Huey Long (1893-1935): The populist Democrat from Louisiana

Huey Long, who was governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932 and one of its senators until his assassination in 1935, was mentioned here the other day.

He was a populist Democrat, but unlike Donald Trump he really did care for the people of the state and was prepared to take on big business. Comparison to Lyndon Baines Johnson, another who used the political dark arts to progress a laudable agenda, might be more enlightening.

This video takes you through Long's career and the cases for and against him.

A true US populist would support vaccination in poorer communities

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Republican politicians from the poorer states are already having doubts about Trump and his team. This is from the Guardian:

Bill Cassidy, the Republican US senator, has said his home state of Louisiana’s recent decision to cancel the promotion of mass vaccination against preventable diseases is a disservice to parents who want to keep their children healthy.

Nonetheless, before those remarks, the medical doctor-turned-politician who has clashed with Donald Trump joined 51 of his fellow Republicans in voting to confirm anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist Robert F Kennedy Jr as secretary of the US’s health and human services department.

This led me to wonder how Huey Long (1893-1935), the populist governor of, and then senator for, Louisiana, approached vaccination. 

The answer is to be found on a website devoted to his memory and career:

Through the Board of Health, Long tripled funding for public healthcare. The state’s free health clinics grew from 10 in 1926 to 31 in 1933, providing free immunizations to 67 per cent of the rural population.

I find Long a fascinating figure and, while I know we're supposed to disapprove of populism, I miss the days when it was part of the varied ideology behind community politics. 

Liberals then saw themselves as the people who looked after the run-down end of the borough and who made Town Hall listen to local residents.

But then much of our campaigning at the last election  - on the health and on water - had an element of populism. But has the Conservatives had succeeded in uniting pretty much the entire nation against them on these issues, it was hard to accuse us of being divisive.