Huye P.Long

Hi all!

I visited to Huey Long`s website. It seems pretty good for me. So i wanted to recommend this site for you. After today`s movie in the class, i thought that the politicians are all dirty. But it is not their own intention, i think. To be a governer, to be the president, to be a senator , all those dirty things need to politicians. I mean, the "POWER". Whom need the power , who want to make people happy, but, the power also need whom to be dictator.

When i was in the high school, i had a conversation about politics with my friend. He said to me that, even you do not want to concern about politics, it concerns about you.

So, all i am trying to say is, it seems impossible to understand about politicians and politics. We might have to enter to the world of politics, to understand about it.

And i am very found of this words.

"God, don't let me die. I have so much left to do."

It was the last word of Long, when he died after two days from the shot.

Huey Long and Willie Stark

Willie Stark wasn't exactly Huey Long. Robert Penn Warren, the author of the classic political novel All the King's Men always denied that Stark was based on Long, but it's hard not to notice the resemblance. Probably the most fictional part of the film was the lack of black faces in the movie, but that was typical of the time.

Huey Long was governor of Louisiana during the depression, and was later elected US Senator. He came out of and represented the poor farmers of rural northern Louisiana. He repealed the poll tax so that poor people could vote. He taxed the wealthy to build schools, roads, hospitals and other public works so that those poor people could live better lives. He made public school textbooks free. He built the Louisiana State University into a great institution, so great that many people actually think he founded it. He was wildly popular. And he did not like opposition.

Huey Long organized gangs of political thugs. He used the state militia as a force of personal bodyguards. He tried to shut down newspapers and radio stations that didn't toe the line and support his regime. He all but abolished local governments in many parts of the state, and took the power to appoint the local officials, and all state employees, himself. He created a force of plainclothes, secret police answerable only to himself. He was accused by many of being a fascist dictator little different from Mussolini.

Long continued his consolidation of power. Two months before he died he publicly declared that there was a conspiracy to assassinate him. He publicly named names of Congressional representatives and former governors of Louisiana who he said were in the conspiracy. Long was gunned down by medical doctor Carl Austin Weiss in the Capitol building at Baton Rouge. It was the end of Long's career but not the end of his legacy. He had great influence and is a controversial figure in the politics of Louisiana down to today. There are those who nearly worship him, and those who continue to revile him. It's hard to get an objective perspective on Huey Long.

Here are some views of the real Huey Long. Judge for yourself how closely he resembles Willie Stark: