Seriously, what does "Chicago politics" really mean?

[JohnnyLib2]

RWers, including some of our relatives, use that routinely in regard to the administration. It's become some kind of buzz word.
I could use some thoughts about the basic meaning(s).

[dysfunctional press]

1. ask them what they think it means when they use it.

[liberal N proud]

6. 10 to 1 they wouldn't be able to explain it

Probably something they heard either on FAUX or the leader of the GOP, Limbaugh

[dysfunctional press]

13. exactly.

[Uben]

2. Pay to play......

...is what comes to my mind.

I guess that's how I've been programmed.

[JohnnyLib2]

20. I do hear some of that theme. Like with grant announcements yesterday.

Thanks.

[sufrommich]

3. Brown people. Lots of brown people. nt

[YOY]

4. My guess is "using teh kurrupt negorez fer populizm!!one1!!"

n/t

[zipplewrath]

5. They don't know

They are parroting something they hear on talk radio. Most of talk radio don't know what they mean. They pick it up from some political consultants. The consultants on the other hand are talking about the post machine kinda environment that exists there. Chicago politics is Illinois politics and they've gone through their share of govenors up there lately. It's shades of the old patronage system that existed in the days of the machine. You get ahead by helping those above you, and pulling those below you along as you go.

[eShirl]

7. They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the

"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way!"

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094226/quotes

[KittyWampus]

8. It means Democrats who aren't afraid to get their hands dirty/play rough. Though watching Obama

and Rahm, you notice Obama always manages to look like he's above it all whilst getting his licks in anyway.

It's a gift.

Edit- as others up-thread mentioned, I don't think they KNOW what it implies historically. They use it like a slur. Like "socialism". Or "poopiehead".

[JohnnyLib2]

19. Sure seems like it by now.

[DailyGrind51]

27. When I worked campaigns in my youth, we would find where the Republicans

stored their campaign materials and replace them with our own stuff. Republican campaign literature makes great litter on people's lawns, nothing gets a Chicagoan madder than his/her front lawn littered with Republican faces!:evilgrin:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. In downstate Illinois in the 60s

it meant machine politics which kept Richard Daily in power. There was a joke that Daily loved your family so much he even made sure your dead relatives made it to the polls on election day.

[dysfunctional press]

14. daley didn't nead dead people's votes to stay mayor.

he was HUGELY popular.

[DailyGrind51]

25. "Richard J." was more effective than "Richard M.", who is running us into the ground!

Richard M. Daley is privatizing damn near every "public" service he can get away with merely to fill temporary gaps in his budget, expanding O'Hare when airlines are cutting back flights, moving a children's museum that already has a suitable location at Navy Pier, and his greatest boondoggle, the 2016 Olympics.

[dysfunctional press]

28. you're entitled to your opinions, i respectfully disagree.

although i don't support all the privatization, and i was extremely pissed at the way dumb-dumb daley handed the corrupt bus stop contract to the french company-
but...
i support moving the children's museum from navy pier to the park location.
i support expanding o'hare- an airport in peotone would be the REAL boondoggle.
i fully support the bid to get the 2016 olympics- but i suspect that they will end up in rio.

[DailyGrind51]

31. Daley is opposed to the Peotone airport, he wants to continue O'Hare expansion!

Who is going to flying out on those extra O'Hare runways? Even the airlines don't support further expansion. http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/20/travel/chi-ohare-20-nov20

Do you live in Chicago, or the suburbs?

[dysfunctional press]

32. i recently moved out of the city, to a far northwest suburb.

i oppose peotone, but favour o'hare expansion.

air travel may be down some now, but it will pick-up again, especially as the population grows.

[DailyGrind51]

34. When you move back to the City, get back to me.

[dysfunctional press]

35. i'm not moving back to the city...but o'hare expansion is needed...

and affects everyone in the metro area.

[karynnj]

38. Peotone airport?

Would that be a third Chicago airport? (Just curious as someone with family in NW Indiana.)

[dysfunctional press]

41. a fourth one. or a sixth one, depending on how you view the area.

o'hare, midway, and gary indiana- the airport in gary already has a longer runway than midway.

add to those rockford and mitchell field in milwaukee- both used by people in the north/northwest suburbs- and the region already has plenty of coverage.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

39. I lived in a downstate Republican stronghold

That was the excuse they gave for Daley winning all the time. Not sayin' it is true, just sayin' that that is probably what the repukes mean by "Chicago politics".

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Daley, not Daily

Just sayin'...

[Richardo]

10. Same as 'San Francisco values' when they talk about Pelosi

Message: It's somehow bad and be very afraid.

[Orsino]

15. "San Francisco values" is code, and specifically means "turning you gay"...

...while teaching sodomy to your children. It's not a vague slur at all.

