What are your thoughts on Huey Long?

[coloradodem2005]

Was he a virtual dictator, or was he one of the best politicians in U.S. history? He did some great things for Louisiana and initiated a great public works program in that state. Though many believe that he ruled Louisiana as a virtual dictator and FDR himself thought he was a demagogue. What are your thoughts?

[ewagner]

1. Actually , Boss of powerful

political machine.....much like the famous Richard Daley of Chicago..

what I want to know:

What happened to Huey's "DEDUCT BOX"? Anybody remember that legend?

[The Magistrate]

2. The Kingfish Was A Helluva Fella, Sir

His career, and the political lines he employed during it, deserve close study, particularly where the need to rally working people against corporate exploitation is paramount.

"Never write what you can phone, never phone what you can say, never say what you can nod, never nod what you can wink, never wink what you can smile."

[ewagner]

4. Sounds like you've studied

the man.....

In your opinion, was he as corrupt as he has often been portrayed?

[Kraklen]

6. Oh, he was corrupt as hell.

Whether or not he was good or bad is a much foggier question to answer.

[The Magistrate]

14. Probably, Sir

There is not much room for doubt, as a good deal of it was done quite openly, with persons hired for state office through the patronage machine he created expected to kick in a portion of their salaries to the organization. Most of the public works contracts had inflated prices, with the contractors being expected to kick back a portion to the same purpose. In campaigns, opponents were smeared, dirty tricks practiced, and votes counted where possible in most creative fashion.

In this, of course, the fellow was exceptional only in his skill and energy; these practices have been the hallmark of American political life from its inception, and remained open routine in that day. My judgement in such matters tends to rest on the interest being pursued by the means, and the broad effect of the policies implemented by the leaders of such a machine.

In that regard, Mr. Long gets excellent marks. He began his career as a genuine crusader against corporate power in Louisiana, particularly the oil companies and utilities, who escaped all but the most nominal taxation due to their own corrupt manipulation of the existing polical structure. This seems to have been rooted in honest conviction that the people of the state should share the profits of its natural wealth, and was pursued tenaciously throughout his career. He brought roads and schoolbooks to the rural districts of Louisiana, with great accompanying benefit to the people, and hospitals as well, with funds realized from such taxation, and bond issues. His career was noteably free of race-baiting, and he often postured as an enemy of the Klan, but of course, in Louisiana, with its substantial Catholic population, this was a sound calculation, given the propensity of the Klan for Catholic-baiting, and the control of the votes in many districts where the Klan was popular by his political foes: in Mississipi or Alabama, for instance, he might have been a race-baiter nonparriel.

[ewagner]

15. I find this true

of so many issues as well as politicians today.

There is sometimes corruption linked to the most noble of causes and the most good-intentioned of men.

It's hard to be a purist these days.

[smirkymonkey]

3. He was both.

I would consider him a benevolent dictator in that he was (at least visibly) on the side of the people. He did a lot of good things for the state and people of Louisiana even though his methods were somewhat questionable. He was EFFECTIVE, there is no denying that.

Most of all, he gave the average person on the street hope that democracy can work in their favor. Who knows how things would have ended up had he not been assasinated.

[whistle]

5. The Huey Long of the 1930's who helped FDR get social security

...legislation passed? I love his story:

<snip>
Brief History
Huey Long

Every Man a King

Huey Long was Governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1930. A nominal Democrat, Huey Long was a radical populist, of a sort we are unfamiliar with in our day. As Governor, he sponsored many reforms that endeared him to the rural poor. An ardent enemy of corporate interests, he championed the "little man" against the rich and privileged. A farm boy from the piney woods of North Louisiana, he was colorful, charismatic, controversial, and always just skating on the edge. He gave himself the nickname "Kingfish" because, he said, "I'm a small fish here in Washington. But I'm the Kingfish to the folks down in Louisiana."

Huey Long was the determined enemy of Wall Street, bankers and big business and he was also a determined enemy of the Roosevelt administration because he saw it as too beholden to these powerful forces.

Huey Long did not suffer from excessive modesty. A high-school dropout who taught himself law and got a law degree in only one year of study, Long was confident he would become President of the United States in 1936. So confident was he that he wrote a book entitled My First Days in the White House in which he named his cabinet (including President Roosevelt as Secretary of the Navy and President Hoover as Secretary of Commerce) and in which he conducted long imaginary conversations with FDR and Hoover designed to humiliate them and show their subservience to the boy from the piney woods of Louisiana.

