The Machine: Modern Political Mafia
Art by Kaitlyn Tan
Good Old-Fashioned American Nepotism
Ever heard of the Kennedys? The New England family, with a sweeping hand over state and national politics, the Brahmin social scene, and Boston banking industry, certainly made a name for themselves as one of the most prominent political families in United States history. From their presence at both Princeton University and Harvard College, within Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Securities and Exchange Commission, to Jack being the 35th President of the United States, younger generations of Kennedys are practically guaranteed power and influence at birth.
Ideally, political inheritance is a figment of the past. Good candidates are good candidates, and that’s all that should matter. A more meritocratic system seems fair. Unfortunately, that has never been, and most likely will never be the case in American politics.
A modern take on political legacies can be found in central Alabama. The small city of Tuscaloosa has attracted media attention on “Bama Rush,” a time when students enter their Fall semester at the University of Alabama with the intention of joining a sorority or fraternity. All over social media, non-members of the Crimson Tide can see firsthand the stress and drama potential new members experience during the week-long process. Approximately 2,500 students pursued sorority recruitment in 2021.
A Luxurious Greek Lifestyle
The houses and themed events are undoubtedly enticing to new students. From “swaps,” or parties with fraternities, to new member retreats, and big-little reveal week (when an older member of the chapter presents a new member with gift baskets), it appears to be an ideal way to spend the first semester of university. Additionally, if you live in a sorority house, you gain 16 to 80 roommates and automatic friends. It does come with a price, however, as live-in fees can range anywhere from $7,465 to $9,445 per semester, and non-live-in fees remain over $3,621 per semester. Fraternity fees also sit on the higher end, with an average of $6,800 per semester when living in the house and $3,500 per semester as a non-live-in member.
As such, wealth is synonymous with membership in the Panhellenic and Interfraternity Council organizations. Under the glitz and glam lies an uglier reality: decades-long controversy, marked by social excommunication, cross-burnings, and FBI investigations.
The Darker Reality
The culprit responsible for the chaos, The Machine, a long-standing Alabama institution, provides direct pipelines to Washington politics and state leadership. At its core, The Machine is composed of Greek-affiliated students. They are secretly selected from their respective sororities and fraternities to influence the fate of elections that result in the presidency within the university’s Student Government Association (SGA). These students enjoy special financial and professional privileges on and off-campus.
In fact, John Archibald, Pulitzer Prize winner and current journalist for Birmingham News, graduated from the University of Alabama in 1986. He writes, “Everything for good or ill—I owe to ‘The Machine’ at the University of Alabama.” According to Archibald, The Machine blessed him with a wife, kids, and a job. In his own words, “If not for Theta Nu Epsilon [the Greek letter name for The Machine]...I would be somebody else entirely.”
From fining members who did not vote for Machine-backed candidates in student government elections, to breaking into non-Machine student government offices (that’s right, Bama-gate), to committing alleged voter fraud in municipal elections, Archibald’s recollections certainly paint a loyalty-style picture of the not-so-secret organization. This loyalty stretches far beyond the realm of Tuscaloosa. In fact, Senator and chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Richard Shelby, and previous Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama were Machine alumni.
Keeping power within the bloodline removes any potential for embracing change. The university’s failure to acknowledge The Machine falsely advertises students’ ability to receive opportunities for fair elections and professional development. Bennet McGehee, who graduated from the University in 2020, wanted to try his hand at student government. He heard rumors about The Machine and upon inquiry, Student Government Association members denied the institution’s existence, it “didn’t exist.”
However, Alex Smith, a member of Phi Mu sorority, a Machine-backed chapter, ran for senate and knew that The Machine would be her ticket to obtaining a position. Once she got the “go ahead" from The Machine-affiliated candidates in her sorority chapter, she ran and became a university senator.
One might say that The Machine is merely a voting group of students who all support the ideal candidate based on their collective ideology. It may be similar to the electors within the Democratic or Republican National Conventions. However, voting coercion is a fraction of what The Machine does to stay in power. If you’re in the “out” group, it is extremely apparent.
When Smith left The Machine, she felt removed from her sorority’s pledge class. In her words, “No one really wanted to be my friend…I received dozens of blocked phone calls from numbers I didn’t know cursing at me and saying very ugly things.”
Words are one thing, actions are another. In 1986, Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first all-Black sorority founded at Howard University, searched for a chapter house at the University of Alabama. They found a burning cross on the property they hoped to purchase. It is no secret that cross burnings are an allusion to the Ku Klux Klan, but the KKK and Machine were never charged for this display of social pressure and racism.
Throughout the 1990s, national publications devoted headlines, exposés, and campaigns to uncovering The Machine at the university. In 2015, the “We Are Done” campaign launched in order to convince university administration to observe the presence of The Machine. That same year, Smith wrote an editorial about her reasons for leaving the organization.
Call to Action
Despite clear messaging in support of The Machine’s clear injustice, there is no evidence to infer that efforts to eliminate The Machine are in place at the university. Lawsuits, social pressure, voter coercion, and social ex-communications persist.
So what does this say about the broader political attitude in central Alabama? It tells us that post-Civil War Southern ideology, keeping the white, higher class afloat, is alive and well in Southern politics. The Machine evolves to redefine class oppression, and social media wraps it in a bright and shiny package for non-Tide members to gawk over.
The Machine is a reactionary organization. Changing demographics, laws, and social ideology puts pressure on institutions like The Machine to be thrown out of modern life. America is changing, and statues of its dark past should not be worshiped.
The We Are Done campaign’s central tenants were to call attention to sexual assault and the racist histories of university property names. In 2015, at Gorgas Library, students shouted, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” They also chanted, “No justice, no peace! Oppression must cease!” Reminiscent of Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020, these chants echo that taking down The Machine is much bigger than eradicating an age-old organization at the University, it is tackling American nepotism and racism in the deep South and beyond.
Excusing threats, assault, and coercion are characteristic of a stereotypical American political machine. It is time to change. In the age of social media and the internet, it is much easier to highlight the flaws of prominent leaders, more specifically at the student level, where Gen-Zers can hone in on their tech skills and call out bad behavior.
What Does This Say About America?
Students like Benett McGehee deserve the opportunity of free and fair elections. It is hypocritical to market democracy in a nation where some progress past others simply due to elite connections and non-meritocratic means.
The proposal: the University of Alabama must crack down on student government infiltrations that involve The Machine. The administration must own up to their dark history and acknowledge the presence of a white supremacist-adjacent organization that has been coined by an anonymous Freshman student as “Alabama’s dirty little secret.”
In light of the upcoming 2022 midterms and 2024 general election, Americans, not just the citizens of Tuscaloosa and greater Alabama, must ask themselves: What legacy do we want to leave in this country? What decisions will serve us well into the future?
The University of Alabama is a mere case study of what can happen to democratic elections when accountability is not enforced. Voter fraud, social pressure, coercion, and hate crimes are accepted as the norm. Democracy is invalidated and redefined as an autocratic regime. However, as Archibald noted, financial, professional, and emotional benefits appear for those indirectly participating in such actions. Is it worth seeing future, qualified students suffer at the hands of the illegitimate administration?