Yesterday, Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche outlined the principles behind his 2004 campaign in a live conference call and webcast with 35 college newspapers and leaders of his youth movement.
LaRouche’s opening statement summarized his political principles, which he believes have been borne out by recent events. According to LaRouche, after President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, the United States experienced a “cultural paradigm shift” which changed the nation from a producer mentality to a “parasitical consumer mentality.”
The U.S.’s need to extract resources from abroad makes it similar to the expansionary Roman Empire, LaRouche argued. The Sept. 11 attacks were used by Vice President Dick Cheney and other major figures in the Department of Defense to “pick a fight … to get a [war] versus Islamic people in general,” LaRouche said.
The U.S., under the present administration, may drive the war in unexpected directions, LaRouche believes.
“Who knows, they might attack France,” he said.
Numerous other issues were not spared LaRouche’s criticism. He noted that today, “students are rehearsed in correct answers to multiple-choice questionnaires scored by computer. This is sometimes called education.”
He also called for treating post-secondary education as an essential “national infrastructure,” with universal education available to anyone ages 18 to 25.
LaRouche’s 2004 bid for president has 200 full-time youth organizers, according to Angela Vullo, a worker for his campaign. Of the 15 students who asked LaRouche questions during the conference call, about half were part of the LaRouche Youth Movement.
One of LaRouche’s student organizers asked him to comment on former House speaker Newt Gingrich’s recent criticisms of the State Department.
“Newt Gingrich is a fascist of the worst type [and] he wants to be the new Secretary of State,” LaRouche replied.
LaRouche was also asked about Sen. Rick Santorum’s recent controversial comments on homosexuality. LaRouche argued that discussing gay rights is “a counterproductive discussion” and that such “single issues should not be issues of national policy.”
Explaining LaRouche’s reluctance to hash out specific policy proposals, Vullo said, “[LaRouche] doesn’t deal with issues; he deals with principles.”
LaRouche has run for the highest office in the land eight times, dating back to 1976. According to the campaign’s spokesperson, Debra Freeman, LaRouche is fourth in total campaign fundraising among candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, with $3,782,500.
However, LaRouche’s prospects of earning the Democratic nomination are slim at best. The Democratic National Committee barred him from the 2000 convention, citing his fraud and tax conspiracy conviction during the Reagan Administration and his views that the DNC believes are “explicitly racist and anti-Semitic.”
LaRouche remains undaunted.
“I’m the only prospective candidate who is competent to deal with the issue of war and major issues in the world today,” he said.
After two hours, LaRouche signed off. His campaign deemed the event a success.
“I would challenge any presidential candidate to do what he did, to keep the attention of college students for two hours,” Vullo said.
Archived article by Dan Galindo