Talk:LaRouche movement/Sources

Sources that mention "humor"

Or "joke", "laugh", "laughter", "amuse", "amusement", "funny"

• Pale, intense, humorless, disciplined, the men and women work night and day in the cramped offices eight floors above the Manhattan streets.
  • NCLC Fights a Psychic War Against CIA and Left Rivals. By PAUL W. VALENTINE THE CAPITAL TIMES, Monday, February 25, 1974, .p22
• In a recent issue of its newspaper "New Solidarity" the U.S. Lnbor party had a headline which proclaimed: "WORLDWIDE NUCLEAR WAR SET FOR END OF JANUARY." The party believes the Rockefellers and the CIA control virtually all the governments in the world. A copy of the paper was dropped off in the Capitol newsroom by a party worker who also happens to be running for the U.S. Congress. It was brought to the attention of this gentleman that it might be a waste of time to stand for election this November if the world is going to be burnt to a crisp. He shrugged his shoulders and departed. No sense of humor, these U.S. Labor party people.
  • Capitol Opinion By THOMAS FERRICK JR. FEBRUARY 8, 1976 BUCKS COUNTY COURIER TIMES PENNSYLVANIA D4 Pulse of Pennsylvania

With this kind of ideological backdrop, it is understandable that U.S. Labor Party representatives have to harass, and sometimes physically abuse, shoppers to get them to take position papers which read like a Mad Magazine parody of a lunatic fringe political group.. It is also hardly surprising that the party's nominations for office are handed out, like prizes on Let's Make a Deal, to the person who looks and acts most ridiculous. Finally, it is easy to see why Gelber found it necessary to use Carter's audience to spout his own political philosophy. U.S. Labor Party candidates occasionally mount a soap box downtown. Those passers by who have been jostled by party representatives before generally steer clear and the few who stop to listen often are afflicted by fits of laughter.

