The political views of Huey P. Long have often challenged historians and biographers.Haas (1994), p. 125. While most say that Louisiana Governor and Senator Huey Long was a populist, little else can be agreed on. Huey Long's opponents, both during his life and after, often drew connections between him and his ideology and far-left and right political movements, comparing his ideology to various movements such as European Fascism, Stalinism, and McCarthyism. When asked about his own political personality, Long simply replied: "Oh, hell, say that I’m sui generis and let it go at that." Writer Robert Penn Warren, whose All the King's Men revolves around a Long-like character, said "my guess is he was a remarkable set of contradictions."

The political practice based on the positions and rhetoric of Long has been colloquially referred to as Longism.

Authoritarianism

Throughout his tenure in office as governor and then senior senator of Louisiana, Long was repeatedly labelled as an authoritarian and political usurper, akin to the carpetbaggers of Louisiana's past that had no respect for the rule of law.Williams (1981) , p. 728.| "One country editor charged that the Long regime was even worse than the outside rule of Reconstruction, apologized to "the shade of those niggers and carpetbaggers," and called for a return to the methods of 1876 to remove the "scabrous growth" that had overspread Louisiana"Williams (1981) , p. 449.| "Colonel Ewing declared that Long's harassment of New Orleans was worse than anything the carpetbaggers had attempted during Reconstruction" Long's machine in Louisiana was also accused of mass voter fraud via the usage of dummy candidates and having corrupt election vote counters in various state elections including the 1932 U.S. senate and gubernatorial elections and elections for amendments to the Louisiana state constitution.Williams (1981) , p. 599.|"The conservatives charged that the vote in both parishes [St. Bernard and Plaquemines, which had unanimous votes for the Long candidates] had been doctored, and Earl Long would later lend support to their suspicions"Williams (1981) , p. 655.|"An unofficial investigation revealed some interesting facts. In sixteen precincts the vote for the fifteen amendments was unanimous; in twenty-eight other precincts identical numbers of votes were recorded for the amendments and against them; and in fifteen additional precincts less than ten votes were cast against any of the amendments." A federal investigation into the election of John H. Overton to the U.S. senate in 1932 grew to encompass other parts of Long's regime in Louisiana including his electoral funding processes and his use of public patronage to cement his power in the state.Williams (1981) , p. 604.|Williams (1981) , p. 607.|"These men had talked almost entirely with anti-Long leaders. and the antis apparently had insinuated the idea that the investigation of the election should be a pretext for a broader inquiry ---one that would delve into every aspect of the Long regime and expose the evil nature of its leader" Responding to the attacks of voter fraud by his opponents, Long pointed out that the tactics he used were not new and had been used by his opponents in the past. Additionally, Long argued his use of dummy candidates had no direct impact on the results of Overton's election.Williams (1981) , p. 606.| Towards the end of the campaign of Long's own election to the U.S. senate in 1930, a man named Sam Irby who had offered claims of mass graft and fraud in Louisiana's highway commission (which was controlled by Long's machine), mysteriously disappeared. Along with Irby's disappearance came Jimmie Terrell, the former husband of Long's secretary Alice Lee Grosjean, who Long feared would potentially expose a supposed affair he had with Grosjean. According to historian T. Harry Williams, Long organized a meeting among his allies to figure out how to keep the two from talking in order to minimize any damage that may be done to his machine and his chances of winning the senatorial primary.Williams (1981) , p. 473.| Long would send six policemen that would carry away the drunken Irby and Terrell to an isolated camping location on Grand Isle, giving him time to take advantage of the situation, using it to attack his enemies. On a radio broadcast, Long brought Irby to address the large audience declaring that he had not been kidnapped by Huey and was safe and sound.Williams (1981) , p. 475.| Irby continued his message saying that he was instead trying to entrap Long's enemies, and had been attempted to be bought off by the Ransdell Camp.Williams (1981) , p. 476.| This maneuvering by Long prevented the scandal from seriously damaging him in any way and led to his easy win in the September 9 primary.

Long's power in the state of Louisiana ranged from holding the governorship, the state legislature, power over the state's U.S. senate seats, and various other political positions in the state. An anti-Long leader once said at the height of Long's power, "If you were for him, you could have anything you wanted. If you were against him, God help you unless you were an extraordinary man."Williams (1981) , p. 737.| Long was able to intimidate his opponents in the state by passing far reaching laws that would grant additional power to Long's regime. Examples of these laws stretched from allowing the governor to call out the state militia upon his own discretion, without there being any threat of rebellion or insurrection.Williams (1981) , p. 726.| Long aggressively pursued laws that would put additional state jobs under his control, as he viewed patronage as a key way of building his machine. This included legislation creating a civil service board that would be headed by the state's top officials, those being the governor, lieutenant governor, and secretary of state. The civil service board would be able to investigate the competence of police and fire chiefs and fire them if found to be incapable of their job. Upon an official's removal, a municipality would have to submit a successor to the removed official, which would then have to be approved by the commission.Williams (1981) , p. 738-739.| The directed target for much of the power grabs Long took during the end of his reign were primarily targeted at the city of New Orleans, a city that was the headquarters of his traditional opponents the old regulars.