[BolivarianHero]

21. Pelosi is bad, but not for the reasons the right says...

She called Bush her president and Chavez a despot. No real progressive would say a thing like that.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

11. It's machine politics. One sprocket turns another from the Mayor down to the street captains.

See:

"Clout"

Influence or power in political and community circles. Originally popularized by Chicago journalist Mike Royko to describe local movers and shakers when Richard J. Daley was mayor in the Sixties and early Seventies. Usage spread nationally.
"Go get next to the alderman. He has the clout to get you that city contract, but you better be able to convince him what's in it for him."

[global1]

12. Here's One Analysis.......

http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/989.html

This article talks about patronage and puts kind of a negative spin on Chicago politics.

I however, lived in Chicago all my life. We natives call it the "City that Works". If you've visited Chicago lately - it is really a beautiful and wonderful city to live in.

Chris Matthews of MSNBC didn't invent "Hardball". I would have to say that this term was invented in Chicago. One might think that 'hardball' politics is negative - but if you look around the city - this style of politics - gets things done.

Though generally - people might object to this style of politics - bottom line in the end - the powers that be and their adversaries battle furiously - but ultimately come to a compromise - always in favor of the powers that be - and to the benefit to the people of Chicago.

This is my impression as a life long native of Chicago. I'm sure that their will be others on this board that live in Chicago that won't agree with me - and hate our current Mayor Daley.

But if you look around at this city - things get done - it looks wonderful - and it functions fairly good in comparison to other major cities in this country.

Currently - Mayor Daley is pushing for the 2016 Olympics to come to Chicago. There is a lot of dissension amongst some factions in the city. But my bet is that Mayor Daley and his coalition will persist and we will be host to the 2016 Olympics. And you know what - it will be the greatest thing to happen to this city.

[JohnnyLib2]

22. Thanks.

[JohnnyLib2]

24. Thanks, everyone who replied.

There are several themes mentioned and all sound familiar.
I do have some Rush-following relatives, but it's more than that. The slur element has it's appeal to many, unfortunately.

[dysfunctional press]

29. i recently moved from the city back to the suburb of my youth...

we had a two-flat in north park for 11 years, and although i think that daley in general is a corrupt p.o.s., the city does usually "work".

two of my pet peeves about richie's tenure- i didn't like the way the bus stop contract was handled and handed to the french company, and i think that meig's field should have remained in place.
and soldier field should have been done with a retractable dome/roof.

[mucifer]

16. Everyone votes dem. Doesn't mean the politicians are liberal.

Mayor Daley gets in with huge votes. Several times a year there are front page stories of corruption from his administration. People still love him. Precinct captains at the polls in many neighborhoods still hand out card telling everyone how to vote. They live in the neighborhoods. City council will do just about anything the mayor says, including selling the streets to a private corporation for 100 years so they can charge how much they want for street parking. Chicago school are mostly terrible, especially in the lower income areas. Many of us liberals here are very upset that President Obama chose Arne Duncan to reform education. (He didn't do much here).

I do believe the city has had some racial healing in the past few decades. Mayor Washington had a very tough battle and did a wonderful job as mayor. I think a lot of people learned from that experience and became a little less fearful of people of color. He paved the way for President Obama.

There is a lot of ugliness in Chicago politics. I wish Texas politicians could be branded the same way. They are just as slimy and corrupt.

[DailyGrind51]

18. "Pay to play", "I'll hire your kid, if you donate $$$ to my campaign".

"Don't send nobody that nobody sent!" Government service = a jobs program for the politically connected

You get the idea!

(and, yes, I have relatives who work for the City!)

[GTurck]

23. People love...

shorthand pejoratives.
I grew up in Chicago during the first Daley era and now live in Central Texas. All my life I have heard nasty things said about both places which were mainly not true but the shorthand language used to denigrate each of them is the same: sleazy, stupid, corrupt, ignorant, untrustworthy, etc. It is shorthand that the birthers and the teabaggers and the town hall disrupters are using to roil things up. It is shorthand pejoratives that allows and sustains all conflicts. When we on this side find a way to deal with the other side without the shorthand pejoratives we may be able to start changing things.
In the meantime I loved Chicago for its museums, atmosphere, and great skyline and I love this part of Texas for the sane ordinary people with whom I disagree heartily but who would still give me the shirts off their backs and for the wild geography that surrounds and excites me.

