Hillary Clinton's Political Machine

I was reading an article titled, "Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren Have Defeated Hillary Clinton's Political Machine" in the Huffington Post this evening and thought these few lines were particularly interesting:

Hillary Clinton's political machine, which runs on a peculiar form of "honest graft,"as stated by Walter Russell Mead, has been undermined by a political revolution within the Democratic Party, and within American politics.

In class, we read about political machines such as Tammany Hall that controlled the political process in major cities by helping new immigrants in America. I thought the use of the word "Political Machine" to describe an individual person was an interesting take on the topic.

Below is an excerpt of what Mead means when he says "Hillary Clinton's Political Machine":

The Clintons stand where money, influence, and celebrity form a nexus. When Hillary Clinton was running the State Department and Bill Clinton was shaking down contributors to the Foundation, the donors knew, or thought they knew, what they were getting. Now that Hillary is running for President, the donors have an even better idea of what good things might come to them—or what problems and complications could develop if they cut the Clintons off.

I don’t say that the Clintons are breaking the law, at least as far as the basic principles of the machine go. As Tammany Hall’s George Washington Plunkett once said, there is such a thing as “honest graft.” In the old fashioned political machine, that meant that you only take money from the group you had already decided on legitimate grounds would get the contract. The new machine offers even more opportunities for honest graft than the old kind.

The machine gathers the cash that provides perches and incomes to Clinton loyalists; the loyalists keep the publicity machine pumping, keep the networks of contacts and patronage refreshed throughout the vast Clinton network, and staff what amounts to a permanent campaign. This is what party machines used to do: provide incomes for the army of operatives who would jump into action to make sure the machine stayed in office.

But the cash doesn’t come from a system of payoffs that go all the way from the cop on the beat up to the Board of Aldermen and the Mayor. The cash comes from donations and speaking fees. When the husband of the Secretary of State or potential next President calls about a special charity project, most people, even if they happen to be CEOs of major companies or senior government officials, take the call. More than that, there will be times when government and corporate officials will reach out and make the call themselves, rather than waiting passively to hear that the Clinton machine has an ask.