How can anyone summarize the reign of Huey Long in just a few paragraphs? Was he the man who made modern America, or the last gasp of the old? Most can agree he was authoritarian, but were his intentions good or bad? The ideological paladins of the left and right turn their noses up at him, yet any populist who gives a speech owes him a debt. An entire party still stands as a vehicle for his memory.
After getting his start on the Public Service Commission, Long got himself elected Governor of Louisiana. There “the Kingfish” made himself into the sole great power in the State of Louisiana. The Legislature was bent to his will, other authorities were broken and discarded. So great was his power that the state remained in his pocket even after he made the jump to the United States Senate. There, he took his “Share Our Wealth” program National. Attacks on the wealthy, a pledge of income for the little man. The fact that Mr. Long had Presidential aspirations was no secret. But no Southerner could win the Presidency, and certainly not one so radical.
But 8 years of Depression had made Americans desperate. And a desire to avoid the taint of Ritchie had made the Democrats desperate. Long walked out of the 1936 DNC the surprise nominee, buoyed by a tactical alliance with the Tammany Tiger. And in the general election he defeated President Vandenberg and Norman Thomas by being the candidate who promised to do something, while not being socialist.
His early efforts were semi-successful, but often stymied by Conservatives in Congress. Even with his broad interpretation of the President’s powers, there was only so much he could do. So he took his case to the people, and they rewarded Long and the Democrats with victory in the midterms. This provoked a panic from the titans of industry, and others threatened by Long’s Policy. The Bullard Putsch was one of the turning points of American history, with a coup a real possibility. But in the end the Army, somewhat reluctantly, came down for Long. Long took full advantage of this boon, which gave him ample opportunity for fear-mongering. The “Trawling Time” was a period of general suspicion and many a prominent opponent was found to be “plotting” by the ever loyal Federal Crime Commissioner J. Edgar Hoover. Massive taxes were levied, and aid distributed. By some measures these hurt the economy. But the gratitude fro doing anything helped Long win a second term, alongside with careful manipulation by his agents at key points in the campaign.
1940 to 1948 was in many way’s Long’s high point. He was genuinely popular, and that popularity (and shadier tactics) allowed him to bend the will of Congress and the courts to his will. The powerful, recognizing that Long was here to stay, began to make their peace, and Long in turn began to lay off on his attacks. While the world burned, America remained aloof, earning him plaudits from isolationists. His unprecedented third election was achieved with ease, thanks to broad support and selecting an unknown opponent from the GOP’s ever thinning ranks.
But the late 1940s saw another economic downturn, less severe but still dangerous to those on the brink, and Long’s response was seen as anemic. The corruption that characterized the Long Regime (and at some point it had crossed that blurry line) was not widely reported, but the American people were starting to distrust the press. In 1948 Vermont Governor Ernest Gibson Jr. ran a energetic and forceful campaign against Long. He did not win of course. But he did far better than he was supposed to.
For that he was gunned down on the streets of Montpellier, in broad daylight.
Gibson’s murder, almost certainly on Long’s personal orders, marked the start of the Bloody Spring. Opponents who had been blackmailed or bought off were jailed, opponents who had been jailed were shot. Although as time went on the body count tapered off, Long had taken the mask off. The FCC was now a full on secret police. Local governments, previously given some modicum of independence, had Democratic machines installed.
Opposition, of course, stiffened. On the right the GOP was an initially a rallying point. But after 1952, where Long was more blatant than ever in his influencing of the Convention, the Liberty Party was founded. The Liberty Party took in many old Republicans and Conservative Democrats outside the South, as well as followers of Ayn Rand, who from her exile in Melbourne was emerging as a major critic of the regime. On the left, Unions, who felt left out of the Kingfish’s governing coalition, formed the nuclear of the American Labor Party. They were joined by objectors from the left, both progressive and anti-capitalists. Both faced repression, but bubbling dissent propelled them.
Long would never see the fruits of this dissent. His health, never great, rapidly began to deteriorate in the 50s with a series of strokes and heart attacks. His paranoia only increased, and in 1952 he dumped his third Vice President in favor of a political nonentity from Kansas. More and more factions within the Democratic Party were the ones running for show, and using Long’s weakness as a chance to gain a better position after his death. He spent less and less time in Washington, taking the floor of the Louisiana Legislature at times. He died of another heart attack in 1955, at his vacation home on Virginia Beach.
Long was the first President to die in office since McKinley, and the first to die of natural causes since Taylor. His legacy remains decidedly mixed amongst historians, with the grave doubts about how much he actually did to slow the Depression, and disputed how much of the later bloody purges was him and how much was eager subordinates. The modern Democratic Party maintains “Longism” as its official ideology, although disputes between Left Longists and Right Longists can be firey. In Washington, you will find no great memorial. But in Louisiana you will find plenty, including his grand tomb in the heart of Baton Rouge.