Read the passage. Our political failures . . . are simply ridiculous. But they are ours. . . . Why not see it so and say it?

. . . But no one class is at fault, nor any one breed, nor any particular interest or group of interests. The misgovernment of the American people is misgovernment by the American people.

–The Shame of the Cities,
Lincoln Steffens,
1904

Many urban immigrant communities tended to support political machines despite their inherent corruption because