— Labor Party Tactics, editorial, THE POST-STANDARD Syracuse, N.Y Oct 18, 1976

• Amid the tension, the campaign has also produced a good deal of humor, much of it at the expense of Michael Gelber, disciple of radical right-wing candidate Lyndon LaRouche and self-described "particle beam-weapon" candidate. Gelber often brings laughter from crowds when he blames the nation's racial problems on diplomat Averell Harriman, and charges that The Globe is a "mouthpiece of the KGB (the Soviet secret police*.
  • THAT LONG AND GRUELING ROAD... Charles Kenney Globe Staff (Globe Staff members Walter V. Robinson, Ed Quill and Robert L. Turner contributed to this report). Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: Aug 21, 1983. pg. 1
• To a casual observer, Mr. LaRouche is a bit of a joke - a quixotic right-winger who supports President Ronald Reagan's defence policy and has an unusual fear of conspiracies and assassination.
  • UNITED STATES Oddball tycoon wins some battles JOHN KING. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Jan 26, 1984. pg. P.8
• (Would you like a sample from the humor column of the LaRouche publication, New Solidarity? Q.: What's the meaning of the gay rights movement? A.: A Nazi faggot dancing the hora.)
  • THE LINKS BETWEEN LaROUCHE AND NEW YORK CORRUPTION; [Op-Ed] 1977., Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Democrat of New York, has served in the Senate since. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Apr 1, 1986. pg. A.31
• "They are a Soviet front," LaRouche maintained in a one-hour telephone interview yesterday. "There are some things I know, but it's probably better not to put them up front at this point." As for the connections of his local opponents to drugs and communists, LaRouche said, "I know a good deal about that . . . We have dossiers on a number of these people." He added, "We get along fine with the normal local citizens." Loudoun County Supervisor Frank Raflo said, "All this would be funny if it wasn't so serious." A scrappy man with red suspenders under his suit coat, Raflo has assumed leadership of the local LaRouche opposition.
  • LAROUCHE EVOKES FEAR IN VA. TOWN WITH THE CANDIDATE CAME GUNS AND HIS BODYGUARDS Rex Springston. Richmond Times - Dispatch. Richmond, Va.: Apr 4, 1986. pg. 1
• Klenetsky knows people laugh at LaRouche's claim that Queen Elizabeth II is involved in the drug trade, but he's quite content to explain it in detail, and wrap Weld up in the same package.
  • LOOKING AT THE WORLD AS LYNDON LAROUCHE SEES IT; HIS ENEMIES LIST AN ECLECTIC MIX; [THIRD Edition] Thomas Oliphant, Globe Staff. Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: Apr 6, 1986. pg. 24
• Any poor sod who slogs through a U.S. airport terminal these days is familiar with a group of college-age students who from a makeshift table shout slogans at the weary traveller. They are very aggressive and quite abusive, armed with banners and painted signs demanding greater funds for the Pentagon. What has mildly interested this slogger-through-airports is that they seem about the same age and the same type - humorless, demanding - in each airport and, well, why aren't these kids at work or in school? The answer is that they are followers of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., the nut candidate for president and quite the current phenomenon of American politics, which throws up a lot of screwballs.
  • Way-out candidate is hard to believe. Allan Fotheringham, Southam news. The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont.: Apr 8, 1986. pg. A.8
• The Leesburg Garden Club, according to Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr., is a nest of Soviet fellow travelers, and its members are clacking busybodies in this Soviet jellyfish front, sitting here in Leesburg oozing out their funny little propaganda and making nuisances of themselves.At first Leesburg laughed. But if residents laugh now, they look over their shoulders first.
  • SMALL TOWN IN VIRGINIA TENSE HOST TO LaROUCHE MATTHEW L. WALD, Special to the New York Times. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: Apr 11, 1986. pg. A.14
• Having children is virtually forbidden among the hard-core members. Pregnancy slows down production. Children divert attention and cause a change in values. So members are coerced into having abortions. That's funny in a way because the LaRouchites have been trying to ingratiate themselves with right- to-life organizations by saying they are against abortion.
  • FOR LAROUCHITES, IT'S ALL A HOAX; [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Mike Royko. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext). Chicago, Ill.: Apr 14, 1986. pg. 3
• Because what he did was so stupid, Frank doesn't want his real name used. He's afraid that his friends will laugh at him, and he's probably right. Frank is one of the growing number of gullible people who are now admitting that they were fleeced for big money by the LaRouchites.
  • HE'S GOT PRINCIPLE BUT LITTLE INTEREST; [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Mike Royko. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext). Chicago, Ill.: Apr 29, 1986. pg. 3
• Lyndon LaRouche is no joke. One theory is that two of his followers won in this spring's Illinois primary because of voter disinterest. According to another view, the outcome reflected popular support for LaRouche's ideas, some of which are so bizarre as to inspire uneasy chortles.
  • Exposing Lyndon LaRouche to public view; [METRO Edition] Minneapolis Star and Tribune. Minneapolis, Minn.: Jun 2, 1986. pg. 08.A
• In last spring's primary, because no one was paying attention, candidates from Lyndon LaRouche's not-so-funny farm of political extremists beat the Democratic organization's candidates for lieutenant governor and secretary of state.
  • Politics Illinois-style: the wimp versus the liar; [FIN Edition] George F. Will. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jul 17, 1986. pg. A.19
• From all over the country, reports are coming in about elderly people who mistakenly believed they were loaning money because the fast-talking LaRouchites convinced them America was in danger of financial collapse, or drug pushers were taking over the world, or the Russians were coming and the LaRouchites were going to fight them off. It's now clear that for years the LaRouchites have been operating a multi-million dollar con game. What makes it almost funny is that most of the victims were political conservatives who didn't have the faintest idea that their money was being funneled to Lyndon LaRouche, who was once a great admirer of Joe Stalin.
  • LAROUCHITES TEST POSITIVE FOR FLEECE; [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Mike Royko. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext). Chicago, Ill.: Jul 25, 1986. pg. 3
• Other issues of New Solidarity published last week attacked the state's Roman Catholic bishops-who strongly oppose Proposition 64-for aligning with "the degraded homosexual culture so pervasive in California" and made a vulgar joke about gays receiving Communion at a Catholic mass in West Hollywood, a city with a high percentage of gay residents.
  • Paper Tied to LaRouche Attacks Gay Movement; [Home Edition] KEVIN RODERICK. Los Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext). Los Angeles, Calif.: Oct 6, 1986. pg. 21]
• Often, the tactic is simply to skewer their foes in LaRouche's many publications. For instance, in 1980 a call went over the group's national teletype for jokes about President Carter and Senator Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that could get the LaRouche presidential campaign some publicity.
  • Raid Stirs Reports of LaRouche's Dark Side; [FINAL Edition] Kevin Roderick, Los Angeles Times. San Francisco Chronicle (pre-1997 Fulltext). San Francisco, Calif.: Oct 14, 1986. pg. 1
• Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche was the subject of seemingly countless jokes recently at a Los Angeles fund-raising dinner organized to help defeat Proposition 64, the LaRouche-sponsored AIDS quarantine measure on tomorrow's ballot. Some people think he may have been the subject of too many jokes. Politicians on both sides of the initiative see a danger in focusing on LaRouche rather than debating the public-health aspects of the proposition. The proposition calls for all people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome to be quarantined and would prohibit all carriers of the AIDS virus, whether or not it is active in them, from holding jobs as food-handlers and from working at or attending schools. Sen. Pete Wilson, R-Calif, an early opponent of the proposition, warned the dinner crowd: "We cannot laugh this man off. He and his henchmen have qualified ... an evil measure (for the ballot)."
  • AIDS initiative talk centers on LaRouche; [1,2,3,4,5,6 Edition] Gerry Braun. The San Diego Union. San Diego, Calif.: Nov 3, 1986. pg. A.3
• In her colorful campaign, [Sheila] Jones has arrived in disguise and revealed her identity midway through debates to which she has not been invited, has marched on media organizations that do not include her name in opinion polls and has held news conferences during which she and her supporters make jokes at the expense of the reporters in attendance.
  • LAROUCHIE DEMANDS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY; [SPORTS FINAL, C Edition] Cheryl Devall. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext). Chicago, Ill.: Feb 16, 1987. pg. 5
• In spring 1985, a LaRouche group deluged Loudoun with leaflets that attacked Ms. Harrison and other foes of its plans to open a sumer youth camp that critics feared would become a paramilitary facility. It wrote: "All of these persons . . . are part of a highly organized nest of Soviet fellow travelers . . . and all have allied themselves knowingly with persons and organizations which are part of the international drug lobby." "My friends burst out laughing from these extreme statements," Ms. Harrison recalled. "I had to say, 'It is funny, isn't it?' But he didn't go to this trouble to be funny. That's what bothered me."
  • LAROUCHE FOES IN LOUDOUN HOPE FOR CONVICTION United Press International. Richmond Times - Dispatch. Richmond, Va.: Oct 12, 1987. pg. B-2
• One needn't deprecate the intelligence or sincerity of these widespread legions in noting a similarity to the early days of Hitlerism. Their number, though probably under 5,000, is perhaps greater than the number of committed Nazis around Hitler at a time his candidates for the Reischtag were still deemed a joke. Their tactics -- the Big Lie, as in the Dukakis rumor, and their readiness for violent confrontation -- are strikingly similar. In Lyndon LaRouche, they have a leader every bit as unprincipled and as muddle- headed as the fuhrer. Indeed, LaRouche has produced his own version of "Mein Kampf" -- a rambling autobiography written in 1978 and oddly entitled "The Power of Reason."
  • LaRouche gang thrives on Big Lie; [1,2,3,4,5 Edition] LIONEL VAN DEERLIN. The Tribune. San Diego, Calif.: Aug 9, 1988. pg. B.7

