America of the 1930's was an era in history defined not only by the hardships of the depression but the national insecurity that took root in populous moments. One such expression of the disenfranchised people was the rise to power of Louisiana Governor and later United States Senator Huey Long. Huey Long, for those who may not know is seen as the closest America ever came to having a dictator like regime in the white house. He ran his governorship like a fascist state, firing off officials who disagreed with his platform and then electing figure heads to take his place after his move to Washington. While in Washington during the first year of his post as senator, he spent more time in Louisiana than in the capital building, pushing for improvement of impoverish area and the break up of business holdings in his state primarily the ones of Standard Oil. In many's opinions, these are admirable feats, a true vanguard of the people. he even planned to put in motion his "Everyman a King" act, which would drastically redistribute the wealth in America through net asset taxes. The problem with his platform was that it circumvented the constitution by treating every rich person or company like an enamy of the state.
I am going to turn this discussion into a two part discussion, the next part talking about his effect and relation to fellow progressives.
Long just had a different, more aggresive means to his ends. It seems like people really liked this guy and he might've done some good, for the rest of America not the elites anyway. It's too bad he got shot.
ReplyDeleteI got very interested in Long when I studied him for my dialogue paper. I am really not sure what to think of him. There were parts that I really liked, and parts that really concerned me.
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