Huey Long may have believed in the message he was spreading, but he was out for himself as much as he was fighting for the little guy. The "Every Man a King" speech itself is a shameless bid to prop up Huey's chances at making a serious run at the 1936 presidential election. He doesn't come out and say so here, but it's in between the lines in the way he proposes his ideas and attacks his opponents.
Long's tactics include ridiculing FDR's New Deal programs by making them look like a bunch of useless "alphabetical codes" that haven't solved a thing. By setting himself apart from the current leadership and proposing a radical plan to transform the lives of the working folks, he's putting himself out there as the guy who has to be in charge in order to make things happen.
Questions About Power and Self-Promotion
- How is Huey setting himself up to be the next natural choice to lead the country?
- How much of Huey Long's speech do you think is an act in order to secure his own position and how much is genuine?
- Would Long have made this speech if the election wasn't around the corner? Would he have changed anything if the timing were different?
Chew on This
The principal motivation for Huey Long's speech was probably self-promotion—to get his name out on a national level before the 1936 presidential election.
Long's ambition for power wasn't totally a bad thing, because it gave him a bigger soapbox to promote his ideas about helping the poor.