• DEAR MR. ANSWER-IT-ALL: I'm thoroughly depressed by this whole election here in Orange County. The candidates are boring, the issues non-existent. It's so sad. Can you find anything humorous in this fall's campaign? -- MOROSE IN MISSION VIEJO
• DEAR MOROSE: Humor? Are you kidding MR. ANSWER-IT-All? For humor you need look no farther than Orange County's 39th Congressional District where MR. ANSWER-IT-ALL's favorite congressman, "Dynamite" Bill Dannemeyer is running against Don Marquis, a follower of Lyndon LaRouche. In other words, we have a congressman who believes that AIDS is spread by spores running against a man who believes the Queen of England is at the center of the worldwide drug conspiracy. After three or four bottles of the Chateau Neuf de Cote de La Habra Pinot Noir 1988, MR. ANSWER-IT-ALL is sure you'll see the humor too.
  • Answer man gives it to you straight; [EVENING Edition] Bob Emmers:The Register. Orange County Register. Santa Ana, Calif.: Oct 24, 1988. pg. B.01
• For his part, Stretton acknowledged that a major reason he entered the May 15 primary was to deny the Democratic nomination to Hadley. Stretton said in March that "Hadley has expressed a number of views that clearly place him as the man from 'cuckoo-land.' " "Although laughable," Stretton said, "one should also realize that his LaRouchian views are fascist in nature and the LaRouchian philosophy has strong anti-Semitic undertones. There is nothing funny or acceptable about this man's run for Congress and any of his followers."
  • A LAROUCHE CANDIDATE RETURNS Frederick Cusick. Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pa.: May 6, 1990. pg. C.4
• LaRouche said the ADL is out to destroy his organization, wrongly perceiving it as antisemitic. He cited a document written after victories by two LaRouche candidates in 1986 Illinois primaries, called "Portrait of a Political Extremist." "The red-dye trace of the ADL's influence is {the repetition of} `political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche' as if it were something on my birth certificate," he fumed. On cross-examination, Senior Assistant Attorney General John B. Russell Jr. accused LaRouche of engaging in the same sort of campaign to destroy the ADL." "They accuse me of being a wild conspiracy theorist," LaRouche replied. "The ADL is involved in a wilder conspiracy than even we have . . . . To me and my friends, that is good gallows humor," he said.
  • Lyndon LaRouche Leaves Prison to Testify for Fund-Raiser. Alison Howard. The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext). Washington, D.C.: May 24, 1990. pg. a.42
• Clark and other lawyers who signed a friend-of-the-court brief contend that a 77-year sentence, if carried out, "would mark the end of political freedom in America," Billington said. After all, Ivan Boesky the junk bond king, got only three years. Billington finds black humor in his predicament. He showed a specially made T-shirt that says, "I survived the great Leesburg panty raid."
  • Convicted LaRouche aide won't renounce his leader. THOMAS J. BRAZAITIS, PLAIN DEALER REPORTER. The Plain Dealer. Cleveland, Ohio: Jul 5, 1991.

