Kamis, 28 Oktober 2010

Get Out the Vote Machines Then and Now

Shaker pie, this and other lost pie recipes below


Many political talking heads are arguing that the key to the tight senatorial races this year in Illinois and Colorado are each parties ground machine and their ability to get out the vote as election day approaches. During the antebellum period, the multitude of political parties that existed used their organizers to guarantee high voter turnouts too, but the their strategy was different from today. Party operatives then used “election day treating,” a practice rooted in British political culture, to get people to exercise their civic duties. Election day treating meant persuading voters to come to the polls and cast a vote in one's party’s favor with the promise of free food and spirits—especially whisky and most likely rum. Historically the tactic had a strong class dimension to it and particularly so after 1828 when Jacksonian Democrats increased popular participation in elections by reducing residency requirements for voting, eliminating the practice of voting by voice, and increasing access to voting places. As a result before the Civil War, and for a while thereafter, party ground machines responsible for turning out voters included street venders, inns, tavern, ale-houses, eating-houses, and cook-shops on their list of people who would receive political patronage after an election win. For the poor, election day in the antebellum period meant a trip to the voting polls and to a mouthwatering spread that might include in the words of traveler Adam Hodgson, “four or five turkeys on the table, and the greatest possible variety and profusion of meat, poultry, and pastry” and decanters full of brandy, whisky, and rum. When I think of an old put extremely good southern pastry, lemon shaker pie comes to mine. Here’s a recipe and some additional pies recipes that are often forgotten too:


Shaker Pie Recipe: http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/gf/gf100623piecast_lost_pies_of


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