A positive post about a Southerner-FROM JASTIGER

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Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

This is a post about one of the great American politicians that fell victim to the worst part of the United States, the South. It also exemplifies why I take issue with the South-whenever something awesome starts to rise up and be good, the South makes sure they poo poo all over it. Desegregating schools. Voting rights. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, and the subject of this post. Any time someone realizes what a poo poo show the place is, the South makes sure to squash it before it can take root.

But no, this is a post to celebrate a man who, if I were governor, and replaced his Christianity with my Atheism, would be my arch typical role model:

HUEY LONG

Huey Long (1893-1935) was the fuckin' man. He was born in an extremely poor part of Louisiana to a Middle Class family that could afford to put him into school. You'll note that this area was super poor, but it was also pretty Pro Union. (Notice a trend on how Northern sympathies tend to produce non poo poo Southerners?) He eventually went to law school and took on big oil interests in the name of the common man. He thought it was bullshit that these companies could basically extort communities for millions while leaving nothing for the citizens.

Huey built his career on fighting against Oil and railroad companies because he believed everyone should share in the wealth instead of a few fat cat corporations. When the governor he supported didn't sufficiently fight against corporations, he opposed him and ran himself. He fought against the Ku Klux Klan and despite a loss in 1924, pushed forward for election with the slogan "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown". He knocked doors and promised education and health care reform so the rest of the South could maybe not be so lovely. They saw how not being lovely would actually be good and elected him to office in 1928!

Huey Long fought for the common man and won office because of it, breaking a trend of oil men and railroad men running the state.

Now here is where it gets good:

Huey Long kicked in the door to the state legislature and fired tons of racist assholes that were yes men and corporate cronies. Now, he wasn't without fault; if you took a job with his government you were expected to put in a portion of your salary to the campaign war chest. In essence he was a benevolent dictator and it was awesome for the state at the time. Republican dickheads were like "abloo bloo we can't afford schools and hospitals, lets go ahead and let this oil company set up shop there instead" and Long was like "gently caress you, ground breaks on the new schools tomorrow and you're gonna be there to cut the ribbon", and they fuckin were. He legit went onto the Senate floor unannounced and called out motherfuckers who didn't want to vote for schools until they voted his way. Under Long's tenure from 1928-1932 he boosted literacy, education, access to schools, healthcare, and public works programs. Unemployment dropped and the infrastructure was strengthened, and it was glorious.

His opponents got really mad at him for it though and tried to impeach him in 1929 over some of this citing "blasphemy" and "bribery". There was even a WWE match on the House floor because people were so pissed at Long and his supporters. Brass knuckles were even used, poo poo got REAL. THey eventually did impeach him, but Long was able to convince most of the folks on the hearing committee to never convict him. This ended up making it a meaningless impeachment and he continued on to finish out his term much to the dismay of people who wanted to Keep The South lovely Forever.

After that nonsense with the impeachment, Long continued to bolster public universities and then became known as "The Kingfish". This was meant to be a smear against him comparing him to a black Conman, but Long loved it. Check mate racists. At around this time his Lieutenant Governor tries to stage a coup saying Long was unfit for the position and declared himself governor. This is some corrupt poo poo, and Long didn't stand for it. He claimed the Lt. Gov had resigned inadvertently to which the courts agreed, so Long put in his own man as Lt. Gov and that was that.

After his term as governor, Long went to the United States senate to bring his kick rear end ideas to the entire country, representing a state that until then had been backwards and little more than a note in history books. Long was intent on changing that so the South could be proud of something that wasn't' evil for once. Now, this was during the great depression and times were hard. Long supported Roosevelt and was key in keeping him going to the nomination since a lot of assholes really hated progressive ideals (i.e. most of the South), but Long used his influence to keep them in line. Other key things goons may recognize is that he initially supported the New Deal and Glass-Steagall. Yeah that is right this bad rear end supported all of the things a lot of progressives want today. The intreresting thing here is that he actually broke with Roosevelt over the New Deal though, he said it didn't go FAR ENOUGH. Long advocated redistribution systems to help push Americans out of depression by providing more income to them to stimulate the economy and wanted Roosevelt to support that too. He didn't, so the two became bitter rivals, even though they were on the grand scheme of things on the same team.