The Kingfish wanted the government to confiscate the wealth of the nation's rich and privileged. He called his program Share Our Wealth. It called upon the federal government to guarantee every family in the nation an annual income of $5,000, so they could have the necessities of life, including a home, a job, a radio and an automobile. He also proposed limiting private fortunes to $50 million, legacies to $5 million, and annual incomes to $1 million. Everyone over age 60 would receive an old-age pension. His slogan was "Every Man A King."

http://www.ssa.gov/history/hlong1.html

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1417098

[whistle]

8. Then there was his son Russell Long

<snip>
LONG, Russell Billiu, (1918 - 2003)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Senate Years of Service: 1948-1987
Party: Democrat


LONG, Russell Billiu, (son of Huey Pierce Long and Rose McConnell Long, and nephew of George S. Long), a Senator from Louisiana; born in Shreveport, Caddo Parish, La., November 3, 1918; attended the public schools of Shreveport, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, La.; graduated from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge in 1941 and from its law school in 1942; admitted to the bar in 1942 and commenced practice in Baton Rouge, La., in 1946; during the Second World War served in the United States Naval Reserve from June 1942 until discharged as a lieutenant in December 1945; elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate on November 2, 1948, to fill the vacancy in the term ending January 3, 1951, caused by the death of John H. Overton and took his seat December 31, 1948; reelected in 1950, 1956, 1962, 1968, 1974, and 1980 and served from December 31, 1948, to January 3, 1987; did not seek reelection in 1986; Democratic whip 1965-1969; chairman, Committee on Finance (Eighty-ninth through Ninety-sixth Congresses), co-chairman, Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation (Eighty-ninth Congress), chairman, Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation (Ninetieth through Ninety-fourth Congresses), Joint Committee on Taxation (Ninety-fifth and Ninety-sixth Congresses); practiced law in Washington, D.C., and Baton Rouge, La.; was a resident of Washington, D.C., at the time of his death on May 9, 2003; interment in Roselawn Memorial Park in Baton Rouge.

http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000428

[onager]

7. Both

Virtual dictator AND one of the best politicians.

Back in the 80's, Ken Burns did an outstanding documentary on Long. He interviewed a lot of people who remembered "The Kingfish."

The split on him was interesting. Poor people who remembered Long talked about him with great reverence. One old black guy, from back in the swamps, said he was the ONLY Louisiana governor who ever tried to help black and poor folks.

OTOH, Mrs. Hodding Carter, representing the rich, remembered that every ritzy dinner party at the time ended with the question: "When is somebody going to shoot that SOB?"

A former state legislator who worked under Long noted: "Huey used to brag that he built a million dollars worth of roads in Louisiana. And that is true. Problem was, they ended up costing 3 million dollars to build."

edit: my favorite Long story, because it's SUCH a contrast to the mealy-mouthed, poll-sampling politicians of today:

Some reporters once asked Long what he thought about the Grand Dragon of the Texas KKK coming to Louisiana on a recruiting drive.

"You write this down. Tell that Ku Klux son-of-a-bitch if he sets one foot in Louisiana, I will have him arrested. And when I call him a son-of-a-bitch, I refer not to the circumstances of his birth, but to his character."

(That's from memory, but pretty close.)

[davsand]

9. Long had his ways of getting stuff done and speaking his mind.

My favorite Long story is the one about the lack of African American nurses. Long worked like hell to force the nursing schools to admit women of color. Then those women began to graduate from nursing school and nobody would hire them.

Long called up the Administrator of the state hospital and said he was coming out to take a tour. Long shows up and walks thru the wards with the Administrator and the full group of dignitaries. They go into the Administrator's office for private "reception."

Long closes the door to the room and then blows UP. He then gets all "pissed off" about the fact that he was seeing "colored" men being waited on by white nurses and by gawd it better STOP. It was NOT to happen on his watch.

The following day the state hospital hired its first minority nurses.

Was Long a bigot or was he an ok guy who used the existing prejudices against the bigots? Either way, he opened a door for minority women that was not there before.

To be honest, I have come to realize that Louisiana politics is a slice of life that you don't see much any more. I also think it is impossible for people from outside that kind of system to fully understand just how it all works. Big Dick Daley in Chicago was one who would have done well in Louisiana, as would Boss Tweed. I think it takes a special breed. Huey P Long was of that breed.





Laura

[ewagner]

11. I lived in Chicago

for a short period of time and learned things about the "Daley Machine" I never knew before.

For instance, one old timer I talked to said that he truly missed Mayor Daley because "When he was running the place, you always could count on help if you were down on your luck." He related that when a family had a confirmation coming up they could count on a basket of food on the doorstep and somehow, the little daughter's confirmation dress was paid for. Of course, that was just for the loyalist, but, still, there was a certain paternalistic attitude that people miss today.

[mpendragon]

10. everyone leaves a mixed legacy

Even the most vile among us unite us against their evil and thusly leave some good in their wake. Even the best of us have regrets about some of our actions and our mercies are sometimes not for the best after the test of time.

In a time when the poor needed protecting he did it in a way that was not entirely right or fair. He did leave some good quotes behind.

[H2O Man]

12. He was all of these things ....

and quite a bit more. I think he was a wonderful combination of good and bad, much like Adam Clayton Powell. Wonderful figures to study and appreciate as complicated men who did much more good than bad .... and who had fun doing it.

[ucmike]

13. he knows alot about football.

but the radio shack commercials were a bit much.

heh heh