Uhm, really hate to be the bearer of terrible news, but not very much has changed.  Ok, nothing has.   I know you are now going to give me a lecture about how I wasn't even alive in the 60's so what do I know.  What I know is I've been really really active in Chicago politics in recent years and anyone will tell you ... nothing's changed.  No clue what Obama accomplished as a community organizer.  I don't see much to show for it (though that doesn't mean efforts weren't made - trust me, it's pretty futile and thankless work being a reformer in this town!) and I work on the blighted South Side.  Still, I don't know any other community organizers who live in mansions on property bought for them by say, Rezko.  There's Chicago for you.  Even the anti-machine candidate (yeah, right, whatever) is tied to someone being prosecuted for patronage.  It's in the effing water here.  I'm telling you.

Organized labor is organized and does labor, and the new Mayor Richard Daley rules the city like a personal fiefdom.   Chicago politics is barrel-chested strongmen wielding truncheons  on political opponents, then go home to shower, shave, and don a tuxedo to attend a $500 a plate dinner with the President or Senator.  It is connections that counted, and your loyalty to those connections. They STILL have a saying:

we don't want nobody nobody sent.  

Don't take my word for it.  Call Mark Pera or Jesse Jackson jr.

Sorry.  I really am.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.