Do we need to take lessons from the Kingfish in the South

[Classical_Liberal]

No I am not endorsing any coruption he may have been involved it, but he was a liberal that kicked ass in the South. It is also hard for me to imagine him being more corrupt than W and his minions. It looks like the type of people he wanted to share wealth were W types.


here ia good article on Long.

http://www.moshplant.com/prob/prob01/long.html

[Classical_Liberal]

1. Quotes from the article.

The Huey Long of T. Harry Williams's (again) Pulitzer Prize-winning biography shares all of Stark's qualities and more. The more being specifically the accomplishments and advances that Long brought to a state that, in his time as now, languished near the bottom of the nation not only geographically but in average income (thirty-ninth of forty-eight), farm property value (forty-third), and literacy (forty-seventh). In an era when Wisconsin had four millionaires, Louisiana had one, and if the general poverty of the state wasn't enough, Williams relates:

were poor for the additional reason that the ruling hierarchy was little interested in using what resources the state had available to provide services and was even less interested in employing the power of the state to create new resources so that more services could be supported.... A woman who was a member of the caste described its psychology frankly: "We were secure. We were the old families. We had what we wanted. We didn't bother anybody. All we wanted was to keep it."

Those were the people that Huey Long took on in his meteoric rise toward what he was unabashed in admitting was his goal: the Presidency. Long's plan was to "Share Our Wealth," and he wasn't about to wait for the wealth to trickle down to the general populace of Louisiana (or anyplace else that might elect him to high office). To the (comparatively) wealthy, "Share Our Wealth" seemed less the outstretched palm of an occasional beggar than the rending claws of an army of zombies. Apart from the aristocracy of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Long took on the lumber, sugar, and oil industries in the state, most notably Standard Oil, Louisiana's largest economic power and "the only really big corporation in the South."

[Abe Linkman]

2. Not gonna happen. Impossible today.

The only candidates ( Kucinich, Sharpton, Braun ) "free" to tell something of the truth cannot possibly even get close to winning.

The rest are all beholden to the same rich and powerful puppetmasters as their Republican "counterparts".

So-called progressives should be working towards rebuilding the Democratic Party and adding millions more people to the membership rolls of Labor Unions. Those are the only two hopes for progressives.

[Classical_Liberal]

4. I don't think the three mentioned come close to Huey's rhetoric

Sharpton doesn't want white voters. Kucinich has pc tendencies, and Braun is more of a softy in terms of rhetoric. Dean comes closest but he isn't a plebian like Long. However, I wasn't referring to just the PResidency. I was referring to state races.

[amazona]

3. the kingfish was assassinated

...as is and would be any politician who seriously threatened the power structure today. There is little use in having one or a few outspoken progressive leaders if they are going to be picked off one by one by accusations of corruption or outright assassination. We need to keep hitting 'em with support for progressive after progressive after progressive. A lot of our leaders seem to be afraid, and it's probably just as much a fear of alienating voters (however illusory the fear may be, I think people would support a kick-ass voice) as it is a fear of more anthrax and plane crashes.

[Classical_Liberal]

5. I think people who are scared of anthrax should quit wasting

space and surrender their seat to someone who isn't afraid. They were supine long before they got anthrax letter. Bending over doesn't save you in the long run.