Talk:Political history of Chicago

Latest comment: 8 years ago by Cyberbot II in topic External links modified

Merge? edit

NO Both of these articles could easily reach the size limit in short order. Politics is more about ELECTIONS, and how it effects the culture of Chicago. Law and government of Chicago is more about the PROCESS of how the engine of government work. Politics is more ethereal and abstract, Law and government is more concrete, they are almost polar oppisites. Politics is about the about the bending of the truth to get elected to get there, or stay there. L&G is more about the written A. B. C.'s of policy and procedure. It is like two sides of a coin. It is almost like merging Democrats and Republicans. WikiDon 02:48, 20 October 2005 (UTC)Reply

Agreed, though I wouldn't exactly call Chicago politics "ethereal" by any stretch. Politics is often about political parties and, particularly in Chicago, political machines, both of which exist outside of the actual institutions of government. Politics is the means by which governments are formed, but it does not itself constitute "law and government."
In any event, the history of Chicago's political machine is certainly deserving of more coverage around here, whether under "Politics of Chicago" or "Chicago Democratic Machine." This article may be a good starting point, but Good Lord does it need some serious work.
Can anyone, for starters, tell me why it is in any way necessary to introduce it with the following redundancy?
"The Politics of Chicago is about the politics and political environment of Chicago, Illinois..."
Oh, the things one learns each day at Wikipedia!
Perhaps I'll try my hand at some revisions if I can find the time. Until then, calling all Chicago grammarians... 67.39.188.207 18:31, 11 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

"Vote early and often" edit

This phrase dates back at least as far as 1859 in New York, so the Chicago Fire didn't lead to it.

The new system will simply require two oaths instead of one; but false swearing can be done, perhaps, as rapidly as true, and the expert persons who have been accustomed to "vote early and often" in many hard-fought fields, will, doubtless, prove themselves equal to the emergency. —New York Times, 8/19/1859, according to [1]. The author of that post is from Chicago, by the way.

I hope someone will add lots of citations to this article. —JerryFriedman (Talk) 23:10, 7 November 2008 (UTC)Reply

Accuracy? References? edit

This article is severely deficient as to accuracy and references. WP:PILLAR.

I am removing one inaccurate and unreferenced statement today, and will be tagging others which have no citations for later deletion.

Here is a typical sentence from it:

"Democrats have usually dominated city politics, and they produced presidential nominees in Stephen Douglas (1860), Adlai Stevenson (1952 and 1956), and Barack Obama, who was nominated and elected in 2008."

This sounded like a soapbox statement to me, so I checked the facts.

Douglas did not even live in Chicago until he had already served as an IL States Attorney, IL Secretary of State, Asst Justice in the IL Supreme Court, 2 terms in US Congress. He moved to Chicago 1 year after he was elected to the US Senate.

Stevenson came from an IL political family based out of Bloomington IL, not chicago. Some members of that family were prominent Republicans. He grew up in Bloomington and went east for college. As a young adult he practiced law for a prominent conservative Chicago law firm, married a wealthy Chicago socialite and thereafter moved to an upper crust suburb.

Obama did not rise through city politics. In fact, city politicians opposed his run for Congress in 2000, and they favored his opponents in the primaries for his Senate run in 2004.

--W E Hill (talk) 11:02, 2 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

The analysis was correct. The statement does not say the people were born in Chicago--it says Chicago was their political base for their rise to the presidential nomination by the Democratic party. Douglas moved his base to Chicago before he became nationally important, as did Stevenson (who practiced law in Chicago while living in the suburbs), and Obama. Obama was a product of the City Democratic party (he was state senator from the city) --he was not a product of the remnants of the old machine, and the statement does not say he was. .Rjensen (talk) 03:07, 3 August 2009 (UTC)Reply


The statement which says that [Chicago] city politics "produced" the three presidential nominees is vague, un-sourced, unverified and I have given facts to dispute it. Sorry, but I will be deleting it again because you have not given any verifiable sources, to support it just your own interpretation. I am also restoring the tags for citations needed. Citations are really a basic requirement on Wikipedia. W E Hill (talk) 05:30, 4 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

Quote Style edit

Did some clean up on this. To whomever: it's not generally acceptable to use wiki itself as a reference, I moved all those to See Also. 72.228.177.92 (talk) 02:31, 20 December 2010 (UTC)Reply

Dumping of "Chicago style politics (meme)" content into this article edit

This is a questionable content dump. It seems to be a WP:COATRACK for dumping content into various articles with no concern over WP:WEIGHT. I object to the current inclusion. Springee (talk) 03:06, 9 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

article need expansion edit

Gents, this article needs both expansion and an extrapolation of relevant facts for a potential reader. The criminal justice system has dealt with (and continues to deal with) Chicago on an ongoing basis. Wiki crime, Wiki criminal justice, and Wiki law enforcement obviously needs to give some love here. There is a wealth of RS out there on the Chicago political machine, and it needs to be expressed as such. Chicago politics is notable for it's extraordinary criminality, and this needs to be documented, which I am happy to help with. Supaflyrobby (talk) 20:28, 1 January 2016 (UTC)Reply

External links modified edit

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