Why do so many people despise Huey P Long

Tax the heck out of the rich and give to the poor while keeping all of the state minerals for his family

Also, he declared martial law in New Orleans during an Election Day when he was on the ballot

In many cases, the man pulled stunts that rival dictators

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he seemed to legitimately want to help people.

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Or maybe he saw helping people as a path to consolidate his power. But either way he is the father of the middle class in Louisiana.

If you read my post you can thank Huey P.

Maybe because he’s the #1 genesis of our states pitiful record

Read up a little on the ‘Win or Lose’ Corporation. HP was about enriching himself, his friends, and their families at the expense of great harm to the state. Descendants still cash huge checks today. Much of our current poverty and political dysfunction can be traced directly back to him.

A TD poli talk thread on the subject

Gotta assume because he turned down a shite ton of oil money costing louisiana trillions over time.

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Because I hated driving across his narrow arse bridge

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Especially the part that was about a foot off when the two sides met.

As a Texan I look at Long and his family as the poster child of why Louisiana has a reputation of corrupt governance that politicians manipulated people with crumbs in order to control them and consolidate power for themselves. In truth Louisiana should be a very wealthy state being at the mouth of the Mississippi and being flush with natural resources along with fantastic people and a great cultural heritage but it is consistently at the bottom.

Long reminds me of Richard Daley in Chicago, only not as competent.

Texas has succeeded because it has such a strict state Constitution that reigns in the power of the government and makes it hard for them to get into significant mischief compared to so many other places. Ironically our biggest "boss style" politician was probably LBJ but he did his damage at the Federal level. The Texas Constitution makes it very hard for a Governor or any state official to really have much real power, we are unusual that the Lt Governor runs independently of the Governor and has arguably more real power. Also our Leg only meets for a few months every 2 years and has severe restrictions on what they can do.

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Louisiana has a reputation of corrupt governance that politicians manipulated people with crumbs

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He gave roads and schools and free textbooks. And he also enriched his family to a loathsome degree and left a legacy of corruption that lingers to this day.. I'm pretty skeptical of the motivation behind his good works but he gave more than crumbs. You have to understand just how poor and overlooked rural Louisiana was to fully understand Huey P.

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Louisiana has a reputation of corrupt governance that politicians manipulated people with crumbs



He gave roads and schools and free textbooks. And he also enriched his family to a loathsome degree and left a legacy of corruption that lingers to this day.. I'm pretty skeptical of the motivation behind his good works but he gave more than crumbs. You have to understand just how poor and overlooked rural Louisiana was to fully understand Huey P.

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I didn't say everything he did was terrible. Daley did a LOT for Chicago as well. The problem is that once you get a culture of corruption and the rule of law is more of a suggestion eventually it will end up going very badly. Texas used to be poor as hell too and it isn't like every person had their own oil well. I also don't think it is necessarily as much about Texas having great politicians so much as the structure I mentioned before that enforces limited government regardless of whether we had liberals or conservatives in charge (make no mistake, Texas had a LOT of liberals in power prior to the 90's).

I really love Louisiana and have always enjoyed going there. It's got so much beauty and potential and so many amazing people. It's just that culture of corruption has been very hard to shake and it continues to hold the state back. Did it exist before Long? Maybe, but he made it essentially into business as usual and normalized it. He may have built some roads and bridges but how many of them are falling (or have fallen) apart? Entrepreneurs and businesses want to go to places where they feel like the Rule of Law is obeyed and not bought and fair or unfair that reputation has harmed Louisiana greatly. New Orleans should be a magnet city for the young and industrious with its location and culture but instead it chases away even the folks who live there, I know so many in Texas that have fled or their family fled years ago to Texas and it is about far more than Katrina. It's sad to me for instance that I never hear Louisiana cities mentioned as places tech companies would want to move.

I neither despise nor love Huey Long. He was no doubt one of the more interesting figures of American history. I think though, that Huey was for Huey first and foremost, and if doing something to advance himself politically also happened to help the people of the state, all the better. The only other political character in Louisiana history that could compare to Long would be EWE.

If you sent me to 1930 with my current political beliefs, I would not have been a Long supporter; but it was also a different time with different circumstances. Who knows?