[Gabi Hayes]

40. exactly....can you see Frank Luntz's dirty influence behind this sort of thing:

socialism?

chicago style politics

government bureaucrats standing between you and your doctor?

it's all classic propaganda technique, designed to short circuit rational thought by evoking emotional responses, the more powerful the better, the more fear based (lizard brain), the more effective

the last thing they want is for anyone to think critically

why is NCLB so 'popular?' when all you do is teach for the test, all you get is a bunch of automatons, with the added fillip of hating the idea of actually learning for learning's sake

I work in a grade school, and the change in kids from K through 6 is very depressing. they start out so excited, so happy to discover new things every few minutes. that gets beaten out of them pretty quickly, and by the time they're 11, forget it.....for most of them, it's too late

[GTurck]

43. I was a teacher's aide and Library Trustee...

before I retired and I have the same problems with NC LB as most other educators. I worked mostly with special ed kids and now they are being "main-streamed" so that the schools can displace their lower scores by averaging them in with the rest of the student population. My grandkids are getting all that they need to pass the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) even though one of them is in the NHS. They are in the early process of being trained but not educated.
Will they grow up to be the next generation of Limbaugh/Beck/O'Reilly followers because they have no foundation in really thinking? Oh Lord I hope not. It is one reason I am active here and in my community.

[Hannah Bell]

46. so nclb serves to reduce special ed funding, in effect?

[GTurck]

49. I have no absolute evidence...

but that may be true. At any rate kids who work on a 3rd grade level but are 5th grade in age are but into the latter classroom and an aide is attached to them. Problem is that the aide also helps the teacher with the other children (fine by itself) but not really what helps the special ed child. Even children who have behavioral problems, which can be severe, are being mainstreamed. I think that only the autistic and developmentally delayed still have a special ed teacher with a special ed aide and a class limit of 5.
Does anyone on DU have more on this?

[wndycty]

26. Speaking as a Chicago Democrat its more about the strategy of the Chicago Way

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g0RLyxP13o

[JohnnyLib2]

30. LOL, I just sent that on--waiting for the reaction.

Thanks. :hi:

[JohnnyLib2]

33. Heh, recipient just said "well, that's more extreme than I meant."

:evilgrin:

[tigereye]

36. seems a little late for that "argument"

they just don't really have anything but smears at this point.

[scheming daemons]

37. "Chicago Politics" is what Republicans call it when they're losing

[Greyhound]

42. I assume you are referring to something that has been included in the distraction

du jour, but "Chicago politics" means blatant, or open, corruption that has defined that city and the state of Illinois for generations. It has traditionally been the purview of the nominally Democratic Party, but it is all about the garnering and retention of power, rather than any political or moral belief system.

IOW, anything is "legal" so long as the right people are paid off.

[KharmaTrain]

44. Do They Mean "The City That Works"

Keep in mind the rushpublicans haven't had a presence in Chicago since Big Bill Thompson in the 20's. Thus they have little clue on how things are done in Chicago...just stereotypes and talking points.

Yes, Chicago is a one party city with many tents inside that party. It's because this is a city that cherishes and celebrates diversity...the GOOP can't deal with anything but middle aged white man's rule.

I laugh at how they try to equate President Obama with the "Chicago Machine" that fell apart 25 years ago when Harold Washington was elected. But it fits into a bunch of right wing memes...fear of minorities, fear of the majority and fear of not having power. Thus they try to broad brush a political system they don't understand and one that's been highly efficient and effective.

The big irony is they'd love to have a machine that works...their machine is broken and out of gas.

[Hannah Bell]

45. corrupt.

[Irreverend IX]

47. Corruption: It's Only Wrong When Republicans Do It

And I don't see how you can have a "City that Works" with large urban war zones within its borders, public schools no sane parent will let their kid cross the threshold of, a police force that intimidates witnesses after one of their own beats up a female bartender half his size, and judges like the one who gave the cop in question 2 years probation for his crime.

[AngryAmish]

48. It means the government exists to give certain people money and power

Yes, government is very corrupt around Chicago. In Illinois there is no real competition between Ds and Rs - they all rely on the same powerbrokers. Government exists to give jobs to your political supporters. They "get out the vote" and work for the politicians at election time. So the politicians do not drive a hard bargain with the government employees at contract time - it means screwing over the people who count and produce votes. The negotiation process is therefore corrupted. But the real graft is in white-collar patronage - where you have to use certain insurance brokers (run by a politicians wife, cousin, brother etc.) in order to get government contracts or even something silly like building permits. If you are a large organization one must hire a politicians wife, cousin, brother etc. at a little or no work job in order to keep the city and state grants coming. Or if not hire then outright, use their firms as consultants, accountants, etc. There is whole generations of princlings (children of politicians) who have rainmaker jobs at law firms, banks, you name it who wine and dine their friends in government for about ten hours a week yet are made partners.

Yeah it works I suppose and the city is clean. Violent, but that is in the minority neighborhoods so nobody cares. The schools suck balls (except certain magnate schools who you have to know someone to get into). But taxes are high - corruption costs money.