I remember learning about the Daley machine after I got to Northwestern in the Fall of 1969. Mike Royko schooled me with his columns in the Daily News. Fast forward to 1976 when I was playing pool in Norris University Center with a couple of my archeology buddies when we heard the announcement that Richard J. Daley had died. One of my friends was overjoyed but I just wondered what would become of Chicago. Then there was that snow storm that did in Mayor "Bland". I remember scraping the side of a snow drift to demonstrate what a soil profile might look like on an archeological site.
Twitter sources with extraordinary insight are suggesting that the Orange Monster may suffer from an unexpected physical ailment requiring immediate hospitalization on Sunday evening, April 14, thereby causing a delay in the opening of DA Alvin Bragg's hush money case.
Is Peter Shapiro related to Josh Shapiro? I'm thinking Josh Shapiro will be our first Jewish president. T.R. said that America would never be a true democracy until we have a Black president and a Jewish president. Halfway there but new pushback afloat especially with the Christian Nationalist movement.
I have mixed feelings about the "machine" political system. I have sorta "evolved" from a purified "merit-based" viewpoint back to favoring patronage and largesse.
I've come to the conclusion that, while the "patronage" flaws and defects are obvious, "patronage" is just as good a guarantee that jobs get done properly as anything else. Given my recent unpleasant experiences with the US Postal Service, a supposedly clean "merit-based" system, I am now back in the swamp of corruption, etc.
As far as I am concerned, "merit-based" is simply a euphemism for unaccountability, which (for example) describes postal management as it now exists. There are no longer any political patrons in the US House of Representatives to keep happy, and there is no one to take their places to ensure good service. Simply put, the USPS sucks!
I think the political parties have suffered unnecessarily and weakened because of the demise of patronage. It seems to me that patronage encouraged party unity and predictability. Patrons being able to hand out goodies for the workers encouraged loyalty, and that encouraged party functionality. OF COURSE there are horrible downsides to that kind of system, but how much worse can it really get? We now have candidates who run their own campaigns INDEPENDENTLY of the parties, with the parties "gratefully" providing nominations and being grovelingly subordinate to the candidates.
For me the greatest debasement of democracy. committed by the party bosses, concerned the VIETNAM WAR.
In the Spring of 1968, roughly 85 percent of the vote, in the Democratic Presidential primaries, went to the Anti-War candidates, Bobby Kennedy and Eugene Mc Carthy.
However, at the Chicago convention, in August of 1968, roughly 60 to 65 percent of the vote went to the pro war candidate, Hubert Humphrey, the vice President of the US who was, by 1968, litlle more than LBJ's servile poodle.
The reason for the discrepancy between the vote totals and the convention delegates ? Very simply the answer was that a bunch of obese, obstructionist, odious bosses counted more than voters. They were allied with Lyndon Johnson and Johhon wanted the war ratified.
Nowadays, when people look at newsreeels aired by pseudo liberal monstrousities such as CNN, they may seem film footage of the police riot, against anti war demonstratores, at the August 68 covention in Chicgao. Of course, CNN et al never tells the people that the Chicago convention was an exercise in the debasement of democracy as most of the delegates supported the war candidate even though he polled at about 15 percent in the Spring primaroies. Example: Mc Carthy won the Pennsylvania primary by half a million votes. However, 90 percent of the Pa delegates supported Humphrey. And in those days, most states did not have primaries. The bosses just met in the proverbial back room and picked their bought and money-buggered shlemeiil of a candidate.
So sorry for your loss. And for the loss to the public generally of people like Peter Shapiro! Of course they're successful in business--and just think what they could have done/could be doing in government. I'm glad to have learned about Peter today, and the Chicago Machine stuff is of course golden. That letter! I know it must be framed and hanging in a place of honor. I would be tempted to build it a shrine.
I grew up in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, where I was politically active from a young age with experiences that in many ways mirrored Jon Alter's. I was also honored and privileged to have served as Administrative Aide to his mother, the late Joanne Alter, who so capably represented taxpayers in her elective capacity by insisting on responsive and responsible government, even when it imposed peril to her own political viability. Jon's eloquent review of bossism generally, and Chicago's specifically, brings back so many memories. What a wonderful recitation of the way Chicago politics used to be. Bravo, Jon, and thank you!
Another great article by Jonathan! This one on Machine Politics is especially important. Though this type of ‘politics’ is done, attempts to bring it back seem to occur (N. J. Governor Murphy’s wife?)
I was sorry to hear of Peter's death. I didn't know him personally but his wife and I were both pregnant while he was running for governor and I remember their son was a preemie. That's the sort of thing mom's remember. I am not sorry to hear about the death of the county line. The machines of both parties are tiresome and do no good for the voters.
Condolences 💐 I grew up in Chicago and remember the alderman’s bag man hitting up the businesses in my Old Town neighborhood. As a student nurse, I was helping an elderly patient at a geriatric facility vote. The Daley machine had a thug change the votes to Daley. When I protested, all of 19 years old, he said I have your name, if your dad is in a union, if you don’t shut up he won’t have a job. I shut up. See the same bully in Donald Trump.
Good riddance to Tammany, Daley, and NJ machines. Yes, political machines are just a sub-species of the central planning totalitarian model. Belated congratulations to the late Joanne Alter, her son Jon, the late Peter Shapiro - and good luck to Rep. Andy Kim in his senate bid .
