Posted by Tina
Does history repeat?
“Betrayal of the Democratic Party,” by George Joyce – American Thinker
** …many Democrats tried to pin the “treason” label on Al Smith for his stand against the New Deal legislation the dubious moniker had trouble sticking. Growing up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Smith dropped out of school at 14 in order to support his family after his father’s untimely death a year earlier. Smith never made it to high school or college but he did manage to develop sensitivity to life on the street while working at a local fish market and at other odd jobs. *** When he ran for New York State Assembly at age 30 Smith was known as a spokesman for the working-class immigrant and as a man of the people. During his political career in New York Smith was known as a staunch progressive who championed workers’ rights, women’s rights, and child labor protections. **
** Smith was also a leading voice for the rights of minorities and defended the civil rights of all Americans, white and non-white. *** Al Smith however was also known as a great believer in upward mobility, self-reliance and in taking advantage of the opportunities afforded by the free-market. Al Smith, in other words, was an American and a Democrat. What alarmed Smith in 1936 however was the realization that FDR’s New Deal was in essence something rather anti-American that also threatened the very identity of the Democratic Party. In Smith’s words: “There can be only one atmosphere of government — the clear, pure, fresh air of free America or the foul breath of communistic Russia.” *** Despite FDR’s popular acclaim Smith made the decision to warn his fellow Americans and his fellow Democrats by radio address on a cold January evening in our nation’s capitol in 1936. The title of Smith’s address was “Betrayal of the Democratic Party.” The dramatic speech contained a series of talking points designed to persuade his countrymen that a new kind of Democratic Party was actively undermining the Constitution and replacing it with something closer to Soviet style socialism. *** What were Al Smith’s talking points? ** (emphasis mine)
If you haven’t already done it, read the article to find out…it will blow you away!
The troubling thing about this is that we are standing on mountains of New Deal/Great Society dependency and debt now with the certainty of future debt compounding as the Boomers retire. And Obama and the Democrats in Congress are determined to play that same old song again.