Party Machine, Machine Politics Quotes

Despite his fears, that is exactly what happened. Ironically, he himself was the focus of much dissatisfaction with the administration, and the Federalists led by Adams and the Democratic Republicans led by Jefferson opposed each other, ousting Adams.

Slogan that Theodore Roosevelt developed to go with this attempt to nominate Presidents with Primary Elections. Prior to his 1912 run for the Presidency, presidential nominees were selected by the delegates to the party national convention. Since then the parties have used various combinations of delegates that were bound by primary election results in their state and other delegates who could use their judgment. No combination has been totally satisfactory and both major American political parties tinker with the combination every four years.

Congress at that time had about a 12 percent public approval rating. Other emergency disaster appropriations had been made in previous years in days or weeks, but the aid for New Jersey, New York and Connecticut had been voted by the Democratic-controlled Senate but not in the Republican controlled House. The Republican House leadership had planned a vote after the Fiscal Cliff vote the previous evening before the end of the Congressional term. Then the speaker cancelled the vote infuriating Christie and many of the members of Congress. His reason was that there was opposition from the Tea Party Conservative wing of his own party who had just been badly beaten on the fiscal cliff legislation, and the Speaker was up for reelection by his own party caucus the following day. If the vote had proceeded, it would have passed with Democratic and some Republican support but with the opposition of the conservative wing some of whom noted that the states seeking the emergency aid had just recently voted for President Obama and they were opposed to more federal spending despite the fact that emergency aid had never before been subjected to such partisan criteria. After much pressure, the Speaker then committed to an up or down vote in the following Congress to the chagrin of some of the Tea Party members. Governor Christie, much admired for his commitment to his state and not politicking was his candid self but he did not even go as far as Republican Congressman Peter King {630995}.

Tammany Hall was the political machine that controlled New York City in the first half of the 20th century.

“Blue” and “Red” were the color codes for Democratic and Republican controlled states. This Congressman, part of the extreme conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican Party tended to somewhat paranoid about President O’Bama—the first Black President, who although a moderate Democrat was far to left for them and they suspected him of evil motives whatever he did. What was silly about this theory was that the “illegals” could not vote, and even if Texas were swamped with undocumented aliens, they could not change the political balance of power one bit. But conspiracy theories are never based on serious analysis and scientific logic.

See {639178} for Platt’s reaction to the article.

2nd Baronet Peel. He was then the Chief Secretary of Ireland and only 26 years of age. Patronage jobs, cronyism, and corruption was then extreme in Irish politics.

Tammany Hall was the name given to the New York City Democratic political machine. While it was, by modern standards, quite corrupt, the main source of its power was what it delivered to the general mass of New York City citizens. And Tammany Hall was unsurpassed in its delivery of public works to the city. Bridges, subways, parks, and other amenities were conceived of, financed and built by government. Although each of these projects had funds skimmed by the politicians, the projects were constructed to an extent and scale that was previously unknown in politics. In that sense, Tammany Hall was one of the major early instances of the liberal notion of government development of urban areas.

Indeed Senator Thomas Collier Platt, in cooperation with major New York corporations, was leading just such an effort. See {624063}. However, many close friends and supporters wanted him to do for the national ticket what he had done for New York—reform. These schemes succeeded beyond the proponents’ wildest dreams when President McKinley was assassinated, and TR was the President. His enemies however were crestfallen—Party leader Thomas Collier Platt was very distressed. See {585078}.

Roosevelt was running again for the presidency, however this time as a Third Party Candidate. He lost to Woodrow Wilson but outpolled the Republicans. This was the Third Party performance since Abraham Lincoln.