<p>So someone has to be underprivileged and underrepresented otherwise their wants and needs don’t count as much? Being white and greek means your voice shouldn’t be heard? Show me one group, race, or ethnicity on campus that is being oppressed by these greek overlords. </p>
<p>The Machine is only a secret to GDI’s. Every fraternity or sorority member worth their salt knows who their machine representative is. And every one of them can go to him or her and voice their opinion. GDI’s don’t know who is in The Machine because you don’t need to know.</p>
<p>The Machine is only as powerful as the rest of the student body allows it to be. You guys act like it’s some sinister corrupt society that fixes elections and destroys it’s opponents. You complained for years that we only won because we cheated when counting the votes. Now it’s done online and you still get your asses handed to you. </p>
<p>Tell me how many members of the Black Student Union voted for Cochran. Tell me how many of Hogan’s sorority sisters voted for Cochran. I’ll bet you could use one hand and have all five fingers available afterward. </p>
<p>“Independent’s” only complain about bloc voting when they’re not part of the bloc that wins.</p>
<p>NJBama, your opinions are downright disturbing.</p>
<p>“So someone has to be underprivileged and underrepresented otherwise their wants and needs don’t count as much? Being white and greek means your voice shouldn’t be heard? Show me one group, race, or ethnicity on campus that is being oppressed by these greek overlords.”</p>
<p>Um…Well for starters, let’s mention the fact that it is damn near impossible for a non-white to join any of the old row fraternities or sororities. It’s ugly discrimination. They’re allowed to do it, mind you. That’s their right, after all. But that doesn’t mean it IS right. </p>
<p>By the way, feel free to keep deluding yourself, NJ, but the Machine plays dirty. There are countless instances of the Machine defacing the chalkings and posters of opposing candidates. There was even an incident a few years ago where people had their cars chalked without their consent in the Lakeside parking lot. Now, I guess I can’t PROVE that this was endorsed by the Machine higher-ups, but it is more than likely considering, as you yourself pointed out, 80% of the student population is non-Greek. If we’re going to chalk up (no pun intended) these outrageous behaviors to the workings of a few loony Greeks, then certainly we’d expect MORE of these kinds of incidents coming from the non-Greeks, simply because there are 4 times as many of them. Funny how a 4:1 non-Greek/Greek ratio corresponds to a 1:20 non-Greek “dirty tactic”/Greek “dirty tactic” ratio. The math speaks volumes.</p>
<p>And on the off-chance these incidents aren’t Machine endorsed, these kinds of behaviors speak volumes about the Machine’s voting bloc. So either your voting bloc is composed of an extremely disproportional amount of immature people (who apparently only care about their opinions and nobody else’s) or the Machine is silencing its opposition.</p>
<p>lol, It’s disturbing that someone is of the opinion that groups are allowed to organize and back a candidate of their own choosing? Who knew.</p>
<p>The Machine is made up of both old & new row fraternities and sororities. Discrimination or segregation by these houses is a whole different argument altogether. </p>
<p>You’re deluding yourself if you think independents don’t trash the machine candidates flyers, chalkings, signage, and cars as well. Only difference is the Crimson White doesn’t talk about those incidents because it doesn’t fit their agenda. </p>
<p>The Machine is a political group. Nothing more and nothing less. They have every right to organize, endorse, and back who they so choose. Just like any other group on campus has the right to do the same. Don’t blame The Machine because you can’t garner enough interest and support for your candidate from the other 80% of the student body. </p>
<p>I said it before and I’ll say it again. The Machine is only as powerful as the entire student body allows it to be.</p>
<p>It’s a whole different argument that certain houses of old row frats and sororities discriminate when we’re talking about the Machine, which is composed of frats and sororities? Lol. Riiiiight.</p>
<p>The Machine does have every right to back any candidate they choose, but it’s classless for them to hinder their opponents’ efforts by hindering their campaigns. As for GDIs tearing down Machine candidates’ posters, I’m sure it happens. I said the ratio was 1:20, and there are a lot more than 20 posters supporting either candidate the weeks before the election. However, as a senior at UA, year after year, I’ve personally seen way more non-Greek candidates’ materials/chalkings mysteriously disappear. I don’t trust the CW for my news. The only reason I knew about the Lakeside incident is because I was living at Lakeside at the time.</p>
<p>As for blaming GDIs for not mobilizing their base… I’m afraid that GDI campaigners don’t enjoy the same blackmailing privileges that Machine campaigners have, the ability to punish any Machine Greek who dares to vote for the GDI candidate. </p>
<p>This is somewhat unrelated to their treachery, but here’s something else that bothers me about the Machine - the way their voting bloc blindly supports empty-headed candidates. Steven Oliver from a few years ago was a complete airhead who didn’t deserve to have his name on the same ballot as someone with Kendra Key’s experience. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if higher-ups in the Machine could compel their subordinates to vote a paper bag into office and the subordinates would be none the wiser. For the record, I think Cochran is extremely qualified, so that doesn’t apply here, but the Machine’s historical record speaks for itself.</p>
<p>All it would take is for some group to do a little bit of organization, and the majority of students to get off their keisters (to use an ancient term) and actually vote.</p>
<p>I always wondered why sororities would do what the Machine - back when it was all male - told them to. Sororities have way more members than the fraternities. All they’d have to do is use that voting power. </p>
<p>But then…we’re talking about 19- and 20- and 21-year-olds whose desire is to “fit in.”</p>