see them? Their signs? I have to get this down. I have to …”
Her body lost what little tension remained. She slipped into unconsciousness.
William Howard Taft raised his great, jowled, whiskered face to the heavens and howled.
“Enough!” His voice thundered across the lot and echoed off the walls of the studio and nearby buildings, amplified by years ofmaking speeches to large assemblies without the aid of electricity or microphones. “I said: ENOUGH!”
Taft was shocked by his own booming authority. His was the voice of a man righteously outraged, a human being in full possession of his faculties—in short, a president.
It took only a second for the mob to cease and still, stricken by awe. The few remaining pockets of conflict were squelched by those standing nearby. They all turned to look for the source of that voice.
There stood Taft, the prostrate form of Susan Weschler gathered in his arms, snowflakes falling around him and sticking to his quivering mustache, a sight both slightly comical and terrifyingly elemental.
Just then, approaching from a distance, sirens began to wail.
The Washington Post
Dec. 8, 2011
NEW YORK CITY—A new political movement made a turbulent debut last night as crowds of people bearing signs proclaiming support for a group called the Taft Party mobbed the streets outside the studio of
Raw Talk with Pauline Craig
, where former president William Howard Taft had just been interviewed in a live television broadcast. The raucous crowd, which police estimated at approximately two hundred, sent five people to New York Presbyterian Hospital with minor injuries and damaged camera equipment of several network news crews.
A spokesperson for Congresswoman Rachel Taft’s office stated that the Taft Party is not affiliated with the congresswoman or William Howard Taft, her great-grandfather. She confirmed that William Howard Taft’s chief aide, Susan Weschler, was among those treated and released from the hospital last night.
Demonstrators described the Taft Party as a loose grassroots coalition of concerned citizens seeking to recapture a more civilized era of American democracy.
“We were just there to root for Taft,” said Brian Talley, a grocer from Virginia. “It was some jerk rent-a-cop who started pushing and shoving, not the Tafties. We came in peace but, man, don’t tread on us.”
As the demonstration descended into chaos, former president Taft refused to take shelter behind his Secret Service detail, leaping into the thick of the confusion to assist his aide, who was knocked briefly unconscious. Taft’s quick move to the center of the throng, where he called for order, was credited by many as the deciding factor in restoring peace.
“He was like an action hero,” said Dee Anderson, a librarian from New Jersey and Taft Party demonstrator. “I had no idea such a big man could move so fast. What’s that saying—that a president shouldspeak softly and carry a big stick? With Taft it was more along the lines of, boom like a giant and you won’t have to bother with the stick.”
The Taft Party United Support Association
About Us
MISSION STATEMENT
The Taft Party came together in fall 2011 in response to the reappearance of former president William Howard Taft, which served as a clarion call to all Americans, reminding us that politics in the United States once attracted a more sensible, more decorous class of participant—and must do so again. Our mission is to gather, inform, organize, and motivate our fellow Americans to achieve a higher quality of political representation across the ideological spectrum in the 2012 election and beyond.
CORE VALUES
1. Common Sense National Policy (read more)
2. Equitable Treatment of Citizens (read more)
3. Care for the Future Shaped by the Past (read more)
EVENTS
New Year’s Eve rallies—Dec. 31, 2011
Primary protests—February–March 2012
Taft Party National Convention—July 12–15, 2012
REGIONAL TAFT PARTY
Her body lost what little tension remained. She slipped into unconsciousness.
William Howard Taft raised his great, jowled, whiskered face to the heavens and howled.
“Enough!” His voice thundered across the lot and echoed off the walls of the studio and nearby buildings, amplified by years ofmaking speeches to large assemblies without the aid of electricity or microphones. “I said: ENOUGH!”
Taft was shocked by his own booming authority. His was the voice of a man righteously outraged, a human being in full possession of his faculties—in short, a president.
It took only a second for the mob to cease and still, stricken by awe. The few remaining pockets of conflict were squelched by those standing nearby. They all turned to look for the source of that voice.
There stood Taft, the prostrate form of Susan Weschler gathered in his arms, snowflakes falling around him and sticking to his quivering mustache, a sight both slightly comical and terrifyingly elemental.
Just then, approaching from a distance, sirens began to wail.
The Washington Post
Dec. 8, 2011
NEW YORK CITY—A new political movement made a turbulent debut last night as crowds of people bearing signs proclaiming support for a group called the Taft Party mobbed the streets outside the studio of
Raw Talk with Pauline Craig
, where former president William Howard Taft had just been interviewed in a live television broadcast. The raucous crowd, which police estimated at approximately two hundred, sent five people to New York Presbyterian Hospital with minor injuries and damaged camera equipment of several network news crews.
A spokesperson for Congresswoman Rachel Taft’s office stated that the Taft Party is not affiliated with the congresswoman or William Howard Taft, her great-grandfather. She confirmed that William Howard Taft’s chief aide, Susan Weschler, was among those treated and released from the hospital last night.
Demonstrators described the Taft Party as a loose grassroots coalition of concerned citizens seeking to recapture a more civilized era of American democracy.
“We were just there to root for Taft,” said Brian Talley, a grocer from Virginia. “It was some jerk rent-a-cop who started pushing and shoving, not the Tafties. We came in peace but, man, don’t tread on us.”
As the demonstration descended into chaos, former president Taft refused to take shelter behind his Secret Service detail, leaping into the thick of the confusion to assist his aide, who was knocked briefly unconscious. Taft’s quick move to the center of the throng, where he called for order, was credited by many as the deciding factor in restoring peace.
“He was like an action hero,” said Dee Anderson, a librarian from New Jersey and Taft Party demonstrator. “I had no idea such a big man could move so fast. What’s that saying—that a president shouldspeak softly and carry a big stick? With Taft it was more along the lines of, boom like a giant and you won’t have to bother with the stick.”
The Taft Party United Support Association
About Us
MISSION STATEMENT
The Taft Party came together in fall 2011 in response to the reappearance of former president William Howard Taft, which served as a clarion call to all Americans, reminding us that politics in the United States once attracted a more sensible, more decorous class of participant—and must do so again. Our mission is to gather, inform, organize, and motivate our fellow Americans to achieve a higher quality of political representation across the ideological spectrum in the 2012 election and beyond.
CORE VALUES
1. Common Sense National Policy (read more)
2. Equitable Treatment of Citizens (read more)
3. Care for the Future Shaped by the Past (read more)
EVENTS
New Year’s Eve rallies—Dec. 31, 2011
Primary protests—February–March 2012
Taft Party National Convention—July 12–15, 2012
REGIONAL TAFT PARTY
Similar Books
