Compare And Contrast George Wallace And Huey Long

Many observers believe that George Wallace was the present reemergence of Huey Long, while others believe that George Wallace was a populist who made his own decisions and differed from Huey Long’s approach of handling issues. Although George Wallace incorporated similar populist tactics of being opinionated and outspoken, Wallace was not a Huey Long. Wallace was his own entity, engaging in segregation politics that hindered the progression of the civil rights movement, playing off southern sectionalism, and influencing racial anguish towards African Americans. On the other hand, the infamous Huey Long challenged economic disparities in Congress, pushed for African American rights, and fought back against elites. Huey Long and George Wallace had commonalities; they both were a threat to the current federal establishment because they were outsiders. Long believed that he had “come to the United States with only one project in mind…which was that by every means of action and persuasion [he] might do something to spread the wealth of the land among all people.” Long’s push for “spreading the wealth among all people” by exposing corruption during the depression made him an outsider. In retrospect, Wallace was considered an outsider who wore “shiny pants, loud shirts, and louder …show more content…
He utilized the Senate to pass policies targeted towards the poor, the concentration of wealth, and the dispersion of big banks while simultaneously being “fair to colored people, good to all people.” The kingfish, a nickname given to him by a San Francisco examiner, presented the Share Our Wealth plan in Congress which would enforce harsh restrictions on the total amount of money a person could have or could pass down to a generation. Long’s strategy to redistribute wealth in the 1900’s benefited the lower, working class people as it “destroy[ed] concentrated wealth and erects no menacing center in its