He seems to have been a very good father, but his political worldview was predicated on a deep pessimism. The Republican Party in the 1920s, ’30s and early ’40s was steeped in pessimism, and that pessimism showed up as it often does: as nativism, isolationism and protectionism. As World War II loomed, Senator Gerald Nye urged the passage of several neutrality acts to keep us from exporting arms to warring nations and opposed Lend-Lease to Britain. That version of the Republican Party ended in 1952, when Dwight Eisenhower defeated Taft for the Republican presidential nomination. Howard Buffett was so dismayed by the outcome that he refused to endorse Ike, his party leader.

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Persons: I’ve, Warren Buffett’s, Howard Buffett, Franklin Roosevelt, George Marshall, Buffett, Johnson, Gerald Nye, Robert Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, Taft, Ike Organizations: Democrats, Republican Party, Reed, Lease, United States, Marshall Plan, NATO, World Bank, Republican, John Birch Society Locations: Nebraska, United States, Britain, America