• And while Virginia's press and political establishment may dismiss [Nancy Spannaus] as the longest of long shots and laugh off her ideas as loopy, they cannot, in good conscience, simply ignore her.
  • AUDIENCE AT GUBERNATORIAL DEBATE WON'T HEAR ALL SIDES; [FINAL Edition] Earl Swift. Virginian - Pilot. Norfolk, Va.: Jul 9, 1993. pg. D.1
• SHEILA JONES, LaRouche Gubernatorial Candidate: When the Democratic Party decided to join in putting in bondage the American people and I'm not talking about losing just jobs, but actually putting, NAFTA is, there are secret accords that place the United States Congress, the United States President under the dictatorship of the International Monetary Fund and GATT. They now need a scapegoat and the scapegoat is the LaRouche movement. However, the population is not amused.
• DEVALL: And neither are the Illinois Democrats who learned the hard way not to laugh at a group they once regarded as a political joke. In Chicago, I'm Cheryl Devall reporting.
  • LYNDON LAROUCHE SUPPORTERS RUNNING AGAIN IN ILLINOIS All Things Considered. Washington, D.C.: Jan 28, 1994. pg. 1
• [Sheila Smith, Democratic candidate for Illinois lieutenant governor] said LaRouche backers have "weird, almost funny ideas," such as a push to colonize Mars and accusations that the Queen of England is a drug trafficker. But "there's nothing funny" about other platforms such as their "conspiracy-driven rhetoric," she added.
  • Koehler asks for investigation of LaHood's campaign finances; [M1,M2 Edition] BERNARD SCHOENBURG STAFF WRITER. State Journal Register. Springfield, Ill.: Feb 11, 1994. pg. 11

• But LaRouche recently finished his prison term. And now they are back. Once again his chattels have managed to get into the Democratic primary for all of the major state offices, and many local spots. And once again, Illinois has a chance to become a national joke. Well, I don't want to again take calls from snickering reporters around the country, asking me to explain our stupidity.
  • THEY'RE BACK AND LOOKING FOR DUPES; [NORTH SPORTS FINAL Edition] Mike Royko.. Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext). Chicago, Ill.: Mar 11, 1994. pg. 3
• [the Schiller Institue] also reared its venomous head in November when it chose to mark the 55th anniversay of Kristallnacht (the so-called night of broken glass which gave German Jews intimations of the Holocaust that was to follow) by leafleting homes in Newton because "that's where the Jews are." Sure, it is easy to dismiss these folks as simple lunatics and to laugh at their bizarre allegations. But the spreading of hatred should never be a laughing matter.
  • Op Ed Haters on campus: All for a fee; [03 Edition] Rachelle G. Cohen. Boston Herald. Boston, Mass.: Jun 24, 1994. pg. 027

• Such perverse sentiments have been exacerbated by a series of articles suggesting a new suspect in the Oklahoma bombing last April in which 168 people were killed. According to the latest edition of the New Federalist, a journal that has been dropping on people's front lawns in Washington in the past few days, the bombing was not carried out by the right-wing militias as everyone suspected: it was part of a conspiracy involving Buckingham Palace. According to the journal put out by Lyndon LaRouche in jail for tax fraud the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh are behind a European effort to destabilise the Clinton presidency and it is they who have created the climate of distrust and division in America. The one merit of such journals is their occasional ability to amuse.
  • Queen blamed for American unrest;Inside Washington. James Adams. The Times. London (UK): Jul 30, 1995. pg. 1

