When Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal vetoed $16 million worth of pork that legislators slipped into the budget to prove to the voters in their districts that they were still “good ol’ boys” (or girls) he took the first step in burying Huey P. Long.
While the body of the Kingfish was actually buried more than three quarters of a century ago the ultra populist practices that old Huey P. brought into state government has survived all these years. More than three generations of Louisiana citizens have grown up to think that the money for anything their village, town, city or parish wanted should come from Baton Rouge.
This meant that a legislator from the Monroe area could slip in a state appropriation allowing folks in Rosepine to help pay for a swimming pool for Monroe citizens. In return, a legislator from the Rosepine area could slip in an appropriation allowing folks in Monroe to help pay for a ball field for Rosepine youth.
But if a Rosepine taxpayer wanted to find a road to Monroe without moon crater sized pot holes in it to see the swimming pool he helped pay for in Monroe he might have to go via Marshall, Texas, Crossett, Ark. and Natchez, Miss.
Until the 1930s, populism was foreign to our theory of American government. In our original unique system the only things for which the federal government would finance were those things that would serve all the states.
The only thing that state governments would finance were those things that would serve all the citizens of said state. Local government was expected to finance services that were specifically for their citizens.
Traditionally, populism was a tool of ruling kings, emperors and dictators. It was the tool used by Caesar to keep the support of the Roman citizens. Since it has been used by Napoleon, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin and other totalitarian rulers to first gain and then maintain the support of a sufficient number of citizens.
If Hitler had been satisfied with a major portion of western Europe and in his madness not left Germany in crumbling ruins there would be statues to the man today just as there are to Caesar and Napoleon.
He used populism to lift a battered population that needed a wheelbarrow to carry sufficient money to the market to buy a loaf of bread and bottle of milk. He made it possible not only for Germans to drive on modern highways but to get a car of their own, a “People’s Car”-Volkswagen.
They again could dine at sidewalk cafes and show great pride in their modern and powerful nation. Mussolini got the trains running on time and the garbage picked up. Stalin got the Russian people in out of the cold. And Huey P. Long got Louisiana mules out of the mud, Louisiana children schoolbook and made it possible for folks to get across the river without swimming or waiting for a ferry.
This provided Huey P. great support from the masses. And Louisiana politicians have followed the pattern for the last 75 years and is the reason while once a person got elected to a state position the only thing that could unseat him or her was being thrown in prison, death and finally term limits.
Populism can still be a good thing, but like all good things, only within limits. In most of the U.S. outside of Louisiana populism has been limited and served well.
But in Louisiana we like to brag that we’re different, and we go to great extremes to provide this. Some of those differences are good, but some have left the state back in the 1930s. Did Governor Jindal’s veto of the pork barrel projects start to get us into the 21st Century? We’ll have to wait and see.
Maybe the folks in Monroe can find a way to pay for their own swimming pool and the folks in Rosepine can find a way to build their ball park by themselves.
Trivia Time
During World War II General Eisenhower was so impressed with the Auto Bahn in Germany that as President he initiated the Interstate Highway System. The U.S. made one change though that made our Interstates safer than the Auto Bahn for long periods of high speed driving. What was it? Answer to last question. The line “The first thing we do is kill all the lawyers” is from King Henry VI Part 2, and was spoken by Dick the Butcher.
George Frasher, an independent columnist, is a retired News-Leader Inc. editor and may be contacted at 337-238-3433, E-mail frasher@cebridge.net.
Leesville, La. —
