Emperor Tigerstar: Huey Long- 'The Dictator of Louisiana'

Source:Emperor Tigerstar- If the title fits.

Source:The New Democrat

"See the rise and fall of the Kingfish Governor of Louisiana. He's more than a Kaiserreich meme, and has left quite a lasting legacy."

 From Emperor Tigerstar

 I mentioned in my Huey Long piece last week that Huey Long had a lot in common with Senator Bernie Sanders today as it created to wealth redistribution and a socialist populism that was about high taxation on the wealthy to be used to help everyone else. And all of that is true, but as I also mentioned last week Huey and Bernie aren't ideological twins.

 Senator Sanders at least as far as how he speaks, what he proposes, and his political positions all suggest that he's a Democratic Socialist. Governor Long, you could call him a Democratic Socialist on economic policy, but even as the guy in this video admits to Governor Long was essentially the dictator of Louisiana as far as how he was able to centralize a lot of state power for himself, but then the guy in this video says that Governor Long used all of this state power to benefit the people of Louisiana, not himself necessarily.

 I'm going to argue that Huey Long wasn't a Communist even though he did have dictatorial socialist leanings as Governor. But only because he didn't close down private media organizations and churches, banks, that sort of thing where people can get to together and create their own private power. But he did centralize a lot of power within his own state to the point that if you tried to cross him, he could hurt your badly politically and professionally. And to work for his Administration in Louisiana, you have to donate part of your state salary to his political machine in Louisiana. At one point Huey, was both Governor of Louisiana and then U.S. Senator from Louisiana. Even when he was in Congress, he still had a lot of power in Louisiana.

 A better way to describe Huey Long is say that he was a crook, but with good intentions and as long as you didn't try to cross him, life could be very good for you in Louisiana. And again Huey wasn't a Communist, but he did have things in common with Communists and Socialist dictators around the world. People who come into power promising the populist that he alone can make their lives better if they just give him all of this power. ( Remind you of any current President today? )

 We saw this with Fidel Castro in Cuba, Hugo Chavez and now Nicholas Maduro in Venezuela. Men who have way too much self-confidence and probably couldn't look up or define words like modesty and humility even if they saw them in a dictionary. Which is dangerous for any society to have which are leaders who have so much faith in themselves, because they see themselves as invincible and that it's somehow treason for anyone to even try to question them. And when someone does that, they face cruel repercussions. That's the type of leader or Socialist that I see Huey Long as.

Senator Huey Long: Huey Long Collection- Share Our Wealth Societies: 2/23/1934

Source:Share The Wealth- Governor Huey Long, D, Louisiana: the Bernie Sanders of his era?

Source:The New Democrat

"Huey Long speaking with John A Simpson, President of the National Farmer's Union, in 1934.

FORMER LOUISIANA GOVERNOR HUEY LONG, CALLED "THE KINGFISH", SPEAKING WITH JOHN A. SIMPSON, PRESIDENT NATIONAL FARMER'S UNION, ON SHARE THE WEALTH MOVEMENT"

From Senator Huey Long

Governor Huey Long's Share The Wealth Proposal

Source:Wikipedia

1. "No person would be allowed to accumulate a personal net worth of more than 300 times the average family fortune, which would limit personal assets to between $5 million and $8 million. A graduated capital levy tax would be assessed on all persons with a net worth exceeding $1 million.[citation needed]

2. Annual incomes would be limited to $1 million and inheritances would be capped at $5.1 million.[citation needed]

3. Every family was to be furnished with a homestead allowance of not less than one-third the average family wealth of the country. Every family was to be guaranteed an annual family income of at least $2,000 to $2,500, or not less than one-third of the average annual family income in the United States. Yearly income, however, cannot exceed more than 300 times the size of the average family income.[citation needed]

4. An old-age pension would be made available for all persons over 60.[citation needed]

To balance agricultural production, the government would preserve/store surplus goods, abolishing the practice of destroying surplus food and other necessities due to lack of purchasing power.[citation needed]

5. Veterans would be paid what they were owed (a pension and healthcare benefits).[citation needed]

Free education and training for all students to have equal opportunities in all schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions for training in the professions and vocations of life.[citation needed]

6. The raising of revenue and taxes for the support of this program was to come from the reduction of swollen fortunes from the top, as well as for the support of public works to give employment whenever there may be any slackening necessary in private enterprise."

