S8 Ep699: 2. Roosevelt encountered significant populist challenges from the South, primarily through the influence of Huey Long and Eugene Talmadge. Although Long was assassinated in 1935, his radical "Share Our Wealth" program continued to haunt the political land
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
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🗓️ 6 April 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
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Summary
2. Roosevelt encountered significant populist challenges from the South, primarily through the influence of Huey Long and Eugene Talmadge. Although Long was assassinated in 1935, his radical "Share Our Wealth" program continued to haunt the political landscape, threatening to siphon votes to the Republicans. Talmadge, a Jeffersonian conservative and race-baiter, further complicated the solid South by rejecting New Deal welfare programs and accusing Roosevelt of communist sympathies. These figures represented a potent brand of agrarian radicalism that forced the president to defend his left flank while maintaining his traditional Southern base. (3)
1936 CHINESE AMBASSADOR TUNES IN TO BAD NEWS FROM HOME.
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| 0:00.0 | I'm John Batcher with David Petrucia. His new book is Roosevelt Sweeps Nation. FDR's 1936 |
| 0:10.5 | landslide in the triumph of the liberal ideal. Roosevelt is without his best advisor. Louis |
| 0:17.3 | B. Howe is gone. Roosevelt now faces Al Smith, his old mentor on his right, with the American Liberty League, preaching is the Constitution for sale and other provocative remarks that irritate the president. He is very sensitive, although he's always laughing when you see him in the newsreels. That is a style that Louis Howe approved of. |
| 0:39.8 | Just keep them laughing. |
| 0:41.5 | However, the president has to deal with the fact that he sits upon a Democratic Party |
| 0:46.1 | that has been solid since the Civil War and before |
| 0:50.7 | as what is politely known at the time as the way things are. |
| 0:56.5 | We would call it today unacceptable racism, vast and crushing. |
| 1:02.2 | The Jim Crow laws were the beginning of it. |
| 1:04.6 | Roosevelt knows this. |
| 1:06.1 | He also knows that he can be challenged from the South by two men, and we're about to meet them. |
| 1:12.4 | One, his name is Huey Long from Louisiana, who is a character beyond belief, except for |
| 1:21.1 | he's real. |
| 1:22.5 | And the other is Herman Talmadge from Georgia. |
| 1:25.3 | Let's start with Long, David. |
| 1:27.3 | What is, Long is gone by 36, but what he |
| 1:30.9 | represents challenges Roosevelt. What is, what was it that was most worrying to the president |
| 1:37.5 | that could be revived? Huey Long is, represents really the greatest force of the populist left. |
| 1:47.8 | I mean, he's not a people say, well, he was a fascist and all that. |
| 1:51.7 | What does that mean left or right? |
| 1:53.2 | But his economics are pure left wing. |
| 1:56.5 | And he presents a program in Louisiana, which is to fight standard oil, to tax standard oil, |
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