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FROM THE 1840'S AND CONTINUING TO THE EARLY PART OF LAST CENTURY YOU HAD A TREMENDOUS NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS ESPECIALLY FROM EASTERN AND SOUTHERN EUROPE AS WELL AS Ireland THAT TENDED TO CONGREGATE IN HUGE NUMBERS IN SUCH CITIES AS Boston, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA AS WELL AS Chicago. POLITICAL BOSSES FROM BOTH MAJOR PARTIES COURTED THESE NEW VOTERS BY PROMISING THEM ALL KINDS OF BENEFITS ESPECIALLY THE TAMMONY MACHINE IN NEW YORK. ALL THESE POLITICAL BOSSES WERE INVARIABLY CORRUPT TO SOME DEGREE BUT MOST DID CONTRIBUTE POSITIVELY TO THESE NEW AMERICANS IN EXCHANGE FOR THEIR POLITICAL ALLEGIANCE-THAT IS WHY NEW YORK, BOSTON AND CHICAGO ARE SO OVERWHELMINGLY DEMOCRATIC. UP TILL THE EARLY 1950'S, PHILADELPHIA HAD A REPUBLICAN POLITICAL MACHINE THAT WAS DOMINANT FOR OVER A HUNDRED YEARS TILL PROGRESSIVE DEMOCATS BEGAN TO MAKE STRONG ENROADS TO THE POINT THAT PHILLY BY THE TIME OF JOHN KENNEDY IN 1960 WAS A DEMOCRATIC STRONGHOLD.

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14y ago

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