I'm not saying that Huey Long both as Governor Long and then later Senator Long was the George McGovern, or take it up today and call him the Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren of his era, but only because Huey Long wasn't so much a Democratic Socialist as he was just just purely a Socialist: someone who mixed both democratic and authoritarian views into his own politics. He was more like a Nicholas Maduro ( the President of Venezuela ) than Neville Chamberlain ( Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the 1930s ) as someone who believed in democratic socialism economically, but had authoritarian views when it came to how he governed.

Governor Huey Long, was as close to a dictator that we've ever had in this country when he was Governor of Louisiana and had so much power over the government there and didn't believe in checks and balances and separation of powers. But on economic policy he was someone who had strong populist tendencies and someone who wasn't a big city leftist or populist, but someone who could appeal to rural voters in the deep South, because of how poor they were and that he spoke about their poverty and promised to get them out of it with his economic populism that we would call democratic socialism today. Which is what he has in common with Senator Bernie Sanders today.

What Governor Long has in common with Senator Sanders is what again what was called economic populism in the 1930s that we call democratic socialism today:  Bernie, doesn't call his economic agenda Share The Wealth, but that's probably more for political reasons than ideological. He's already a self-described Democratic Socialist and one of just a few in Congress today and doesn't want to be confused with Socialists who are even to the Left of him. But ideologically Bernie's vision of democratic socialism is very similar to Huey's when it comes to money and wealth. They would both essentially outlaw wealth in this country and use that money for their social welfare agenda.

Huey Long in the 1930s, was talking about old age pensions and what we call today a national basic income where every American would be given a financial allowance in this country to make sure that they don't have to live in poverty. Bernie Sanders, believes that every single American has a right to go to college and get health insurance and health care provide to them from the government. And that the wealthy should be forced to pay for all of these services for everyone else. What Huey and Bernie have in common politically, is that they're both anti-wealth and economic independence. And see it as the role of the U.S. Government to guarantee every single America and basically national income and quality living in this country.

Vanity Fair: Alison Klayman- 'How Steve Bannon Manipulates His Followers'

Source:Vanity Fair- "How Steve Bannon manipulates his followers"

Source:The New Democrat

"Director Alison Klayman spent 13 months documenting former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon for her documentary The Brink. Alison explains the ways he manipulates his followers by spreading conspiracies and sowing doubt in the media. Watch The Brink, out in theaters March 29th."

 From Vanity Fair

 I think Steve Bannon might say himself that he's not a Conservative, but a Nationalist. It's not conservative values that Bannon represents at least in the sense that he believes in the U.S. Constitution and everything that it represents and even conservative values in a cultural sense, but it's his nationalist, tribalist, and cultural values that he represents which trump's everything ( no pun intended ) including character, morality and his personal values. Steve Bannon is about himself and his tribe versus everyone and everything else and as long as you're on his team and part of his political and cultural tribe, everything else be dammed just as long as you play ball with him and his allies.

 Alison Klayman, in her piece mentioned Judge Roy Moore who was an Alabama judge who ran for U.S. Senate from Alabama in 2017 in that special election and lost essentially because of his lack of character and his immorality and the credible sexual harassment allegations that were made against him. And said that Steve Bannon is not a stupid man ( as if anyone thinks that he is ) and she suggested that he probably believed the allegations that were made against Judge Moore, but stuck with Moore because Moore was part of his team and the broader Trump movement in America. Donald Trump's presidential campaign from 2015-16 is another great example of that. President Trump's base has stuck with the President even with everything that he's done and said that no other Republican President and mainstream Republican in Congress would every consider doing and saying, because Donald Trump is part of their team.

When you become so partisan and even so hyper-partisan and angry in politics where the other party is not longer your opponents, but your enemies to the point that you don't even see them as Americans, but traitors and invaders, everything is about winning and protecting your side. And you put no limits onto what you'll do to win and protect your team, because you're so fearful of the other team winning, coming in, and taking your power away from you. Which is what Steve Bannon and these other hyper-partisan hard-core Nationalists on the Far-Right in America represent. The great Green Bay Packers head coach Vince Lombardi had the great quote: "winning isn't everything, but it's the only thing" the New-Right have taken that line way out of context and put it over everything else in society like morality, character, and honesty.