Political memory is a powerful thing, especially the lingering effects of a bad memory. The economic history of Louisiana is one of missed opportunities in a state rich in assets. Simplistically, I attribute that to the lingering effects of the populist answer to big industry that took all and returned little.

Up until the time of Huey Long, Big Oil sucked the mineral wealth from our land and left little of the benefits and almost none of the prosperity. Sure, there were jobs for the many uneducated, but the vast wealth was simply converted to cash and moved from Louisiana to New York and other financial centers, little benefits left behind. And then there was Long. He literally twisted the tiger’s tail and squeezed Big Oil for the economic resources he then used to build roads, schools, bridges, to fund education and healthcare. For a brief time, he built his political power by creating a sense of entitlement for the people that he paid for with Big Oil’s money.

That was all fine for the 1930s, but along the way we got addicted to his form of populism that in turn was far too dependent on long since dried up land based mineral wealth. His self-aggrandizement seared our collective memory with craven images of a La La Land that didn’t ever really exist.

Other southern states, not so blessed with mineral assets, were forced to embrace free market capitalism while eventually, along with our natural assets, we slowly withered. So arose capitalist business hubs in Houston, Dallas, Miami, Nashville, and Atlanta, even as New Orleans lost its major business base becoming the “former” Queen City of the South. The rising economic tide in these cities brought prosperity to their states and continuing growth that fed on that prosperity while we struggled with demands from our big government addicted people for succor from a rapidly evaporating resource base. Our people clung to the false memory of Long’s populism long after we had the ability to pay for it.

And then there was 2026. Suddenly most, reluctantly not all, of our leaders seem to have found the secret to success, that embrace of capitalism for all its faults that others embraced so long ago, an embrace that will turn loose this powerful economic engine to remake our society.

It will take time, but the poverty and lethargy that has characterized Louisiana will, ten years from now, more than likely be a thing of unfortunate history. The hundred-year-old hangover from Huey Long, his politcial/economic philosophy, that should have died out 90 years ago, will finally be expunged and our people will be able to share the benefits of prosperity with those other southern states.

The year 2026 will go down as important a year in Louisiana history as did the first year that oil was discovered in our land.