![]() In its modern form, which is so recklessly celebrated by both pundits and politicians from the left and right, populism has become a protest against institutions of all kinds - including both political parties - which assert traditions or standards uncomfortable for scalawag politicians such as Edwards and Duke. Harry Williams, in his superb biography of Long, noted that Winn Parish, the Long family’s home, “became the center of populist strength in the state and furnished most of the party’s leaders.” The Populist Party of the 1890s, to which Williams was referring, was a rural protest against the banks, the railroads and other economic power-centers which then controlled so many state legislatures, governors and senators. It was Long, the governor and senator who dominated the state for more than a decade before his assassination in 1935, who, more than anyone else, established the populist tradition in Louisiana politics - which both Edwards and Duke claim as their own. And so does the sour stench of populism, the anti- establishment movement that has gained fresh and undeserved prestige in the current climate of public disillusionment. ![]() Long hangs over everything - including Saturday’s gubernatorial election between former Gov. ![]()
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