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Originally Posted by SamInTheLoop
Interesting discussion above on who/what is and isn't machine these days.
It can always devolve into mere definitions and semantics, however I have to same I'm much more with Chicago103.
I still have trouble thinking anyone is arguing in good faith if they are presenting Rahm as any sort of outsider, reformer, or not fully part of the true inner spirit of good 'ole fashioned Chicagaww machine style politics. It just isn't so - at his core, that is not at all what he is about. If you actually believe that, it means he's likely pulled one over on you.
Think about it: If he's brought the machine into his fold, ie 90% or whatever of old fashioned machine politicians support him and work for him, etc - he hasn't changed the machine, and brought it over to his side - rather, he now is the machine (actually though, he never 'left' it)
Pinstripe patronage is still patronage. In an age where many are deluded into thinking corporations and hedge funds are people, and money is speech, those strategies - advancing policies and/or awarding contracts that your benefactors explicitly or implicitly want/expect in exchange for their campaign contributions - is in fact fully "machine". It's not at all about labor causes = machine, corporatism policies = not machine. That's not only a crude analysis, but a wrong one. Rahm is definitely a full-fledged member of the machine. Just because one may like some pro-business policies that he may (or actually may not) have, and one dislikes traditoinal, corrupt Chicagaww machine politics, does not in fact make Rahm not machine. Also, to try to make a case that Karen Lewis is more machine than Rahm is borders on laughable. She is definitely more of a legitimate 'outsider'.......
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By your logic the entire Federal government is a part of the Chicago machine. The tactics he is using are the same as those used in nearly every federal race. The fact is that if you can't define who is machine and who is not anymore, then the machine has simply ceased to exist. The base of power for the Chicago machine was in the African American community and the unions, two groups that loathe Rahm for the most part. The machine was an organization of these groups to mobilize every last possible voter block by block, house by house, and completely bury any potential competition. Please show me where Rahm's network of block captains, precinct captains, union stooges, etc. is.
You can't because it doesn't exist. If he is winning a race by dumping 1%er money on his enemies that's literally the opposite of the bottom up approach the machine took. Rahm is going top down, he has the support of the elite and they are funding his propaganda campaign. That's how Federal races are won. The classic Chicago machine tactic was to win a campaign by getting mass support from huge sections of the population through a system of patronage, pay to play, and intimidation. It was, as I say above, a block by block, house by house, method. Please let me know when someone you know from your block comes to your door and tells you (they don't ask, they tell) to vote for Rahm. Please let me know when your union boss tells you that you won't get out of the union hall for any jobs if you don't vote for Rahm.
Rahm doesn't use those old school methods because he doesn't have to. When you really look at it, machine style politics are simply outdated in today's world. Rahm is running a campaign based on data and analytic. He has some very very smart people running his campaign who know how to take his pile of cash and use it in the right places at the right time to get the numbers he needs to win. He's going to avoid a runoff by maybe 5%. Why? Because he doesn't need any more than that. He could probably run up the tally into the 60's if he really wanted, but why do that? It would be a waste of money. If you don't think he doesn't know exactly where the numbers are right now you are crazy. The goal is to spend the minimum amount needed to win and then use the rest to consolidate power.
The only way you can call him machine is if you completely change the definition of the term. This is a 21st century campaign and it is being run by the same group of people who got Obama into office. This is an entirely new way of doing things. I know a lot of these people, it's all science at this point.