Reform breeds its own
hubris and so few
noticed that as we destroyed the evils of machine politics we
also were breaking the links between politics and the individual,
politics and community, politics and social life. We were beginning
to segregate politics from ourselves.
The world of machine
politics was not
something handed down to the people through such intermediaries
as Larry King It was not the product of spin doctors, campaign
hired guns or phony town meetings. It welled up from the bottom.
What defined politics was an unbroken chain of human experience,
memory and gratitude.
Sure, it was corrupt. But
we don't have much to be priggish about. The corruption of Watergate,
Iran-Contra or the S&Ls fed no widows, found no jobs for
the needy or, in the words of one Tammany leader, "grafted
to the Republic" no newly arrived immigrants. At least Tammny's
brand of corruption got down to the streets. Manipulation of
the voter and corruption describe both Tammany and contemporary
politics. The big difference is that in the former the voter
could with greater regularity count on something in return.
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