What is this forum's view on Huey Long?

Alexander the Average

I'm a bit of a fan. What can I say, he managed to enact a radical left-wing program in the Deep South without resorting to race-baiting, and had the sort of ruthlessness and political savy to enforce it. His death is one of the great political what-ifs of US political history, and gosh darn it if the man didn't have style.

By all means not a nice person, but I think the good he did far outweighed the bad.
 
thezerech

thezerech

Always been a bit of a fan. Liked his charisma and style. In many ways he reminds me of Frank Underwood from House of Cards. He is, ambitious, and ruthless. Though I think Huey genuinely was a public servant, and wanted to do good. Both for himself and the American people.
 

Londinium

It seems he was on the verge of becoming a savior to millions of destitute folks of all backgrounds across the US OR he could have been on the verge of using their desperation to become a ruthless dictator. Oddly enough, even eight decades after his questionable violent death, it's hard to tell which path he would have taken.
 
thezerech

thezerech

Londinium said:
It seems he was on the verge of becoming a savior to millions of destitute folks of all backgrounds across the US OR he could have been on the verge of using their desperation to become a ruthless dictator. Oddly enough, even eight decades after his questionable violent death, it's hard to tell which path he would have taken.
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I don't think it would have been possible for him to become an actual dictator. It's not a movie, unlike "Gabriel over the white house" Long won't have movie magic to dissolve Congress.
 
Gukpard

Gukpard

Alexander the Average said:
I'm a bit of a fan. What can I say, he managed to enact a radical left-wing program in the Deep South without resorting to race-baiting, and had the sort of ruthlessness and political savy to enforce it. His death is one of the great political what-ifs of US political history, and gosh darn it if the man didn't have style.

By all means not a nice person, but I think the good he did far outweighed the bad.
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Agreed

Also, I think all Huey followers will like this:


 

GrasshopperKing

Up there with Tito and Castro on my Benevolent Dictator List. It makes sense that the sort of regime he created could emerge out of Depression-era Louisiana. It was hardly a democratic context to begin with. That doesn't excuse a lot of what he did, but it'd be fair to say he did more good than bad. And even if you (understandably) disagree with that assessment, you should still read about him. He's such a larger than life figure that any decent biography will be a very entertaining read.
 
Gukpard

Gukpard

Kingfish said:
Make a wild guess.
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Indicus

Indicus

Thank god he did not reach anywhere near the presidency. He was a dangerous dictator who turned Louisiana into his personal fiefdom, kicking out his personal enemies and a lot of other bad shit happened while he was his state's dictator.
 

Alexander the Average

Napoleon IV said:
He's proof that people will tolerate demagoguery and dictatorialness as long as it's being done by their side.
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Well when our side winning or losing is the difference between whether or not children go to schools, the sick get medical care, and the elderly and infirm have security, that's a bridge I'm willing to cross.
 
Bulldoggus

Bulldoggus

Banned
fjihr said:
Thank god he did not reach anywhere near the presidency. He was a dangerous dictator who turned Louisiana into his personal fiefdom, kicking out his personal enemies and a lot of other bad shit happened while he was his state's dictator.
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Yep. He passed some great social programs, to his eternal credit, but he was a dictatorial demagogue who would have damaged our democratic institutions (perhaps irreparably so).
 
Bulldoggus

Bulldoggus

Banned
GrasshopperKing said:
Up there with Tito and Castro on my Benevolent Dictator List. It makes sense that the sort of regime he created could emerge out of Depression-era Louisiana. It was hardly a democratic context to begin with. That doesn't excuse a lot of what he did, but it'd be fair to say he did more good than bad. And even if you (understandably) disagree with that assessment, you should still read about him. He's such a larger than life figure that any decent biography will be a very entertaining read.
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I agree. He did great things WITHIN the context of living in the one-party dictatorship that the pre-1960's South was. However, he'd have likely done more harm than good had he'd become President.
 
wcv215

wcv215

I've been told my political views are similar, so I'd say highly positive. His Share the Wealth plan serves as a basis for how I would like taxes to operate.
 
Bulldoggus

Bulldoggus

Banned
thezerech said:
I don't think it would have been possible for him to become an actual dictator. It's not a movie, unlike "Gabriel over the white house" Long won't have movie magic to dissolve Congress.
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He could sic the law on his enemies, use lawsuits to rig elections, and easily become a soft-dictator. Not that hard, really.
 

Gog (♀)

I don't have a high opinon of the Kingfish and Autocrat of Louisana, no. He's had a bit of a revival in recent days outside of Lousiana which is surprising, and people at the time really hated him (see: It Can't Happen Here, All The King's Men) or loved him (see: Share our Wealth Societies)
 
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