America once had a dictator. Could it again?

Lessons from 1930s Louisiana

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Did you know that the governor of a U.S. state once established a secret police force, censored the press, kidnapped his enemies and imposed martial law at will - all while being hailed as a hero by the poor?

This year marks 90 years since the assassination of Huey P. Long, the man who established the most extreme dictatorship in American history. Nowadays, Long is not a household name, but in his time he was - he was the governor and later senator from Louisiana. Until he was assassinated, he was considered a serious threat to Franklin Roosevelt’s re-election campaign in 1936. But what he was most known for was getting away with stunning abuses of power.

When Long entered politics in the 1920s, Louisiana was desperately poor. A Democrat, Long campaigned as an economic populist who would improve the lot of the impoverished. And he did do a pretty good job of this - he improved public services and infrastructure, and even chipped away at Jim Crow, the system of segregation and voting restrictions which excluded African Americans from wealth and power.

When Long eventually turned his eye to federal politics, it was as an advocate of massive wealth redistribution which would make “every man a king”.

At the same time, Long ruthlessly consolidated control over state politics in Louisiana. He did it gradually rather than all at once, but by the 1930s he had effectively established a one-party police state. Among other things, he:

• Placed his loyalists in control of each branch of state government;

• Set up a secret police force which kidnapped and intimidated his critics;

• Turned the legislature into a rubber-stamp body that passed any law that he sent to it;

• Seized control of election administration to ensure his favored candidates would always win;

• Intimidated state outlets into silence and established a body to censor videos;

• Gave himself the power to declare martial law without reason and take control of cities and counties which opposed him.

America had never seen anything like this. Of course, brutal and autocratic state regimes were common in the Jim Crow South, were African Americans were denied rights and subject to segregation. But what was different about Long was that he had established a personalistic dictatorship which completely destroyed democratic politics even among the white majority, and which was similar to the fascist regimes which were at the time rising across Europe.

Huey P. Long

Shortly before Long was assassinated, attention from outside Louisiana was approaching a fever pitch. The U.S. constitution says that every state must have a “republican form of government”, and Long’s opponents in Congress and the press were starting to call for the federal government to intervene. Then Long was assassinated, and the issue became moot. If he hadn’t been, the Supreme Court might eventually have had to rule on whether state dictatorships violate the constitution.

After his death, Long became a legendary figure, and the political machine he had created continued to hold power in Louisiana. But the more personalistic and brutal elements of his dictatorship collapsed, with the state reverting back to the general pattern of Jim Crow.

If dictatorship ever comes to the United States as a whole, it will probably look something like what Long set up in Louisiana. He maintained the formal rules and institutions of democracy - there were still courts and elections - but he established an iron grip over them all, turning them into form without substance. In practice, as he was fond to saying to opponents, “I’m the constitution around here”.

Trump is clearly embarked on a similar project. He demands exactly the same sort of unwavering loyalty and obedience from everyone he comes into contact with, and he likewise tries to hollow out institutions from within.

But there are also differences between the situations in which Long and Trump find themselves. Long was the governor of a very poor state in which his opponents lacked the resources with which to oppose him. He also genuinely was very popular - he actually did deliver for the poor, appearing to give his steamrolling of democratic norms a point in the eyes of many.

In fact, that is one of the most chilling lessons of Long’s career - that people were willing to exchange democracy in return for material prosperity, the same bargain that many were making in fascist Europe at the same time.

Trump, by contrast, is right now making people poorer. He is trying to end democracy in a vast and wealthy country while being personally extremely unpopular and enacting policies that only make him more so. He’s trying to take away rights and democratic processes which many people have enjoyed for a long time. He’s doing it not on the small stage of a backwater state in the American South, but on the largest and most prominent stage on the planet.

My guess is that he’ll fail. But only if people stand up and make it so.

America Explained has grown a lot in the last 100 days, and I’m grateful to all of you for reading it and making it possible for me to pursue my passion. If you haven’t already please consider upgrading to a paid subscription in order to support the newsletter and help me buy the caffeine which makes it possible.