Editing Al Smith (section)

==Speech Relevance ==
In '[[A Time For Choosing]]', Reagan says:

<BLOCKQUOTE>''Back in 1936, Mr. Democrat himself, Al Smith, the great American, came before the American people and charged that the leadership of his party was taking the party of [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], [[Andrew Jackson|Jackson]], and [[Grover Cleveland|Cleveland]] down the road under the banners of [[Karl Marx|Marx]], [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], and [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]]. And he walked away from his party, and he never returned to the day he died, because to this day, the leadership of that party has been taking that party, that honorable party, down the road in the image of the [[Labour Party|labor socialist party]] of England.''</BLOCKQUOTE>

Reagan is talking about a speech given on January 25, 1936 in Washington DC.  It has since gone on to be called the ''Betrayal of the Democratic Party''.  The speech can be found in its entirety in the Appendices of the book ''The Naked Capitalist''.

The exact quote from the speech Reagan is paraphrasing is as follows:

<BLOCKQUOTE>''Now, it is all right with me. It is all right to me if they want to disguise themselves as [[Norman Thomas]] or [[Karl Marx]], or [[Vladimir Lenin|Lenin]], or any of the rest of that bunch, but what I won't stand for is to let them march under the banner of [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]], [[Andrew Jackson|Jackson]], or [[Grover Cleveland|Cleveland]].''</BLOCKQUOTE>

Smith did run as a democrat for his governor and presidential candidate.  It wasn't until after the 1932 that he seemed to sour on the democratic party. He actually campaigned for the Republicans in 1936 and 1940.