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“Have any of them ever accomplished anything? No. You've accomplished more in a couple of years than they have in twenty years by always being so independent. But you won't get far if you won't line up with a party so that the Democrats know that you're a Democrat and that they can rely on you - rely on you to vote with them and rely on you to speak up for them and rely on you to help plan the program of the Democratic party.”
I remember saying, “Governor, you've convinced me. I never thought about it before. But I guess you're right. It's important that they know who you are - that you are with the party and you're going to stay with the party and they can rely on you through thick and thin.”
“That's right,” he said, “you'll do your full duty. I hope you'll enroll in time for the next primary.”
I enrolled, I think, right away - as soon as they opened the enrollment. I never had any doubts about it afterwards. It was a clear, practical, politician's explanation to a naive, inexperienced person who had been very much impressed for a number of years by the fact that the Democrats, when they were in power in Albany, put over the legislation that I had been working for for years, or at least put it forward - child labor legislation, widow's
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