolationist Republican isn't exactly on the top of my list of "who will win the '52 election"

He would have won. Anyone who the Republicans put up would win, what with it being 20 years since the last Republican, and voter resentment of the Democratic Party high.
 
And if the GOP hadn't of shafted him in the Convention then you would of had a isolationist Conservative Republican victory.
 
He would have won. Anyone who the Republicans put up would win, what with it being 20 years since the last Republican, and voter resentment of the Democratic Party high.

An isolationist? I doubt it. Too many people would remember what happened the last time we retreated into isolation after a world war. We had another 20 years later.
 
Yeah but the U.S. had partially demobilized after WWII and the U.S. Army in the early 50's was not fully in the Red Scare yet I think aside from the Un-American activities BS
 
He would have won. Anyone who the Republicans put up would win, what with it being 20 years since the last Republican, and voter resentment of the Democratic Party high.

I disagree. If Taft had found himself nominated by the Republicans, I sort of would expect Truman might run for a third term, and Eisenhower might support Truman (despite the bad relations that had emerged over them, but I wasn't sure if that was post-convention or not) against Taft (or whoever the Democratic nominee is). In that case, the Democrats would likely win 1952 over the Republicans, and from there... that'd be the question.
 
First of all, calling Taft an isolationist a bit of an oversimplification. He was not totally opposed to the Marshall Plan, though he did try to cut its budget. He voted against the North Atlantic Treaty in 1949, but added that he would favor a Monroe Doctrine-like unilateral declaration "to let Russia know that if she attacked western Europe, the United States would be in the war." http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/document/speech-on-the-north-atlantic-treaty/ In 1950, he objected to Truman's decision to use force in Korea without consulting Congress, but added that if the question had been presented to Congress, he would have voted to authorize the use of force.

In any event, there is no doubt that he was stereotyped by much of the public as an isolationist in foreign policy and someone who would repeal the entire New Deal in domestic policy. Both of these were oversimplifications, but no doubt they did hurt him, and he certainly would not have won by Ike's landslide margins. But it is by no means impossible that he would win narrowly--Communism, corruption (the "mess in Washington") and Korea (plus a general sense that the Democrats had been in power too long) would work against the Democrats. if he does win, the biggest question is whether he dies on scheduie of cancer, and if so who his vice president would be.
 
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