What have we learned from Tammany Hall

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED FROM TAMMANY HALL?

With all the revelations about ACORN and peripherally SEIU, it is obvious that the legacy of Tammany Hall is not lost upon those who crave political power.
Tammany Hall, a community organization, was a thinly veiled political arm of the Tweed regime. Tweed used his power as a New York State Senator to gather contracts, projects, and enterprises for its members, often skimming huge sums of money illegally from the same to line the pockets of his cronies. In exchange, these cronies went through a series of various organizations and groups to dole out money to Tweed's constituents mostly in New York City. Many of Tweed's constituents were poor, destitute immigrants fresh from Ireland, escaping famine and the destroyed economy of their homeland. Tweed understood that by creating a welfare state for these immigrants that he could remain in power indefinitely. The more immigrants, the more votes, the bigger the large. The enforcement of his power was done both by the carrot and the stick. Tweed committed his nefarious acts by a slight of hand in the open.
The beauty of this plan is that Tweed could fund and run it without spending a dime of his own money. Public funds were plentiful and oversight was virtually non-existent. Tweed amassed huge personal wealth in a short time, set up a nearly invisible system of total corruption by spreading out his plan through an elaborate network of organizations and subordinates. Projects got completed, the immigrants got fed, housed and clothed, got to the express line of legalization, and Tweed got to stay in office so he could take care of his people. All was right with the world and who really cared?

The lesson we seem to have forgotten is that absolute power corrupts absolutely.

The poor Irish Immigrants traded one form of fiefdom and slavery for another. Tweed replaced the English land holding aristocracy and the lot of the immigrants was blunted. Instead of the individuals finding their own destinies and improving their lives by exercising their opportunities in the American free market system, most were beholden to a system that deliberately restricted their growth. Tweed knew that keeping them inside his system was key to the survival of his plan. Many of the immigrants were better off than they were in Ireland, and were happy to be in a system that took care of them instead of understanding how they were being cheated of their dreams.
Perhaps the biggest casualty of the system were the dreams of the immigrants. They traded physical security for the chance to live fully and freely in an America that offered much more than they received.
The second casualty was the race card that was played throughout this tragedy. The Irish were seen as a lazy , stupid and dangerous horde that was taking away jobs from native Americans. Both sides played off this image to enhance their own agendas. Tweed used this sentiment to feed on his voters fears to let them know he understood their plight and he was there to protect them. He would guarantee them their rights to a roof over their heads, food, clothing, coal, and jobs.
The final casualty (and there are numerous others that time causes omissions), and perhaps most sadly is the obligation of the press and the government itself to investigate and to instigate oversight. Thomas Nast, a famous cartoonist for the biggest newspaper, lead a furious and detailed charge through the New York papers to have Tweed charged and Tammany Hall dismantled. Eventually he succeeded after having to wade through layers and layers of corruption. The New York legislature was so riddled with the corruption of Tweed, so many had participated, that it took years for the reform to clean house. Yet the public rallied to truth and demanded criminal charges and change. Sadly, Tammany Hall was not fully dismantled until another political machine, FDR ( and Eleanor) took them on, using the power of the Federal government reconstruction programs during the Great Depression to out Tammany Hall Tammany Hall itself....

Have we learned nothing? We have a press corps in bed with the corruption, unwilling to do its job in rallying the public for REAL CHANGE. We have an organization much more damaging and dangerous than Tammany Hall in ACORN, and it surrogate SEIU. It is national in scope, has a much larger web of affiliations and associations, and more dangerous people with different motives, and has billions allocated to it by a government either too blind, too stupid or too corrupt to do the oversight necessary to reign in this cancer. I asked my House Rep Michael Burgess a few months ago why we did not have a select panel to investigate the activities of ACORN and SEIU and he stated that the Democrats controlled the agenda and blocked the efforts.

I ask the Hon. M.Burgess again to renew his efforts. I ask him, the press, and you the reader, HAVE WE LEARNED NOTHING FROM TAMMANY HALL?

Do we not have the courage and the moral commitments of our predecessors to clean up this rat's nest of corruption, crime ,and filth?