U Alabama "Machine" elects school board

Parent Cafe
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<p>U Alabama’s Greeks are in the news again</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/us/secret-society-dips-toe-in-city-politics-prompting-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=all[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/15/us/secret-society-dips-toe-in-city-politics-prompting-lawsuit.html?pagewanted=all&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>In Madison it was a leftist machine. Don’t recall much angst over that.</p>

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<p>Here’s a link that someone posted in the UA forum:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.welcometothemachine.info/media.php?ID=44[/url]”>http://www.welcometothemachine.info/media.php?ID=44&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It’s old, but illuminating.</p>

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<p>The machine still controls Chicago politics. It’s called the Democratic Party </p>

<p>The machine works on all political levels and is responsible in Ohio for the voter turn out that won the last election for our president. Many of us are quite grateful for this. </p>

<p>We always call it a machine when we disagree with the politics. </p>

<p>I’m not a fan of what’s going on racially at UA, and I think adult involvement in collegiate social life is preposterous, but there is nothing unique about machine politics anywhere. </p>

<p>JMO</p>

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<p>AFAIK the only reason anyone calls it “The Machine” is that that is what the members call it.</p>

<p>I don’t find party machine politics surprising anywhere, but I DO find the scene in Alabama surprising. It’s like an Old Boy network taken to an incredible extreme. (Of course, when my father was as Yale, that was more or less the deal with Skull and Bones, supposedly.) The degree of insularity with in the state that it implies is fairly remarkable.</p>

<p>Poetgrl, did you read the article I linked to?</p>

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<p>I read that article back in 1992. </p>

<p>Not surprised. </p>

<p>It’s important to remember that Alabama, in many ways, is just joining the rest of the country. </p>

<p>They’ve gone out and recruited a lot of bright , independent thinkers from out of state. They are now going to change. </p>

<p>I wouldn’t want to live there, though it is quite beautiful, but they are going to drag themselves into this century, whether they like it or not.</p>