• Tonight's CBS Evening News and 48 Hours show Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh talking to his lawyer in Denver on Wednesday. Tonight at 10 ET/PT, Hours and ABC's Turning Point also look at the anniversary of the bombing. But the shows that precede each newsmag -- so-called "lead-ins" that can affect the next show's ratings -- couldn't be more different. Point's is a comedy clip show: Who Makes You Laugh? Hours' is decidedly drier fare: a paid half-hour with Democratic presidential candidate Lyndon LaRouche talking about U.S. foreign policy. "It's not exactly what I would have chosen," muses Hours producer Catherine Lasiewicz.
  • NBC spells out format for cable news channel; [FINAL Edition] Peter Johnson. USA TODAY (pre-1997 Fulltext). McLean, Va.: Apr 18, 1996. pg. 03.D
• There's not a Frank Lloyd Wright urn so priceless as the image of David Brennan reportedly phoning Jim Thompson Monday night, and asking him to cut off Tom Donovan at the knees. After all, it's Donovan who put Thompson on the CBOT board. Raw ineptitude hasn't given Big Jim a laugh this big since the Lyndon LaRouche slate derailed Adlai Stevenson's gubernatorial bid in 1986.
  • NOT A KERNEL OF WISDOM IN CBOT COUP BID; [CHICAGOLAND FINAL Edition] David Greising. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: Apr 16, 1999. pg. 1
• LYNDON LaRouche's followers had a table set up in Hallidie Plaza on Thursday, and one pamphlet had a picture of our vice president with the headline "The Pure Evil of Al Gore." I had a good laugh, but then I got back to the office and read that Gore had just said, through a spokeswoman, that "localities should have the right to teach creationism." This isn't pure evil, of course. It's pure stupidity, cowardice and pandering in an attempt to get a few votes. But it's coming from a man who claims to be a leader in the field of environmentalism, which is supposed to be related to science.
  • Tree hugger turns Garden hugger; [SECOND Edition] ROB MORSE, EXAMINER COLUMNIST. San Francisco Examiner. San Francisco, Calif.: Aug 27, 1999. pg. A.2
• Don't stare . . .
• OK, there are approximately 2.7 million people in Chicago -- almost as many as in the entire state of Iowa -- so you might see some strange-looking people. This is especially true if you're near the NBC Tower when a Jerry Springer show is taping -- or by the Wrigley Building when one of those Lyndon LaRouche goofs with a loudspeaker is at full volume. Don't gawk, point or laugh out loud -- because then you are inviting attention. Do like regular Chicagoans: Keep walking and look straight ahead with a blank expression (it's amazing how much you can see with peripheral vision).
  • A VISITOR'S GUIDE TO A PLACE WE CALL HOME BE PREPARED TO HAVE A GOOD TIME --BUT WATCH OUT FOR THOSE CARDINAL FANS; [Chicagoland Final Edition] Mike Conklin, Tribune staff writer. Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Ill.: May 7, 2000. pg. 1
• [Roger] Ham, who also works at Schiller Institute, recalled Ferguson reciting all of Shakespeare's sonnets from memory while the two were campaigning for LaRouche in New Hampshire in 1988. But Ham said Ferguson has a sense of humor that shows itself through witty puns and jokes. Ferguson's wife, Cloret, said her husband once dressed up in a baby diaper and a white wig to mimic Newt Gingrich, who was visiting Massachusetts. "He's pretty courageous," said Cloret, who married Ferguson in January. "I don't know how many men would dress up in a diaper and a white wig and have a baby bottle in the middle of November. He's that kind of person."
  • William Ferguson; [SOUTH* Edition] Karen Eschbacher. The Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Mass.: Aug 23, 2001. pg. 1
• Post-mortem logic: Ferguson's forecasts of global economic collapse draw raised eyebrows from his debate opponents. But a comment he made during a debate in Braintree this week drew some laughs: "What good does it do to have the right to sue an HMO if they've already killed you?" he asked.
  • HEARD in the HALLS; [RUN OF PAPER Edition 2] Linda Shepherd. The Patriot Ledger. Quincy, Mass.: Sep 1, 2001. pg. 12

• In the section "Defying Conventions," Krassner describes how he became the recipient of other people's paranoia. In 1981, knucklehead reactionary (and perpetual presidential hopeful) Lyndon LaRouche published a dossier claiming that Krassner, Burroughs, Bruce and Norman Mailer were recruited by British intelligence's chief brainwashing facility, the Tavistock Institute. Their alleged mission was to deride laws, morality and decency with smut peddled in the name of humor and creative expression.
  • Book Review; A Counterculture Figure Invokes the Spirit of Days Long Gonzo; [HOME EDITION] TONY PEYSER. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, Calif.: Jul 11, 2002. pg. E.2
• LaRouche refuses to go away. Although a minor party might offer a friendlier reception, LaRouche insists on running as a Democrat. He says he is in good health for his age and jokes that there are probably Democrats who wish he weren't.
  • LaRouche; [Final Edition] SHARON THEIMER. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wis.: May 4, 2003. pg. 14.A
• [Howard] Dean appeared loose during the day, cracking dry political jokes about Lyndon LaRouche Jr. with UW-Madison students and chugging a flagon of cream soda at the Sprecher Brewery in Glendale.
  • A disappointed Dean keeps supporters guessing about campaign's future; [Final Edition] GRAEME ZIELINSKI. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Milwaukee, Wis.: Feb 18, 2004. pg. 13.A

