Like many conservatives, traditionalists and Republicans who didn't want to ape the caustic rhetoric of the neo-Marxist Progressive-Left used during the entirety of the Bush Administration, I promised myself to refrain from immediately assuming that Barack Obama was going to bring with him to the White House the backroom politics of Chicago's Democrat Machine. I employed the Reagan doctrine of “trust but verify.” Well, the verdict is in and the political tactics and policies that Barack Obama has brought to the Executive Branch are not only of the old school “Chicago Way,” they are literally neo-Marxist and naïve.
Let me explain the “Chicago Way.”
Chicago and Cook County, Illinois, have been under Democrat control for as long as I have been alive and before. Most of us grew up watching newsmen like Fahey Flynn, listening to radio journalists like Wally Phillips and reading print journalists like Mike Royko, we were provided a daily examination of the Richard J. Daley Administration; we were afforded an advanced degree in Chicago-style political politics. It is the politics of smoky backrooms and “old boy networks,” patronage, pay-to-play contracting, and governmental protection and appointment of campaign contributors and their families. In Chicago, if it's about power or money for the elected class and/or the enrichment and advancement of their political allies it most likely becomes governmental policy and viewed as necessary for “saving grace” of society.
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Frank Salvato also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal. His writing has been recognized by the US House International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention.
