Sinclair Lewis & Robert Penn Warren Were Dead On About Donald Trump . . . Just Ask Huey Long
Shortly after his September 10, 1935 assassination at the hands of Dr. Carl Weiss, Louisiana Governor/Senator Huey Long’s final work (and second biography), My First Days in the White House was published by The Telegraph Press. Unlike his best-selling autobiography Every Man a King, My First Days in the White House is more of a novella (barely 100 pages) in which “The Kingfish” (as he was commonly known) outlines both his presidential platform and precisely who he would name to his Cabinet. In many regards, Long comes off as a Socialist. The main thrust of his presidency would be his “Share the Wealth” program, which called for higher taxes on the wealthy (which would provide every American with a guaranteed annual income of $5,000.00), universal healthcare, and increased spending on public works, education and old-age pensions. His favorite slogan was, as the title of his autobiography proclaimed, “Everyman a King!”
Long was the kind of politician Americans either loved or hated. The poor and downtrodden loved him for his populist progressivism; the middle-class and wealthy abhorred him for the autocratic means by which he sought to get what he wanted. In his 1935 novel It Can’t Happen Here, novelist Sinclair Lewis used Long as the model for Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a charismatic and power-hungry politician who wins the 1936 presidential election on a populist platform, promising to restore the country to prosperity and greatness, and promises each citizen $5,000 a year. Once elected, he rapidly outlaws dissent, incarcerates political enemies in concentration camps, and trains and arms a paramilitary force called the Minute Men. They terrorize citizens and enforce the policies of Windrip and his "corporatist” regime. 11 years later (1946), Pulitzer-prize winning poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren turned the Kingfish into Willie Stark, the lead character in All the King’s Men. In this novel, Willie, like Huey, is a small-town southern lawyer who, starting out as a man-of-the-people populist, climbs the political ladder, eventually becoming the dictatorial governor of his state, backed by his own military. Like Long, Stark is assassinated by a doctor, who in turn is killed on the spot by the governor’s bodyguards. In passing, it should also be noted that the 1953 film A Lion Is in the Streets, adapted from Adria Locke Langley’s 1946 novel, starring James Cagney as the Huey Long-like southern populist politician Hank Martin, who was also based on the Kingfish.
To date, there have been more biographies, novels and movies based on Huey Long than any other Louisianan. He captures our attention because of his audacity, the adoration showered upon him by the little guy, his dangerous turn towards autocracy and the fact that he came the closest to being America’s first dictator. Sinclair Lewis, Robert Penn Warren and Adria Locke Langley all understood just how dangerous the man and his movement was . . . and how much divisiveness some politicians can foist upon the nation.
In many regards, Donald J. Trump shares both character strengths and flaws with the Kingfish . . . and his literary doppelgängers. Both are self-centered egotists whose personal insecurity makes them more fearful of losing than hopeful of winning. Both share a type of charisma which is alluring to many, and repellant to many more. Unlike Donald Trump, Huey Long - and Willie Stark and Hank Martin - are well disciplined and, for the most part, manage to stay on message most of the time.
Not so ‘45.
This point was forcefully brought home in a recent interview in which Fox entertainer - and Trump favorite - Sean Hannity threw a nerf ball question 45’s way. Here’s the transcript of both Hannity’s question and Trump’s response:
Hannity: If you hear in 131 days from now at some point in the night or early morning, ‘We can now project Donald J. Trump has been reelected the 45th President of the United States’ - let’s talk. What’s at stake in this election as you compare and contrast, and what are your top priority items for a second term?
Trump: Well, one of the things that will be equally great: you know, the word experience is still good. I always say talent is more important than experience. I’ve always said that. But the word experience is a very important word. It’s a very important meaning. I never did this before. I never slept over in Washington. I was in Washington I think 17 times, all of a sudden I’m President of the United States, you know the story. I’m riding down Pennsylvania Avenue with our First Lady and I say, ‘This is great.’ But I don’t know very many people in Washington, it wasn’t my thing. I was from Manhattan, from New York. Now I know everybody. And I have great people in my administration. You make some mistakes, like you know an idiot like Bolton, all he wanted to do is drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to drop bombs on everybody. You don’t have to kill people.
We can see that when asked what his top priorities items were for a second term, Trump did not articulate a single one. Instead, he offered a stream-of-consciousness narrative about the importance of the word “experience,” explained how he hadn’t spent much time in Washington prior to becoming president, and derided John Bolton (his former National Security Advisor, who had just published an embarrassing book about his experiences in the Trump administration) as an “idiot.”
Compare this to Huey Long, who even before he announced his candidacy for the 1936 Democratic presidential nomination, published a novella in which he clearly laid out what his priorities would be, what direction he wished to lead the nation, how he would deal with the rest of the world, and who his advisers would be. (Of course, Long never got the chance to declare his candidacy; he was already dead). Audaciously (and perhaps somewhat tongue-in-cheek) Long named General Smedley Butler his Secretary of War, former President Franklin D. Roosevelt his Secretary of the Navy, former President Herbert Hoover his Secretary of Commerce, and Isolationist Idaho Senator William Borah his Secretary of State.
One wonders who will be the first novelist/satirist or screenwriter to turn Donald Trump into a fictional character. It seems reasonable that that character definitely will not be a poor southern good-ole-boy like Willie Stark, nor a New England everyman like Buzz Windrip. And unlike Huey Long, he will definitely not be an avowed enemy of Wall Street and the hyper wealthy. Whoever that fictional character will be, one thing is certain: he will, incongruously, have the devotion of middle America - what Nixon and now Trump refer to as the “Silent Majority,” and Buzz Windrip as “The Forgotten Men.” It will remain for future historians to figure out just how it was that a lying, larcenous, immoral supposed multi-billionaire could earn the undying allegiance of the undereducated, the hyper-religious and the believers in conspiracy.
We conclude with a fascinating - and highly entertaining - YouTube clip from Trevor Noah’s “The Daily Show.” Ladies and Gentlemen: Meet the new “Silent Majority.”
127 days until November 3, 2020.
Copyright©2020 Kurt F. Stone