belief that a majority of voters were either centrist or liberal and would not vote for

Old Guard policies.

 The major differences, then, between the Taft and Dewey factions rested on

their campaign styles and their opinions of the American electorate. Dewey, reluctant

to continue the public image of the GOP as the party of the rich, campaigned for

working class and African-American votes while he solicited donations from some of

Wall Street's most powerful individuals. Taft, believing that a majority of Americans

wanted to end the New Deal, whether rightly or wrongly, thought the Republican

campaign should be aggressive and crafted to show the stark contrast between the two

parties. Rhetoric on minority groups and working class voters remained the major

difference between the competing factions. Taft, never claiming to be against the

individual laborers, castigated union officials as tools of Soviet Russia. Taft-Hartley,

after all, created a loyalty oath for union executives, not the rank and file worker. Taft

also took a more limited stand on Civil Rights than Dewey and flatly rejected a

compulsory FEPC at the national level. Dewey's record in New York seemed more

amenable to the working class and African-Americans and his campaign strategy

sought to move them away from the New Deal Coalition. His moderate, upbeat

strategy, however, failed to excite a majority.