no it's not. Democratic machine politics are dead, they've been dead since the New Left in the 60s. They live on as pathetic ghosts of themselves in certain large cities, however Tameney hall is dead.
I admit that Chicago is one of those cities, however the Cook County machine that gave Kennedy the election in 60 is dead. Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Detroit are the only major cities that operate under any kind of similar political regime- but it is very different today. The main difference is in inclusion of race- the old labor regimes that founded those party machines were (and continue to be) notoriously racist and insular (how many carpenters in Philadelphia aren't Italian or Irish? That'd be none.) and when blacks finally became a real force in urban politics (through overcoming the racist tyranny of mayors like Daley sr. and Frank Rizzo) it permanently altered the American urban political landscape.
Both the Boston and New York machines have irreversibly crumbled- two of the 60s most loyal bulwarks of labor politics. The Philly, Baltimore and Detroit machines have completely succumbed to race politics and Chicago clings on, slowly sinking further into a similar political regime every year. It's actually something to be celebrated- the Democrats who used to march with "bomb Hanoi" signs have been almost totally deposed and marginalized.
70s urban America was as close to the Wiemar Republic then any other point in the United States history. City's all over the country panicked under the weight of decline and race tension into electing "petite fascists" like the notorious Daley, or Philadelphia's "il duce" Frank Rizzo. On the left the hippies began upsetting established neighborhood patterns through the nascent movements of gentrification and race consciousness exploded onto the political landscape with an unbelievable force. Race riots shook every American between 1965 and 1975- most visibly and violent in 1968 after MLK's death.
And, just like in Germany, the white working class blundered into reactionary behavior and hid behind monsters like Daley. However, unlike in Germany, the white working class had an alternative to the increasingly alien and liberal urban culture- suburbia. And so, while the brief era of reaction was miserable and violent, it ultimately collapsed because people who hated "blacks, hippies, fags, etc." could more easily just move to surrounding white, straight, conservative (or blue collar conservative) suburbs then join street gangs and help Daley fight his street war.
And that's the point. The white urban blue collar is either dead or marginalized- and they are the kind of people that create the Daley machine- not "upper West Side Jacobins" (as LBJ, who himself had more then a little bit of the blue collar reactionary thought in him) called the other half of the liberal movement.
