The sometimes embarrassing spectacle of U.S. presidential candidates with weird ideas is not exclusive to the Republican Party. Lyndon LaRouche, sometimes described as an independent Democratic but disowned by the Democratic Party, has some pretty outlandish notions of his own.
He is a difficult person to place on the political spectrum. In the 1970s he was a Marxist living in New York City who, according to an article in The Independent (July 2004), “performed a complete about-turn, declaring war on leftists and liberals.”
The Los Angeles Times says he established connections with such right-wing groups as the Liberty Lobby and the Ku Klux Klan.
Just to further confuse everybody, the Associated Press (February 2009) reports that, “LaRouche considers himself a ‘Roosevelt Democrat’ and believes the country needs another New Deal - this time to move it from a consumer-based economy back to a manufacturing one.”
Long-time Presidential Candidate
Using his own private fortune, Lyndon LaRouche began campaigning to be the U.S. President in 1976 and ran in every election up to and including 2004.
His first attempt was under the banner of the U.S. Labor Party, which he founded, and he gathered just over 40,000 votes. That seems to have been the highpoint of his popularity.
In subsequent elections he tried to win the nomination of the Democratic Party, although the party tried to distance itself from him.
He ran his 1992 campaign from a prison cell where he was serving a 15-year sentence for fraud.
According to the LaRouche Political Action Committee he is supporting a collective presidential candidacy of six of his followers in the 2012 campaign.
LaRouche Conspiracy Theories
Lyndon LaRouche has developed a boatload of conspiracy theories over the years:
- The British Royal Family controls the world drug trade, and the Queen personally commands the armed forces;
- The U.S. armed forces worked with Jewish conspirators to pull off the 9/11 attacks in order to start a war against Islam;
- Barack Obama’s health care plan contained provisions for death panels to decide on the fate of seriously ill people - a claim that was picked up and repeated by Sarah Palin;
- The Beatles, he said, had “no genuine musical talent,” and were, in fact, created by Britain’s psychological warfare experts;
- AIDS was created by the Soviet Union or by the International Monetary Fund (take your pick) and those who have it should be quarantined;
- British intelligence is furious with Barack Obama for failing to turn the U.S. into a fascist state and may soon try to assassinate him.
In addition, he has developed a long list of those who wish to kill him that includes Henry Kissinger, international drug traffickers, bankers, Nazis, and Socialists.
Is Lyndon LaRouche to be Feared?
It’s easy to write off someone who holds these kinds of beliefs as a harmless nutbar; Chip Berlet, Senior Analyst, Political Research Associates thinks that would be a mistake.
He writes that people belonging to the LaRouche Youth Movement are active on campuses recruiting members. He says the LaRouche Movement uses mind control techniques typical of extremist religious cults. There have been allegations of violence and suggestions of involvement in the mysterious death of 22-year-old Jeremiah Duggan in Germany in March 2003.
As Berlet told The Independent recruiters “play on your guilt, tell you the world is about to explode and that LaRouche is the only person who understands what is going on.”
And, the newspaper reports that in a 2003 speech he declared: “Give me 1,000 youth leaders like these, and I’ll take over the country.”
Sources
- “The Cult and the Candidate.” Terry Kirby, The Independent, July 24, 2004.
- “Lyndon LaRouche Tries Again.” Associated Press, February 11, 2009.
- “Lyndon LaRouche: Man of Vision or Venom?” Chip Berlet, Political Research Associates, September 13, 2007.
- “Visitors From Planet LaRouche.” Robert Mackey, New York Times, August 25, 2009.
- “Jeremiah Duggan’s Death and Lyndon LaRouche.” Tim Samuels, BBC News, February 12, 2004.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