• The downtown Boston Sheraton, where New Mexico Democrats stayed, had a near carnival atmosphere, with delegates, party officials and even protesters from the Lyndon LaRouche campaign milling about and merchants hawking humorous anti-Bush paraphernalia.
  • SECURITY ULTRA-TIGHT AT GOP AFFAIR, STEVE TERRELL, PHOTO: KNIGHT RIDDER TRIBUNE. The Santa Fe New Mexican. Santa Fe, N.M.: Aug 31, 2004. pg. A.1
• The last thing this country needs is a president void of a sense of humor, and Kerry is fast establishing himself as the most inherently dour candidate this side of the notoriously cheerless Lyndon LaRouche.
  • St. Paddy's breakfast could help Kerry lighten up; [All Editions] JOE FITZGERALD. Boston Herald. Boston, Mass.: Mar 17, 2004. pg. 008

Singing staffers praise LaRouche [..] A group of 30 to 40 LaRouche-ites marched through the second level of the Sheraton Boston on Thursday morning as Democrats were scurrying between meetings and caucuses. The LaRouche bunch carried banners for their man, passed out copies of LaRouche's A Real Democratic Platform for Nov. 2004, all while singing a spooky- sounding but moving multiharmony song. One member said the melody was that of a Mozart piece, but the lyrics were written for the cause:

"Dubious is the convention/If LaRouche you fail to mention. As long as you deny as truth/that this economy is doomed/You lie/We die "

The group marched out of the hotel, stopping near the entrance to sing more songs -- including a version of We Shall Overcome with verses insulting John Kerry and Vice President Dick Cheney.

— CONVENTION NOTEBOOK STEVE TERRELL. The Santa Fe New Mexican. Santa Fe, N.M.: Jul 30, 2004. pg. A.7

• It's easy to laugh at him and the whole "beast-man" thing, but maybe we should also keep an eye on him. In today's curious political climate, any damn thing is possible, and the dark Stephen Spender-Richard Mellon Scaife conspiracy may yet prevail.
  • JON CARROLL; [FINAL Edition] Jon Carroll. San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, Calif.: Jul 30, 2004. pg. E.24

Members

Numbers

In the late 1960s, LaRouche attracted a small group of followers who attended his Greenwich Village lectures on Marxist economics, associates said. LaRouche was known as an inspired Marxist theoretician at a time when other groups in the New Left were more given to street action. His group of about 100 believed its ideas alone could liberate the working class, and they said it would win state power in a matter of years, ex-members said.

— Ideological Odyssey: From Old Left to Far Right By John Mintz Washington Post Staff Writer January 14, 1985 [1]

Earlier, Edward Spannaus, treasurer of the LaRouche organization, said allegations that LaRouche-related organizations encouraged supporters or members to turn over personal savings were the work of the drug lobby. He would not say how much money LaRouche organizations raise and spend each year, but he said they supportted a payroll of 250 employees.

— LAROUCHE TACTICS PROVOKE DISPUTE, AP, New York Times, Apr 27, 1986

The New York-based group, estimated by various law enforcement agencies to have from 700 to 1,000 hard-core members nationwide, is known for its militancy, authoritarian internal structure, and the almost messianic zeal of its followers.

— Far-out leftist woos conservatives

By 2003, recruitment was successful enough to receive LaRouche's own enthusiastic approval."Give me 1,000 youth leaders like these," he announced that year, "and I'll take over the country."

That goal may have been a little optimistic. The figure of 1,000 new members has not been mentioned in a while. But the movement’s Web site now lists contact information for 21 cities.

— The LaRouche Youth Movement July 11, 2007 By Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed [2]

LaRouche ran for president several times, but Fairchild said LaRouche just turned 85 and is still pushing policies, has 300 full-time organizers in the United States and offices in at least a dozen countries, but is not seeking the presidency because of his age.

— LaRouche follower returns to Capitol; Mark Fairchild pushes for ban on home foreclosures BERNARD SCHOENBURG. State Journal Register. Springfield, Ill.: Nov 2, 2007. pg. 5

When asked specific questions about LaRouche PAC being in Harwood Heights, Spannaus said by e-mail she did not know the answers.

"LaRouche PAC policy is to use our First Amendment rights to organize for a solution out of the current crisis, wherever that can be done, and we have upwards of 100 members nationally who do that daily," Spannaus said.