This same bombast that has raised him to great heights also led to his fall. In short, he became kind of a dick about things. When he was a Senator, he'd come back to Louisiana and yell at the governor for not doing a good enough job on Progressive policies. He's go to state sessions and interpose himself even though he was part of the US Senate, NOT the Louisiana Senate. This pissed off a lot of people. He'd even strong arm funding away from in-state political rivals as a way to get his way, even as he was in D.C. Adding extra state taxes on newspapers and consolidating political power to the governors office were also some not-cool things Long ended up doing.He also fell in a little bit with the oil companies by encouraging economic development by refunding certain taxes to Standard Oil after they decided to drill in and employ in Louisiana, an infrastructure decision that has lasted to present day.

Long had always had Presidential aspirations and he was even more popular than the current sitting president. Seriously, he was raising more money and garnering more support than anyone else and was likely going to be a serious force, if not win outright, the presidency. Key endorsements in DES MOINES, IOWA (thats right, Iowa again) really propelled him into the National stage. Much like Bernie Sanders, he was coming from even further left of the Democrats and, again like Bernie, could have very well held the sway of the next Presidential election based on where his faction decided to push their support.

But. He was shot. And he died. Much like every other good thing the South had a hand in creating, it quickly swooped in and crushed any Good, though flawed, things that could have come out of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Its fair to say that Bernie Sanders had the same ideals of The Kingfish and look how far he went and how influential someone like Huey Long has been in American politics! He blamed foreign wars on corporate profiteering and fought against any attempt to horde wealth in the hands of the few. He pioneered radio ads and jingles and boisterous endorsements. Long wasn't popular with other Senators, but he was correct loud and strident voice for Progressivism and stood against war and the horrors that it brought. You'll note that this is the absolute opposite of what the South wanted and they are still kicking and screaming about it.

To give you an idea of how relevant the Kingfish is today, here is a quote: " "When Fascism comes to America it will be called anti-Fascism," :sad:

The Kingfish is probably one of the best Southerners to have lived that reached any place of real power and it is a shame that the region still attempts to undo everything he stood for. And that is a backhanded positive post about the South. Be less like the South and more like Huey Long!

A good video from The Kingfisher https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphgHi6FD8k

Jastiger fucked around with this message at 20:38 on Aug 2, 2016

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:38

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# ? Apr 25, 2024 10:38

roymorrison: Jul 26, 2005

Wow u didn't even mention he was called the king fish until like the last paragraph

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:40

roymorrison: Jul 26, 2005

The South has bbq so... What else u want?

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:41

roymorrison: Jul 26, 2005

have u had a fried catfish lately lmao u niggas on The West coast have cereal bars hahhahahhahahh kill yourselves

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:43

a shiny rock: Nov 13, 2009

i read the op

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:44

roymorrison: Jul 26, 2005

I support segregation of jastiger and making threada

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:44

dad gay. so what: Feb 18, 2003; by FactsAreUseless

i had gumbo for lunch you fuckman

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:46

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

But trump doesn't even call it anti-fascism?

Topical Dictator? Helluva guy. Helluva guy. Let me tell you there are no terrorists in his country!

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:47

rezatahs: Jun 9, 2001; by Smythe

roymorrison posted:

have u had a fried catfish lately lmao u niggas on The West coast have cereal bars hahhahahhahahh kill yourselves

the bonus of an actual ocean is you can fry all the fishes. not just the garbage fish. garbage fish are good though too.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:47

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

roymorrison posted:

Wow u didn't even mention he was called the king fish until like the last paragraph

its in like the 3rd paragraph IDIOT.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:48

The Kingfish: Oct 21, 2015

Long was the goddamn man and my usernamesake.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:48

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

The Kingfish posted:

Long was the goddamn man and my usernamesake.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:51

unwantedplatypus: Sep 6, 2012

Jastiger, much like many white southernors, likes to ignore southern black culture and contributions to society.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:51

Kuato: Feb 25, 2005; "I CAN'T BELIEVE I ATE THE WHOLE THING"; Buglord

I saw that movie about him with Sean Penn and aside from thinking it was OK, I don't remember anything at all about it. :shrug:

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:52

Blue Train: Jun 17, 2012

eh hes no huey newton

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:52

The Kingfish: Oct 21, 2015

My favorite Huey Long story was how used Louisiana's racism for the good of its black people. Huey got a hospital built for a black community by threatening to desegregate the nearby whites only hospital.

E: he was way better than Huey Newton.

