They Don’t Make Demagogues Like They Used To

By SAM URETSKY

Twenty-sixteen was a significant year in two ways, one perhaps, related to the other. It was, after all, an election year, but it also marked the 70th anniversary of the publication of Robert Penn Warren’s most famous work, “All The King’s Men” and marked by a revival of interest in the novel.

One part of this revival was the publication of “Robert Penn Warren’s All The King’s Men: A Reader’s Companion” by Prof. Jonathan S. Cullick. The text is only 93 pages long before the footnotes, bibliography and index, but in that text it manages to provide valuable insights into the novel, the character of Willie Stark, the primary character of the novel, Huey Long, on whom Willie Stark was loosely based, and ultimately Donald Trump, a Willie Stark for our own time.

In spite of its length (a 2002 edition was 656 pages long) the novel was a runaway best seller and has been continuously in print, is a staple of college reading lists, and was ranked 36th on the Modern Library’s list of the 100 best novels of the 20th century. The 1949 movie version of “All The King’s Men” won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role (Broderick Crawford), and both Best Actor and Best Actress in a Supporting Role (John Ireland and Mercedes McCambridge). In what might be evidence of prescience, one scene in the movie has a group of Stark supporters chanting “nail ’em up!”

Significantly, the fictional Willie Stark and the real Huey Long seem like deeply conflicted people in a way that Donald Trump is not. Willie Stark’s first run for governor is inspired by evidence of corruption in the building of a new school, but his speeches — long on policy, short on emotion — are uninspired, and he loses the election. Jack Burden, a former political reporter who is Stark’s right-hand man, advises him, “Just stir ’em up, it doesn’t matter how or why, and they’ll love you and come back for more. Pinch ’em in the soft place. They aren’t alive, most of ’em, and haven’t been alive for 20 years. Hell, their wives have lost their teeth and their shape, and likker won’t set on their stomachs, and they don’t believe in God, so it’s up to you to give ’em something to stir ’em up and make ’em feel alive again.”

Stark follows the advice and becomes a demagogue, but there is a cynical pragmatism to his approach. Corruption is a tool for personal gain, but also a tool for achieving improvements in the general welfare. Unlike modern politicians who may embrace xenophobia to achieve their ends, Willie Stark works to unify blacks and poor whites against a common enemy.

The career of Huey Long, the model for Willie Stark, has been extensively studied, with no clear consensus. Long, whatever his sins, challenged FDR from the left, claiming that the New Deal didn’t do enough to support the poor and elderly. His “Every Man a King” proposals included federal spending on public works, schools and colleges, and old age pensions. Long claimed that his plan would enable everyone to have at least a car, a radio, and a home worth $5,000.

Long’s proposals included a wealth tax, a guaranteed annual income, an old age pension and free education through college — all ideas undergoing a modern revival. Arthur Krock of the New York Times wrote in his memoirs, “Sixty Years on the Firing Line”, “ I believe that in the short but stormy era of his political ascendency … Long established himself as the first important architect on a nationwide scale of what Lyndon B. Johnson programmed thirty years later as The Great Society.”

(Glen Jeansonne, writing in Louisiana History: Vol. 33, No.3 (Summer, 1992), pp. 265-282, argues that “Long was more racist, less unbiased, less principled, and less different from other Louisiana politicians of his time than the literature implies. Whatever sympathy for blacks he expressed was opportunistic and expedient, neither humanitarian nor color blind. His program helped blacks inadvertently, not deliberately, and he avoided helping them when he could do so without denying aid to his white constituents.”)

In contrast, Donald Trump uses the same techniques as Willie Stark, but with rare exceptions his policies seem to be planned for his and his family’s sole benefit. Prof. Cullick notes that Donald Trump even uses the same rhetorical devices that Willie Stark did. Willie Stark would begin a speech by saying “I’m not gonna give a speech,” and then go into well rehearsed remarks. This gave his comments an air of sincerity which would have been lacking had he used notes, or the carefully selected words on a teleprompter. Donald Trump’s rambling remarks at a rally achieved much the same effect.

It’s impossible to separate our ideas of Willie Stark from Huey Long, or from Donald Trump. Robert Penn Warren said that some parts of “All The King’s Men” were written while he was in Italy, and a portion of the inspiration for Willie Stark came from Benito Mussolini. Both the fictional Willie Stark and the real Huey Long, in spite of considerable examination, remain enigmas. Scott Horton, in Harper’s magazine (9/21/07) wrote “… the essence of Willie Stark is to be found in every generation. It is a test for people and society. And the first test is simple: can you recognize Willie when you see him?”

Sam Uretsky is a writer and pharmacist living in Louisville, Ky. Email sdu01@outlook.com.

From The Progressive Populist, May 1, 2019

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