— LaRouche PAC local protest to Obama's health care plan October 5, 2009 By CRAIG A. WHITNEY Norridge Harwood Heights-News [3]

"Golden souls"

U.S. Labor Party Executive, Costas Kalimtgis addressed the work of the understanding of human development. "The Muslims go into the worst hellholes of society to prove that even tarnished souls are capable of becoming golden souls," he explained. "We are fighting to see if reason will prevail in this society, or if it will be like ancient Rome. Look at San Francisco today," said Kalimtgis. "It is what ancient Rome looked like, with processions of homosexuals, castrated priests, Isis cult worshippers, people with no souls. A society whose only contribution is bestiality. And this is a plot!\\ "Human history is characterized by the struggle between humanists and the oligarchs," he said, introducing the Jones cult as an example of the latter. "Organized crime is a British operation against the U.S. Why does Kennedy support decriminalization? Look at Senator Jackson - he has all Zionist, organized-crime support. If you find a politician who is against progress, for the cults, this person is usually supported by the Zionist Lobby and the dope trade. We have to form an ecumenical movement that brings together all those forces around the world who believe in human progress. ... Man has a soul whose essence is perfection. And man is immortal to the extent he develops his soul to perfect the species. Perfection is human essence."

— USLP, Muslims At Seattle Anti-Drug Forum, New Solidarity, dec. 8, 1978 by Susan Schoonover

LaRouche's followers denounce every critic-prosecutors, politicians, people at the airport who disagree with them-as cretins, communists, traitors or homosexuals. They believe the world is in danger of imminent collapse for any number of reasons, which vary-nuclear war, global starvation, and lately AIDS. They think LaRouche is the planet's only chance for survival-and people must be crazed not to accept him.

"Your parents are fundamentally immoral," LaRouche told members in an internal bulletin several years ago. "You are moral despite them . . . . The people of the United States are not morally fit to survive . . . . Everything your parents say is evil-they are like lepers, morally and intellectually insane."

"We represent the only efficient moral, intellectual and political force capable of saving human civilization." LaRouche echoes this notion in his 1979 autobiography, in which he describes his followers as the world's "golden souls," and the rest of humanity as "the poor donkeys, the poor sheep, whose consciousness is dominated by the infantile world-outlook of individual sensuous life." LaRouche continually describes the world as oozing with lasciviousness and sexual depravity.

This contemptuous view of non-members, and grandiose thinking about their own historical mission, is at the root of the criminal charges facing them, former members and law enforcement officials say.

— Inside the Weird World of Lyndon LaRouche John Mintz. The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext). Washington, D.C.: Sep 20, 1987. pg. c.01

For many of his 200 to 500 followers, a jail term for LaRouche could provoke a major reassessment of their loyalty to a man who repeatedly has told them they were morally superior and who created the impression that he and they were immune from criminal prosecution, former members said. "I think it's an important turning point for a number of members who have already suppressed doubts," said one former member who asked not to be identified. "You either split or you circle the wagons tighter and become a true believer.

"These people think they're morally superior; it was discussed openly inside the organization," he recalled, adding that LaRouche used to tell his members they were "golden souls," a term he borrowed from Socrates. But the Friday verdict has caused a ripple through the organization.

— LaRouche's Conviction May Change Organization Caryle Murphy. The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext). Washington, D.C.: Dec 18, 1988. pg. b.03

This appeared to be standard Marxist doctrine, but LaRouche added his own unique twist: The members of the revolutionary party must be intellectually of a superior breed—a philosophical elite as well as a political vanguard. In the following years this innovation became more and more important in his thinking, and he broke completely with Marxism. He began to portray his philosophical elite as the forerunners of a biological-cultural master race, which he called the "golden souls" after Plato's aristocratic usage. They would rise to power, he taught, by championing the interests of industrial capitalism.

— King, Dennis, Lyndon LaRouche and the New American Fascism., "Chapter One: Makings of an Ideologue" Doubleday 1989

The Grand Design was based, like his plan for triggering the debt bomb, on an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. LaRouche claimed that the world is dominated by a Zionist oligarchy—a cabal of international usurers—with headquarters in London. In The Power of Reason he stated that he was fighting to restore sovereignty to the United States and other key nations so they could "rid our planet" of this oligarchy, so that mankind could create the social conditions for the next step in evolution: the super race of "golden souls." LaRouche said that creating this super race was the true objective of his life.

— King. "Chapter Seven: The Grand Design"

LaRouche describes this process using terms from Plato's Republic, in which society is composed of an ascending scale of bronze, silver, and golden souls. But his ideas are very different from Plato's. To LaRouche the bronze soul is a sensuous donkeylike wretch (or worse). To Plato the bronze soul was an upright moral citizen whose role was to build the wealth of society through craftsmanship and commerce. To LaRouche the silver soul is someone who has begun to accept political leadership from LaRouche or at least has developed an "organic" humanism parallel to LaRouche's (e.g., South Africa's white rulers). To Plato the silver soul was not defined by his ideology but by his specific function and talents--he was a member of the warrior class. To LaRouche the golden souls are himself and those few lieutenants of his who have fully assimilated his intellectual method--the so-called "hypothesis of the higher hypothesis." To Plato the golden souls were the philosopher-statesmen who took care of government affairs and studied higher ethical and metaphysical principles to guide them in their work. These principles, as expressed by Socrates in Plato's dialogues, have little in common with LaRouche's ideology. Plato never theorized about a hypothesis of the higher hypothesis. Nor did he regard his philosopher-kings as a biologically superior race.

