re: Thoughts on Huey Long?

Long & EWE are 1 & 1A when it comes to who was the biggest crook who did the most damage to the State. However, one thing that he did that will always make me feel just a bit of warmth for him is when LSU was going out of state for a bowl game & the students were wanting to attend the game by railroad. The rates were overly expensive for the students so Huey threatened to raise the State taxes on any railways in the State. Within a few days those rates were dropped extensively.

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If he wasn’t assassinated, he would have eventually became the president of the United States…for life.

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He is solely responsible for FDR and especially the new deal. FRD had seen first hand how terrible people around Warm Springs Georgia lived. He also knew that the Bolsheviks had pretty recently sent the ruling class of Russia to their final reward earlier than they were supposed to go. Between Warm Springs, Russia, and Huey Long's soaring popularity FDR was able to convince enough of his cronies that the people needed a small gesture or they were going to take everything the wealthy had and the wealthy would spend 4-5 years getting it all back again. The result was the largest expansion of the middle class a society had ever witnessed and was so successful that far too many of is in the middle class today are convinced we are here because of merit and not because the new deal policies are still making it possible to earn more than a meager living in the United States.

Love him or hate him, no one can deny that Huey was one of the most fascinating characters in American history.