Big city GOP political machines?

In Inside U.S.A., John Gunther noted (in 1946) that Philadelphia's political machine was the only one that was Republican; all others belonged to the Democrats. Understandable, in many senses: Philadelphia, home of the Union League, was a bastion of establishment Republicans.

Could any other city in the US have had a GOP machine? Here are a few suggestions:

  • Cincinnati: with a solid German section of the population, you could have a reasonably conservative sector that might well back the Republicans enough to gain a solid grip on city government in the days before it went over to the city manager system.
  • St. Louis: see Cincinnati
  • Milwaukee: see Cincinnati
  • Boston: don't laugh. If somehow Irish immigrants can be squeezed out of politics by the Boston Brahmins and the middle Yankees who for years kept Massachusetts as one of the more conservative states in the union, perhaps those of the same party persuasion as Henry Cabot Lodge could seize long-term control of the city government.
  • Indianapolis: something of a stretch here to view Indy-no-place as a major city but...it's still the biggest city in arguably the most Republican state in the Midwest, so it would seem a candidate.
Comments?
 
That bends my mind significantly that the most left-wing city in the US today at one point had a GOP machine.

Every borough of New York City voted Republican in 1920 and 1924.

On the reverse side, LBJ won every upstate NY county in 1964.
 
Last edited:

Sabot Cat

Banned
[[*]Indianapolis: something of a stretch here to view Indy-no-place as a major city but

u fockin wot m8? :)p)

...it's still the biggest city in arguably the most Republican state in the Midwest, so it would seem a candidate.

I think you could keep Indianapolis as a Klan!Republican political machine from the 1920s onward if you prevent D.C. Stephenson both from getting involved in a major scandal *and* out of higher office.
 
And the following sounds like a big part of the narrative of why S.F. become known for being relatively accepting of persons in the LGBTQ community.

http://foundsf.org/index.php?title=The_Castro:_The_Rise_of_a_Gay_Community

" . . World War II provided a big impetus for the development of San Francisco's gay community. One and a half million soldiers, 10%+ of which were homosexual, were able to find each other more easily in the marginal districts of San Francisco. Thousands were discharged by the military for homosexuality and were released in San Francisco. Rather than returning to the hinterlands in which they would be stigmatized, many stayed on and after the war they were joined by thousands more who had discovered new identities in the crucible of war. . "
 
And the following sounds like a big part of the narrative of why S.F. become known for being relatively accepting of persons in the LGBTQ community.

Also, the Brown administrations also helped as a lot of the big business elites (who were the backbone of the SF GOP were gradually coopted into the Democratic coalition. That includes California newspapers generally, traditionally very important in California politics. San Francisco was no exception.
 
Top