I remember learning about the Daley machine after I got to Northwestern in the Fall of 1969. Mike Royko schooled me with his columns in the Daily News. Fast forward to 1976 when I was playing pool in Norris University Center with a couple of my archeology buddies when we heard the announcement that Richard J. Daley had died. One of my friends was overjoyed but I just wondered what would become of Chicago. Then there was that snow storm that did in Mayor "Bland". I remember scraping the side of a snow drift to demonstrate what a soil profile might look like on an archeological site.
Twitter sources with extraordinary insight are suggesting that the Orange Monster may suffer from an unexpected physical ailment requiring immediate hospitalization on Sunday evening, April 14, thereby causing a delay in the opening of DA Alvin Bragg's hush money case.
Is Peter Shapiro related to Josh Shapiro? I'm thinking Josh Shapiro will be our first Jewish president. T.R. said that America would never be a true democracy until we have a Black president and a Jewish president. Halfway there but new pushback afloat especially with the Christian Nationalist movement.
Jon,
I have mixed feelings about the "machine" political system. I have sorta "evolved" from a purified "merit-based" viewpoint back to favoring patronage and largesse.
I've come to the conclusion that, while the "patronage" flaws and defects are obvious, "patronage" is just as good a guarantee that jobs get done properly as anything else. Given my recent unpleasant experiences with the US Postal Service, a supposedly clean "merit-based" system, I am now back in the swamp of corruption, etc.
As far as I am concerned, "merit-based" is simply a euphemism for unaccountability, which (for example) describes postal management as it now exists. There are no longer any political patrons in the US House of Representatives to keep happy, and there is no one to take their places to ensure good service. Simply put, the USPS sucks!
I think the political parties have suffered unnecessarily and weakened because of the demise of patronage. It seems to me that patronage encouraged party unity and predictability. Patrons being able to hand out goodies for the workers encouraged loyalty, and that encouraged party functionality. OF COURSE there are horrible downsides to that kind of system, but how much worse can it really get? We now have candidates who run their own campaigns INDEPENDENTLY of the parties, with the parties "gratefully" providing nominations and being grovelingly subordinate to the candidates.
No thanks.
So, the Democrats are basically no different from the Republicans. Both were / are rife with graft and corruption.
For me the greatest debasement of democracy. committed by the party bosses, concerned the VIETNAM WAR.
In the Spring of 1968, roughly 85 percent of the vote, in the Democratic Presidential primaries, went to the Anti-War candidates, Bobby Kennedy and Eugene Mc Carthy.
However, at the Chicago convention, in August of 1968, roughly 60 to 65 percent of the vote went to the pro war candidate, Hubert Humphrey, the vice President of the US who was, by 1968, litlle more than LBJ's servile poodle.
The reason for the discrepancy between the vote totals and the convention delegates ? Very simply the answer was that a bunch of obese, obstructionist, odious bosses counted more than voters. They were allied with Lyndon Johnson and Johhon wanted the war ratified.
Nowadays, when people look at newsreeels aired by pseudo liberal monstrousities such as CNN, they may seem film footage of the police riot, against anti war demonstratores, at the August 68 covention in Chicgao. Of course, CNN et al never tells the people that the Chicago convention was an exercise in the debasement of democracy as most of the delegates supported the war candidate even though he polled at about 15 percent in the Spring primaroies. Example: Mc Carthy won the Pennsylvania primary by half a million votes. However, 90 percent of the Pa delegates supported Humphrey. And in those days, most states did not have primaries. The bosses just met in the proverbial back room and picked their bought and money-buggered shlemeiil of a candidate.
So sorry for your loss. And for the loss to the public generally of people like Peter Shapiro! Of course they're successful in business--and just think what they could have done/could be doing in government. I'm glad to have learned about Peter today, and the Chicago Machine stuff is of course golden. That letter! I know it must be framed and hanging in a place of honor. I would be tempted to build it a shrine.
I grew up in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, where I was politically active from a young age with experiences that in many ways mirrored Jon Alter's. I was also honored and privileged to have served as Administrative Aide to his mother, the late Joanne Alter, who so capably represented taxpayers in her elective capacity by insisting on responsive and responsible government, even when it imposed peril to her own political viability. Jon's eloquent review of bossism generally, and Chicago's specifically, brings back so many memories. What a wonderful recitation of the way Chicago politics used to be. Bravo, Jon, and thank you!
Another great article by Jonathan! This one on Machine Politics is especially important. Though this type of ‘politics’ is done, attempts to bring it back seem to occur (N. J. Governor Murphy’s wife?)
I was sorry to hear of Peter's death. I didn't know him personally but his wife and I were both pregnant while he was running for governor and I remember their son was a preemie. That's the sort of thing mom's remember. I am not sorry to hear about the death of the county line. The machines of both parties are tiresome and do no good for the voters.
Condolences 💐 I grew up in Chicago and remember the alderman’s bag man hitting up the businesses in my Old Town neighborhood. As a student nurse, I was helping an elderly patient at a geriatric facility vote. The Daley machine had a thug change the votes to Daley. When I protested, all of 19 years old, he said I have your name, if your dad is in a union, if you don’t shut up he won’t have a job. I shut up. See the same bully in Donald Trump.
Good riddance to Tammany, Daley, and NJ machines. Yes, political machines are just a sub-species of the central planning totalitarian model. Belated congratulations to the late Joanne Alter, her son Jon, the late Peter Shapiro - and good luck to Rep. Andy Kim in his senate bid .
I'm sorry that you lost your friend.