[..]

When LaRouche begins to talk about specific ethnic groups, his humanist devotion to raising bronze souls out of their bestial mire suddenly disappears--apparently because they so stubbornly resist the values of his would-be golden souls. He adopts instead a relentless racism fit more for a master race than idealistic shepherds. For instance, the Chinese are a "paranoid" people who share, with "lower forms of animal life," a "fundamental distinction from actually human personalities." American blacks who insist on equal rights are obsessed with distinctions that "would be proper to the classification of varieties of monkeys and baboons." Puerto Ricans are intellectually impotent representatives of a culture based on "'macho' pathology" and crazed blood oaths. Italians, also impotent, are obsessed with churches, whorehouses, and "images of the Virgin Mary" (whose "goddamn smile" LaRouche would like to remove from public view by closing Italy's churches). Irish-Americans are representatives of a backward Catholic "ethnic piggishness" and are responsible for a "hideous mind-and-body-eroding orgy of fertility." Tribal peoples, as in Brazil's Amazon Basin, have a "likeness to a lower beast."

— King. "Chapter Thirty: The War Between the Species"

When LaRouche touts his followers as "neo-Platonic" theorists, most people aren't aware that in The Republic, Plato outlined his view of a political system in which only a handful of enlightened "Golden Souls" would be allowed to participate in societal decisionmaking. While this was certainly a step forward from imperial dictatorship and rule by fiat, it is hardly a step forward for a participatory democracy. LaRouche, incidently, has said his followers are "Golden Souls."

[..]

According to Dennis King, it is LaRouche's belief that his enemies are subhuman and his followers superhuman which makes "LaRouche more than a political fascist, but a neo- Nazi." King, whose book on LaRouche is slated for publication in 1989, adds that "people afraid of that characterization should sit down and read his ideological writings. LaRouche talks about the existence of two parasitic species descended from Babylonian culture, the British-Jewish and Russian-Orthodox species, then there are the subhuman masses, then humanity represented by LaRouche and his followers, the Golden Souls, and then a new superhuman race which will evolve from the Golden Souls. It really is pure Nazism," says King.

— Fascism Wrapped in an American Flag by Chip Berlet and Joel Bellman March 10th, 1989 A Political Research Associates Briefing Paper

When LaRouche turned right in the mid-'70s, he did not move toward conservatism. He went directly to European fascism and Nazism, which he blended with American populism and technocracy. LaRouche abandoned Marx's theory of history for that of the Protocols of lion and of proto- Nazi theoreticians Alfred Rosenberg and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. At its heart was a stark vision of good and evil: LaRouche and his followers were "golden souls" or supermen, and the Jews, with their British allies, the evil "oligarchy" that must be destroyed. In the confines of the NCLC office, the La- Rouchians joked about incinerating Jews. ("How manyjews can you fit into a Volkswagen?" NCLC members would ask. "One hundred. Four on the seats and ninety-six in the ashtray.")

— Judis, John, "The Making of a Madman", MAY 29, 1989 THE NEW REPUBLIC p.35

In 1987 LaRouche revised his 1979 Power of Reason: A Kind of Autobiography as The Power of Reason, 1988: An Autobiography, which he drafted to inform readers about his ideas during the 1988 presidential race. In the introduction to the book, LaRouche states, "My purpose is to present my development as I would recommend a biography of Mozart be written, or the biography of any other notable historical figure. My purpose is to show the mainspring of my behavior, to present what might otherwise be regarded as my innermost secret." An earlier version of the autobiography, entitled The Power of Reason: A Kind of Autobiography, discusses his goal of ushering in an age of "golden souls," a super-race of philosophically superior people. In essays appearing in periodicals affiliated with the NCLC and in various media statements, LaRouche has claimed the existence of conspiracies against him and his followers by various organizations including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the former Soviet government, the British monarchy, and the International Monetary Fund.

— August 15, 2002 Contemporary Authors Online biography, Lyndon H(ermyle) LaRouche, Jr. 1922- , Nationality: American Source: Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2002.

In one of his autobiographies, LaRouche explains that his mission is to create what Plato called “golden souls” – fit to rule those of us of a more silver or even bronze hue. His quest to do so began among students on college campuses 40 years ago. Members of the inner core of his organization have long since qualified to join the AARP. LaRouche himself is now 85 years old. And yet it is clear that he remains ready, willing, and able to serve as philosopher-king for the entire planet, given half a chance.

— The LaRouche Youth Movement July 11, 2007 By Scott McLemee Inside Higher Ed [4]