“For one thing, Bob Taft was much preferable to Eisenhower.”
Yeah, because allowing the Soviet Union to pick off Western Europe in our absence would have been the height of wisdom. /sarc
Bob Taft was the leader of Congressional conservatives who fought the New Deal and tried to roll it back. Unfortunately, we’re still stuck with a good bit of it.
Eisenhower was the Eastern Establishment’s candidate. Dewey and Warren supported him, and he’s the one who put Warren on the Supreme Court (Brennan too.)
Taft was not an isolationist, but had a foreign policy vision somewhat similar (in its time) to President Trump’s, and conservatives are at best reluctant internationalists.