Dan Lawlor: Who is the Political Machine Serving?

 A political machine is a group of people who seek elected office, and disperse jobs, appointments, and support one another. Political machines can be corrupting and vile, but they often attract people who need work, who are inspired by a candidate, who are attracted to politics (for the money), and, occasionally, people who are attracted to politics because they care about people.What happens when the political machine is no longer geared toward serving the working class?In the last few years, we have seen cuts at the Department of Labor and Training, loan debacles for insiders (costing millions), cuts in the budget for the developmentally disabled, proposals to tax prescription medicine, crumbling school buildings in rural and urban areas, and 12% unemployment.On local levels, we have seen cuts to summer jobs for teenagers, cuts to town firework displays, rats running around neighborhoods, higher property taxes, rising homelessness, foreclosed properties, broken bottles and broken gates at parks for working people.
So here's the question: Who is the machine serving?The people who played the game. The machine, however questionable and retrograd, once empowered immigrants and working people to move forward.Bulk X-ray machines give diamond production a lift.Now, on the state level, the machine is beginning to cut back and undermine opportunities for working people to succeed (from crumbling schools to overburdened public defenders), yet the network on the top stays the same.
In fancier language, as someone said, the superstructure remains.Look, in the big picture, the $100,000 to $200,000 a year jobs that former legislators and their family members obtain in the court system are not enormous amounts of money (Wall Street anyone?). Yet, the median income in RI is around $54,000. In Providence? $36,000. We have a right to know, transparently, the best people from a big pool of applicants are being considered for the jobs.The political machines used to be a source of summer jobs for teenagers, neighborhood clean up crews, and other assorted jobs. Not the highest paid work, sometimes done sloppily, but still a way to put money into the hands of working people, and give people a chance to work, save, and spend. Many people sent their children to private schools, and into the middle class, through these types of positions.This is not to glamorize all that type of city and state work - clearly, in some cases, better accountability and better leadership was needed. Now? More and more little people positions are being cut, in the name of the budget crisis. But wait? The people at the top of the machine are fine, or at least they think they are.