The Kingfish fucked around with this message at 19:58 on Aug 2, 2016

# ? Aug 2, 2016 19:54

Dr. Dogballs Jr.: Jun 9, 2014; the angriest sex machine

huey lewis and the news

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:01

psychokitty: Jun 29, 2010; =9.9=
MEOW
BITCHES

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:04

Mordja: Apr 26, 2014; Hell Gem

I'm not from the South but I think it's very sweet of you to say something nice about them OP.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:05

Wall Balls: Jun 3, 2007; Spanish Castle Magic

"how long is your dick"

"p long"

"huey long"

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:06

The Kingfish: Oct 21, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphgHi6FD8k

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:11

Fishy Joe: Apr 19, 2005; Eat at Fishy Joe's

Thank you for the post Jastiger it was very interesting. DO we know who shot mr fish or was it a drive by ?

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:19

facebook jihad: Dec 18, 2007; by R. Guyovich

Roll tide motherfucker

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:19

Robot Randy: Dec 31, 2011; by Lowtax

gently caress you retard

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:24

Riot Bimbo: Dec 28, 2006

Yeah Huey Long rules.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:30

The Bananana: May 21, 2008; This is a metaphor, a Christian allegory. The fact that I have to explain to you that Jesus is the Warthog, and the Banana is drepanocytosis is just embarrassing for you.

Jastiger posted:

This is a post about one of the great American politicians that fell victim to the worst part of the United States, the South. It also exemplifies why I take issue with the South-whenever something awesome starts to rise up and be good, the South makes sure they poo poo all over it. Desegregating schools. Voting rights. The assassinations of JFK, MLK, and the subject of this post. Any time someone realizes what a poo poo show the place is, the South makes sure to squash it before it can take root.

But no, this is a post to celebrate a man who, if I were governor, and replaced his Christianity with my Atheism, would be my arch typical role model:

HUEY LONG

Huey Long (1893-1935) was the fuckin' man. He was born in an extremely poor part of Louisiana to a Middle Class family that could afford to put him into school. You'll note that this area was super poor, but it was also pretty Pro Union. (Notice a trend on how Northern sympathies tend to produce non poo poo Southerners?) He eventually went to law school and took on big oil interests in the name of the common man. He thought it was bullshit that these companies could basically extort communities for millions while leaving nothing for the citizens.

Huey built his career on fighting against Oil and railroad companies because he believed everyone should share in the wealth instead of a few fat cat corporations. When the governor he supported didn't sufficiently fight against corporations, he opposed him and ran himself. He fought against the Ku Klux Klan and despite a loss in 1924, pushed forward for election with the slogan "Every man a king, but no one wears a crown". He knocked doors and promised education and health care reform so the rest of the South could maybe not be so lovely. They saw how not being lovely would actually be good and elected him to office in 1928!

Huey Long fought for the common man and won office because of it, breaking a trend of oil men and railroad men running the state.

Now here is where it gets good:

Huey Long kicked in the door to the state legislature and fired tons of racist assholes that were yes men and corporate cronies. Now, he wasn't without fault; if you took a job with his government you were expected to put in a portion of your salary to the campaign war chest. In essence he was a benevolent dictator and it was awesome for the state at the time. Republican dickheads were like "abloo bloo we can't afford schools and hospitals, lets go ahead and let this oil company set up shop there instead" and Long was like "gently caress you, ground breaks on the new schools tomorrow and you're gonna be there to cut the ribbon", and they fuckin were. He legit went onto the Senate floor unannounced and called out motherfuckers who didn't want to vote for schools until they voted his way. Under Long's tenure from 1928-1932 he boosted literacy, education, access to schools, healthcare, and public works programs. Unemployment dropped and the infrastructure was strengthened, and it was glorious.

His opponents got really mad at him for it though and tried to impeach him in 1929 over some of this citing "blasphemy" and "bribery". There was even a WWE match on the House floor because people were so pissed at Long and his supporters. Brass knuckles were even used, poo poo got REAL. THey eventually did impeach him, but Long was able to convince most of the folks on the hearing committee to never convict him. This ended up making it a meaningless impeachment and he continued on to finish out his term much to the dismay of people who wanted to Keep The South lovely Forever.

After that nonsense with the impeachment, Long continued to bolster public universities and then became known as "The Kingfish". This was meant to be a smear against him comparing him to a black Conman, but Long loved it. Check mate racists. At around this time his Lieutenant Governor tries to stage a coup saying Long was unfit for the position and declared himself governor. This is some corrupt poo poo, and Long didn't stand for it. He claimed the Lt. Gov had resigned inadvertently to which the courts agreed, so Long put in his own man as Lt. Gov and that was that.

