Politics & Power Quote by Richard J. Daley

Daley sells inclusion the way a machine politician sells anything: as a brand promise that just happens to rhyme with power. The repetition of "We opened them..". works like a chant, less about moral philosophy than about memory-making. In Chicago’s mid-century political ecosystem, "we" wasn’t abstract. It was precinct captains, patronage jobs, ward favors, church basements, and handshake politics that stitched immigrant and ethnic neighborhoods into a reliable voting bloc. The arms are open, but they’re also counting heads.

The intent is twofold. On the surface, it’s a proud defense of Democrats as America’s big-tent party, a direct appeal to voters who heard "immigrant" and "Catholic" as coded targets of suspicion in earlier eras. Underneath, it’s a claim of ownership: the party didn’t merely welcome these communities; it integrated them into a governing coalition, implying gratitude and loyalty should follow. The warmth is strategic. Daley’s genius was turning belonging into infrastructure.

The subtext is also defensive. By stressing "every nationality, every creed", he blunts accusations that urban machines were parochial, corrupt, or dominated by a single ethnic interest. He reframes transactional politics as pluralism. "Party of the people" lands as both democratic ideal and managerial boast: we are the conduit through which the people get heard, helped, hired, paved, protected.

Context matters: the New Deal coalition, postwar urbanization, civil rights realignment, and mounting backlash politics. Daley’s line tries to freeze the Democrats as the natural home for newcomers just as the definition of "the people" was being contested nationwide.