Communism

During his lifetime, Long's political philosophy, particularly his Share Our Wealth program, was strongly criticized by more conservative politicians. They feared that such a scheme was decidedly communist. The former Louisiana governor Ruffin G. Pleasant, for instance, decried Long as "the 'ultra Socialist' whose views outreached 'Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky.'"Haas (1991), p. 29. Similarly, in 1935, the New York American accused Long's Share the Wealth program of being "molded in the criminal brains of the leader of the Paris Commune and sanctified in the brains of an oriental fanatic, Nicolai Lenin (sic)."Haas (1991), pp. 29–30. He was jokingly labelled the "Karl Marx of the Hillbillies". Deflecting such attacks, Long occasionally painted Roosevelt as a communist, once suggesting that Roosevelt "hold the Democratic convention and Communist convention together and save money."

Despite claims from right-wing opponents, Long's program diverged significantly from Marxist communism. In particular, the Share Our Wealth program preserved the concepts of private property and the profit motive, while seeking to avoid any need for violent revolution.Haas (1991), p. 30.Williams (1981) , p. 694. Indeed, Long himself said that his plan would strengthen the capitalist system by removing its greatest excesses, thereby removing any desire by the American people to do away with it. When asked whether his plan was communist, Huey P Long replied: "Communism? Hell no! ... This plan is the only defense this country's got against communism." Long also called his program "the only stop-gap to Communism!"Haas (1991), p. 31. When pressed by a leftist magazine who pointed out that the magnates Long railed against would be saved under his plan, he conceded, "That would be one of the unfortunate effects of my program". He concluded to the reporter: "I'd cut their nails and file their teeth and let them live."Williams (1981) , p. 694.

Although conservatives labeled Long a communist, legitimate American communists sought to distance themselves from Long and his Share Our Wealth program. They believed his policies preserved the capitalist enterprise, something that Long himself admitted. The communists also believed that Long's Share Our Wealth societies diverted interest away from their own party. Some of Long's fiercest critics were prominent American communists, such as Sender Garlin and Alexander Bittelman. They argued that Long's populist rhetoric and antics belied a decidedly anti-labor philosophy; Garlin, for instance, noted that while Long constructed thousands of miles of roads and numerous bridges, the state paid its workers only 30 cents an hour—10 cents less than what the National Recovery Administration called for during the Great Depression.Haas (1991), p. 33.

Conservatism and nationalism Despite being accused of being a political extremist from the left, Long saw his own positions as strengthening the traditions of America. In a film discussing his Share Our Wealth societies, Long argued that he was upholding the promise of the Declaration of Independence to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Long's conservative streak was apparent during his crackdown on gambling and prostitution in the red light district in New Orleans after his breaking with Colonel Robert "Bow-Wow" Ewing who was a Long boss in the city. Ewing had ties to the gambling and prostitution industries in New Orleans and Long, with his disdain for both, ordered state militia, under Adjutant General of the national guard Raymond H. Fleming, to "cut out the wide-open gambling" in the city.Williams (1981) , p. 342.| In a great irony, the conservatives, who deplored such acts as gambling and prostitution, attacked Long for issuing the raids. Their outrage was mostly targeted against the forceful way in which the raids had been executed, with female patrons having been "held and searched for money," and guardsman having "burst into establishments with guns drawn forcing patrons to hold up their hands and back up against a wall".Williams (1981) , p. 343.|

Long was a strident isolationist and political nationalist who opposed American intervention abroad and was a strong supporter of tariffs, with Long labeling himself a "tariff Democrat". Along with supporting tariffs, he advocated that the American government disassociate from European efforts to settle war debts and to grant independence to the Philippines.Williams (1981) , p. 712.| Long argued that Standard Oil had backed rebellions across Latin America to install puppet governments that would be beholden to the company's interests. In 1934, Long claimed that Standard Oil was backing the Bolivian government to make war with Paraguay over the supposedly oil-rich northern Grand Chaco region after the latter had refused to grant favorable leasing terms to the company.Williams (1981) , p. 712.|

Education

Long's contributions to education formed a key part of his populist ideology and the modernizing of the state of Louisiana.Williams (1981) , p. 521.| Long's investments in the Louisiana State University (LSU), transformed the school from a third-rate, backwater state university into one of the most prestigious in the country by 1935.Williams (1981) , p. 520.|