Al Smith, the Democratic governor...

...of New York, ran for president in 1928 and was soundly defeated by his Republican opponent, Herbert Hoover. It was a landslide: Hoover took the popular vote by 58.2 percent to 40.8 percent, carried the electoral college by 444 to 87, and won 40 of 48 states.

The Times ran an opinion piece on the 1928 election yesterday, "When a Catholic Terrified the Heartland," that detailed the difficulties that Smith encountered (my emphasis):

Smith should have been an impressive candidate, but the electorate had several problems with him. Voters reacted to his equivocal stance on Prohibition, to his Irish heritage, even to his New York roots. Their foremost objection by far, however, was to his religion: Smith was a devout Roman Catholic.

This paragraph stirred up so many thoughts and emotions in me about my family that it's hard to know where to begin. First of all, in 1928 my parents were at the tender (and impressionable) age of nine and must have been profoundly affected by the mood of the electorate that year. In fact, it may have colored my entire extended family's outlook and had a lasting impact to the present.

About a year ago, I took a stab at memoir in this blog, writing about my Irish ancestors here and my great-grandfather in particular here. But I quickly lost interest. This topic, however, the Smith campaign, has inspired me to take another look at my family through the prism of that election, and how it affected my family's views (and my own) toward religion, politics, culture, etc.

So, on that note, look for more in this vein in the near future, but with this one caveat: memoir, as far as I'm concerned, isn't just a recitation of facts; that would be history. Rather, memoir is meant to convey one's impressions, as consistent with reality as possible. But my truth is mine; I'm sure other members of my family would remember the same things quite differently.

Next: Jim Tracy and Nancy Crawford.