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Taft confessed in 1922 that "while I have no difficulty talking, I don't know how to do any of the eloquence business which makes for enthusiasm or applause".<ref>Taft ''Papers'' 1:271</ref> Taft himself appeared taciturn and coldly intellectual, characteristics that were offset by his gregarious wife, who served the same role his mother had for his father, as a confident and powerful asset to her husband's political career. They had four sons. Robert Alphonso Taft, Jr., served as a senator from Ohio. Horace Dwight Taft, became a professor of physics and dean at Yale. William Howard III served as ambassador to [[Ireland]].

Rejected by the army for poor eyesight, in 1917 he joined the legal staff of the [[Food and Drug Administration]] where he met [[Herbert Hoover]] who became his idol. In 1918–19 he was in Paris as legal adviser for the American Relief Administration, Hoover's agency which distributed food to war-torn Europe. He learned to distrust governmental bureaucracy as inefficient and detrimental to the rights of the individual, principles he promoted throughout his career. He distrusted the League of Nations, and European politicians generally. He strongly endorsed the idea of a powerful World Court that would enforce international law, but no such idealized court ever existed. He returned to Ohio in late 1919, promoted Hoover for president, and opened a law firm with his brother Charles Phelps Taft II.

In the 1930s, he practiced law, giving speeches critical of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]]. However he supported some of its programs as collective bargaining, stock exchange regulation, minimum wages, old-age pensions, and unemployment insurance.

Taft was elected to the first of his three terms as U.S. Senator in the Republican landslide of 1938. The expansion of the New Deal had been stopped and Taft saw his mission to roll it back, bringing efficiency to government and letting business restore the economy. He proclaimed that the New Deal was "socialistic" as he attacked deficit spending, high farm subsidies, governmental bureaucracy, and the [[National Labor Relations Board]]. He did support [[Social Security]] and public housing, while attacking federal health insurance. Taft orchestrated the [[Conservative Coalition]], which had effective control of Congress from 1939 to the early 1960s. Taft set forth a conservative program oriented toward economic growth, individual economic opportunity, adequate social welfare, strong national defense, and non-involvement in European wars.

Moving a bit to the left in the late 1940s, he supported federal aid to education (which did not pass). He cosponsored the Taft-Wagner-Ellender Housing Act to subsidize public housing in inner cities. Government, he argued in 1946, should "give to all a minimum standard of living," including sufficient education to give "to all children a fair opportunity to get a start in life."<ref>Taft, ''Papers'' 3:111</ref>

The [[Taft-Hartley Act]] single-handedly ended a growing problem of strikes after [[World War II]], and preserved [[capitalism]] in the United States. Ever since, [[Democrats]] have sought unsuccessfully for its repeal. It bans "unfair" union practices, outlaws closed shops, and authorizes the President to seek federal court injunctions to impose an eighty-day cooling-off period if a strike threatened the national interest.

During 1939 to 1941 Taft was strongly opposed American entry into World War II, while supporting military mobilization and limited aid to Britain. He fully endorsed the [[America First Committee]], arguing in January 1941 that "Hitler's defeat is not vital to us."<ref>Taft, ''Papers'' 2:218</ref>

Berger (1967) rejected the [[liberal]] criticism of Taft as an "isolationist", which is a pejorative term used by the [[Left]] to smear opponents of [[globalism]]. Berger says Taft was rather a "conservative nationalist at odds with the struggling attempts of liberal American policy-makers to fashion a program in the postwar years." Taft profoundly believed in the exceptionalism of America and its people, and argued the "principal purpose of the foreign policy of the United States is to maintain the liberty of our people." Taft identified three fundamental requirements for the maintenance of American liberty-an economic system based on free enterprise, a political system based on democracy, and national independence and sovereignty. All three, he feared, might be destroyed in a war, or even by extensive preparations for war, so he did not see Stalin's [[Soviet Union]] as a major threat to American values. Nor did he pay much attention to internal Communism. The true danger he said was big government and runaway spending. He supported the [[Truman Doctrine]], reluctantly approved the [[Marshall Plan]], and opposed [[NATO]] as unnecessary and provocative. He consistently opposed the draft and took the lead condemning President [[Harry S. Truman]]'s handling of the [[Korean War]].<ref>See John Moser, "Principles Without Program: Senator Robert A. Taft and American Foreign Policy," ''Ohio History,'' (1999) 108#2 pp. 177-192.</ref>

Taft sought the GOP nomination in [[United States presidential election, 1948|1948]] but it went to his arch-rival, Governor [[Thomas E. Dewey]] of New York. One reason was Taft's reluctance to support farm subsidies, a position that hurt his party in the farm belt. Taft relied on a national core of loyalists, but had trouble breaking through to independents, and hated to raise money. Taft tried again in [[United States presidential election, 1952|1952]], using a strong party base. He promised his supporters that he would name [[Douglas MacArthur]] as candidate for Vice President, but was defeated by charismatic [[Dwight Eisenhower]]. Conservatives felt that chicanery by his opponents caused his narrow defeat at the [[Republican National Convention]]. To gain Taft's support in the campaign, Eisenhower promised he would take no reprisals against Taft partisans, would cut federal spending, and would fight "[[creeping socialism]] in every domestic field." All along Eisenhower agreed with Taft on most domestic issues; their dramatic difference was in foreign policy. Eisenhower firmly believed in [[NATO]] and committed the U.S. to an active anti-[[Communist]] foreign policy.