This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam.

In the 1930s, an unlikely man from rural Louisiana rose to political stardom.

Huey Long appealed to working-class Americans with fiery speeches and a populist agenda.

He promised free textbooks, better infrastructure, and redistribution of wealth.

That while we might have millionaires, and men worth two million,

and men worth three million, maybe, and men worth maybe five or six million,

but that nonetheless there must be a limit on how big any one man could get.

Thousands gather to hear him speak.

His promise to make every man a king soon earned him a nickname.

The kingfish.

But Huey Long also made powerful enemies along the way.

Critics saw him as a dangerous demagogue. They warned that he was crooked, cunning, and completely unconcerned with checks

and balances. He fired those who opposed him, took over state agencies, and appointed

loyalists.

When Louisiana State University published a newspaper article criticizing him,

Hughie Long saw to it that the seven students who wrote the piece were expelled.

Hughie Long wasn't just popular.

He was magnetic, dangerous to some, divine to others.

He rewrote the rules and dared the system to stop him.

In 1929, after he became governor of Louisiana, Hughie Long was impeached on charges of bribery, corruption,

and abuse of power. Rather than prove his innocence, he orchestrated a political blockade

in the state senate. He persuaded senators to sign a letter vowing not to convict him,

...