Title, i know he was basically the only southner politician from the first half of the 20th century that wasnt an rascist, and he was an pretty famous populist.
Probably one of the best politicians that could come out of that country. He’s a prime example of using power to benefit the poor, and being accused of being “authoritarian” because he went outside of traditional norms of bourgeois-democracy to do it. In a really good Ken Burns documentary about him, his son states that his opponents criticized him of abusing the “forms” of democracy, when Long cared about the facts of democracy: uplifting the standard of living of the poor of his state.
Populism can mean demagougery, but even if it applies to Long’s case, it doesn’t matter, because of how he used his position. I think its hard to deny that he didn’t live up to, or practice his “every man a king” rhetoric, his policies had the elites of Lousiana so pissed off that they eventually assassinated him for it. FDR didn’t go nearly far enough with the new deal in his opinion. The poor of Lousiana loved him for generations; Huey P Newton’s parents named their son after Huey Long.
Intellectuals of (not just) America always wrote extensively of the dangers of popularism, be it about politicians inside or outside US. They act like they are talking about Trump, hell no. The Hueys, Allandes, Chavez were their target. These populists jeprordize the perfect democracy of the elites. Caesar was the despotic populist, his killers was the democracy loving angels. These myths are written and rewritten again and again.
