TAMMANY HALL, THE CHICAGO MACHINE AND FAUST

TERRY GOLWAY, TODAY IN A NYTIMES OP-ED:

Tammany Hall certainly was guilty of many of the offenses arraigned against it. But those flaws should not overshadow Tammany’s undoubted virtues. The machine succeeded not simply because it could round up votes. It succeeded because it was unafraid of the grunt work of retail politics and because it rarely lost touch with its voters. 

(Terry Golway is the author of the forthcoming book “Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics.”) 

LAST JULY HE WROTE:

Tammany politicians made fortunes off graft, and some were associated with gangsters. Richard Croker, Tammany’s boss from 1886 to the early 20th Century, became a millionaire through his political connections. And Tammany’s most-famous boss, Bill Tweed, remains the poster boy of political corruption, nearly 140 years after his death. 

But supporters of the landmark designation needn’t apologize for Tammany Hall’s place in New York history. The political machine that made its home there helped to create a new kind of politics in New York that was popular, pluralistic and progressive. As one speaker, attorney and historian James Kaplan, reminded the commission, the history of Tammany Hall is linked to the history of progressive social welfare reforms, from workers’ compensation to minimum wage laws to the New Deal itself, during the 1920s and ‘30s.

GOLWAY IS JUSTIFYING CORRUPTION.

WHY?

BECAUSE THE CORRUPT HELPED HIS ETHNIC GROUP, THE IRISH.

HE ACCEPTS THEIR CORRUPTION BECAUSE THE CORRUPT DID HIS TRIBE A FAVOR.

THAT'S A FAUSTIAN BARGAIN.

THAT'S HOW THE CORRUPT SEDUCE THE INNOCENT, AND JUSTIFY THEIR EVIL. 

HE'S DEFENDING THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN THAT MEMBERS OF THE MACHINE (BE IT TAMMANY HALL OR CHICAGO) HAVE MADE IN THEIR OWN PERSONAL CORRUPT LIVES AND WHICH THEY INSIST UPON FOISTING ON THE REST OF US. 

BLAGO AND OBAMA AND RAHM AND JARRETT ALL ROSE TO PERSONAL POWER BY SELLING THEIR SOULS TO THE MACHINE, TO SCUM LIKE REZKO AND WORSE.

THEY JUSTIFY IT IN THEIR OWN MINDS BY ARGUING THAT IN THE END SOME SOCIAL GOOD WAS PRODUCED - MOSTLY FOR THEIR POLITICAL SUPPORTERS AND THE MACHINE, BUT ALSO FOR SOME OTHERWISE "DOWNTRODDEN" GROUP FOR WHOM THEY (SO THEY ARGUE) ARE THE ONLY HOPE.

IT'S BASICALLY THE SAME ARGUMENT DAVID AXELROD USED TO DEFEND THE CHICAGO MACHINE IN A 2005 OP-ED.

LIBERALS AND LEFTISTS REALLY BELIEVE THIS; THEY BELIEVE YOU HAVE TO BREAK EGGS TO MAKE AN OMELET.

THIS IS WHY THEY ARE ROTTEN TO THEIR CORE: THEY'VE MADE A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL. AND THEY LIKE IT.

AND IT'S WHY THEY HAVE NO PROBLEM MAKING MORE AND MORE AND MORE CORRUPT AND IMMORAL DEALS -

• LIKE WASTING BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER MONEY ON GM AND CHRYSLER TO SAVE THE PENSIONS AND HEALTHCARE DEALS FOR THE UAW...

• LIKE EXPLOITING TRUMPED UP FEAR OVER THE "IMPENDING MAN-MADE CLIMATE CATASTROPHE" IN ORDER TO GAIN CONTROL OVER THE "MEANS OF PRODUCTION" AND SIMULTANEOUSLY USE THE HUGE BOONDOGGLES BUILT UPON THIS FEAR TO STEER MONEY TO THEIR CRONIES AND TO PARTS OF THEIR MACHINE.

• LIKE RELAXING SANCTIONS ON IRAN AND LETTING THEM GO NUCLEAR...

• LIKE ABANDONING MUBARAK, SUPPORTING THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, CEDING LIBYA AND SYRIA AND PARTS OF IRAQ AND PARTS OF AFGHANISTAN BACK TO THE ISLAMISTS. 

• FOR IF YOU CAN MAKE A DEAL WITH MEPHISTOPHELES, THEN YOU CAN CERTAINLY HAVE MAOIST ADVISORS, ADVISORS WHO FAVOR FORCED ABORTIONS AND MASS STERILIZATION, AND MAKE DEALS WITH THE TALIBAN, IRANIAN AYATOLLAHS...

AND OF COURSE, YOU'LL HAVE NO PROBLEM LYING OVER AND OVER AGAIN ABOUT OBAMACARE:

THEY SERVE THE MACHINE AND SUCCUMB OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO THE EVER-BURGEONING NEEDS GENERATED FROM THEIR FAUSTIAN BARGAIN.

A BARGAIN THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE THE MASTERS OF, BUT THEY ARE NOT THE MASTERS.

THEY SERVE EVIL.

THEY ARE LOST SOULS.

LIKE FAUST.

IN SUMMARY:

MACHINE POLITICIANS HAVE MADE THEIR OWN FAUSTIAN BARGAIN, AND THEY INSIST WE DO TOO. 

THEY JUSTIFY THE FAUSTIAN BARGAIN BY ARGUING THAT IN THE END SOME SOCIAL GOOD WAS PRODUCED, BUT MOSTLY WHATEVER THEY DO IS MOSTLY FOR THEIR POLITICAL SUPPORTERS AND THE MACHINE. 

BUT THEY ARGUE IT IS FOR SOME "NOBLE" AND "PROGRESSIVE" ENTERPRISE... 

OR A "DOWNTRODDEN" GROUP FOR WHOM THEY (SO THEY ARGUE) ARE THE ONLY HOPE. 

AND IF YOU OPPOSE THEM, THEN YOU OPPOSE NOBLE PROGRESS AND SUPPORT REPRESSION OF THE DOWNTRODDEN. 

THEY SAY - IN EFFECT, ON BEHALF OF MEPHISTOPHELES: 

"IF WE'D JUST SELL THEM OUR SOULS, THEN EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY." 

THEY DENY THIS, OF COURSE, AND COUNTER: 

"IF YOU LIKE YOUR SOUL, THEN YOU CAN KEEP YOUR SOUL." 

WE KNOW HOW THAT ENDS...