Taft 2012 - Jason Heller [75]
“It is for Rachel’s excellence, above all, that I must assess all these matters and announce to you now the only decision that is fair and right, the decision I would make were I a judge listening to my own story, the decision that Rachel and I made together not long before I stepped out here before you: the Tafts must withdraw from our candidacy in this election.”
Furious rumbling erupted all around, and once more Taft held up his hand. “We should not have entered the race in the first place, had we known that the good people of the Taft Party had been unknowingly propped up by the coffers of Fulsom Foods. Rachel Taft has a mission in Congress, and it is a noble one: to craft laws that will help safeguard and protect the well-being of the American people. If we were to remain in the race, she would be beholden to the business interest most deeply affected by her own legislation!—and had we not announced our discovery of this fact now, then, when it inevitably came to light in the months ahead, her credibility would be forever tainted. No, the true work of good, honest government is more important than any one presidential campaign, than any one old politician—more important even, though it pains me to say, than the name Taft itself.”
He looked out across the field of Tafties, seeing a strange mix of dismay and approval there. “I am humbled,” he said, “by the support you have shown me. Your enthusiasm is infectious—so much so, in fact, that I must remember not to allow it to warp my best judgment! I say this to you now: my withdrawal, once and for all, from the realm of presidential politics may seem a cause for campaign-season mourning; but in fact I believe it is the greatest opportunity that the women and men of the Taft Party could possibly have. For reason and fairness and honesty and free thinking—the fundamental principles of our platform—are admirable traits that belong to all Americans, from all across the wide canvas of the political and social spectrum. These things are not limited just to conservatives, or just to liberals, or just to rural or urban or suburban folk!
“We must pursue them and treasure them together as a whole people. And so I challenge you today, my friends, my neighbors, to cease projecting your hopes and dreams onto me alone—onto any one single leader!—and instead to turn this Taft Party into something bigger than me, bigger even than the presidency. I challenge you to build it into an ongoing, sustainable effort encouraging all Americans to seize their towns, their states, their country by the horns—together!—and make of it what they will. That party would be a party worth holding.”
As he heard his own words, a wild idea entered Taft’s head, and he was unable to prevent the grin from spreading across his face. “That party,” he said, “should not be named for me. Nor should it be named for any man at all, but for an idea. If indeed we are to seize America by the horns, then we should do so under a horned banner. I say, let us call this grand movement of 2012 and beyond … the new Bull Moose Party!”
Scattered cheers mixed with laughter mixed with a hazy fog of confusion. Well, Taft thought, at least some of them understand me, and that will have to be good enough.
“We are all imperfect,” he said, remembering a speech he’d given years before. “And so we cannot expect perfect government. The president cannot make the clouds rain or the corn grow, nor can he make business good; although when these things occur, political parties do claim some credit for the good things that have happened in this way.” He wiped a hand across his sopping brow. “As I look back as far in my memory as I can, to my youth in the 1870s, and think of what has progressed in the inventions of the human race, the changes are marvelous. The telephone, the motorcar, the electric lifestyle—the airplane, the television, the Google, even the digital golf course!—what would we do without them? How rapidly we adapt ourselves to feel the absolute necessity of those improvements, of which we knew and imagined