After his term as governor, Long went to the United States senate to bring his kick rear end ideas to the entire country, representing a state that until then had been backwards and little more than a note in history books. Long was intent on changing that so the South could be proud of something that wasn't' evil for once. Now, this was during the great depression and times were hard. Long supported Roosevelt and was key in keeping him going to the nomination since a lot of assholes really hated progressive ideals (i.e. most of the South), but Long used his influence to keep them in line. Other key things goons may recognize is that he initially supported the New Deal and Glass-Steagall. Yeah that is right this bad rear end supported all of the things a lot of progressives want today. The intreresting thing here is that he actually broke with Roosevelt over the New Deal though, he said it didn't go FAR ENOUGH. Long advocated redistribution systems to help push Americans out of depression by providing more income to them to stimulate the economy and wanted Roosevelt to support that too. He didn't, so the two became bitter rivals, even though they were on the grand scheme of things on the same team.

This same bombast that has raised him to great heights also led to his fall. In short, he became kind of a dick about things. When he was a Senator, he'd come back to Louisiana and yell at the governor for not doing a good enough job on Progressive policies. He's go to state sessions and interpose himself even though he was part of the US Senate, NOT the Louisiana Senate. This pissed off a lot of people. He'd even strong arm funding away from in-state political rivals as a way to get his way, even as he was in D.C. Adding extra state taxes on newspapers and consolidating political power to the governors office were also some not-cool things Long ended up doing.He also fell in a little bit with the oil companies by encouraging economic development by refunding certain taxes to Standard Oil after they decided to drill in and employ in Louisiana, an infrastructure decision that has lasted to present day.

Long had always had Presidential aspirations and he was even more popular than the current sitting president. Seriously, he was raising more money and garnering more support than anyone else and was likely going to be a serious force, if not win outright, the presidency. Key endorsements in DES MOINES, IOWA (thats right, Iowa again) really propelled him into the National stage. Much like Bernie Sanders, he was coming from even further left of the Democrats and, again like Bernie, could have very well held the sway of the next Presidential election based on where his faction decided to push their support.

But. He was shot. And he died. Much like every other good thing the South had a hand in creating, it quickly swooped in and crushed any Good, though flawed, things that could have come out of it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Its fair to say that Bernie Sanders had the same ideals of The Kingfish and look how far he went and how influential someone like Huey Long has been in American politics! He blamed foreign wars on corporate profiteering and fought against any attempt to horde wealth in the hands of the few. He pioneered radio ads and jingles and boisterous endorsements. Long wasn't popular with other Senators, but he was correct loud and strident voice for Progressivism and stood against war and the horrors that it brought. You'll note that this is the absolute opposite of what the South wanted and they are still kicking and screaming about it.

To give you an idea of how relevant the Kingfish is today, here is a quote: " "When Fascism comes to America it will be called anti-Fascism,"

The Kingfish is probably one of the best Southerners to have lived that reached any place of real power and it is a shame that the region still attempts to undo everything he stood for. And that is a backhanded positive post about the South. Be less like the South and more like Huey Long!

Jastiger, if you make a positive comment about me, you can up your count to 2 southerners you've made positive comments about.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:32

Captain Yossarian: Feb 24, 2011; All new" Rings of Fire"

Re: the title, now THIS I gotta see :prepop:

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:35

The Bananana: May 21, 2008; This is a metaphor, a Christian allegory. The fact that I have to explain to you that Jesus is the Warthog, and the Banana is drepanocytosis is just embarrassing for you.

Captain Yossarian posted:

Re: the title, now THIS I gotta see

Huey Long and the News.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:37

Jastiger: Oct 11, 2008; by FactsAreUseless

The Kingfish posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hphgHi6FD8k

Video added to the OP. Owns.

Fishy Joe posted:

Thank you for the post Jastiger it was very interesting. DO we know who shot mr fish or was it a drive by ?

A doctor that was upset with all of his strong arm tactics and I believe was part of the opposition. You gotta remember Huey Long hosed poo poo UP. He fired people who had had jobs for years and years to make way for his people. He took away all the deals and agreements that a lot of people had set up for generations and blew them up in favor of progressive ideals. He threatened the very well being of a ruling class in Louisiana and it was loving awesome.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:39

Riot Bimbo: Dec 28, 2006

This is my favorite huey long vid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLyfrb15v-Q

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:41

skeletonotherkin: Sep 26, 2014

Just a reminder op, that here in my southern city, it was north eastern transplants who demanded busing be brought to an end.

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:43

get that OUT of my face: Feb 10, 2007

the problem with the south is that no other part of america has been more effectively ruled over by its wealthiest citizens. at least huey long gave it a shot

# ? Aug 2, 2016 20:44