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Is Ron Paul the New Lyndon LaRouche?
Commentary Magazine ^ | 1/5/2012 | Michael Rubin

Posted on 01/15/2012 11:28:12 PM PST by Republican Wildcat

Lyndon LaRouche was a prolific writer who developed a cult-like following and eight times, between 1976 and 2004, sought the presidency, seven times for the Democratic ticket. He wrote and spoke often about the economy and spun wild conspiracy theories. For example, he said Queen Elizabeth was a drug dealer. The Nation’s Bob Dreyfuss, a LaRouche acolyte who dedicated his first book to his former boss and had it published by LaRouche’s publisher, argued in it that Bernard Lewis, perhaps the most influential living historian of the Middle East, was a nefarious force behind Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

LaRouche achieved a particularly loyal following among college students. He anchored enough of his writing in fact that the 30 percent or so that was pure bunk became, for the gullible or willingly blind, believable. His writings adhered to the idea that falsehoods spoken with conviction and precision became credible. Like Ron Paul, he certainly was consistent in his willingness to believe the worst motivations of government officials or his opponents. While LaRouche reached the pinnacle of his influence in the pre-internet age, he managed to spread his conspiracies not only through teaching classes, but also through myriad pamphlets, leaflets, and newspapers. LaRouche is still around, of course, but a conviction for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and tax code violations has undercut his credibility among the young and disaffected enough so that he has returned to purely marginal status.

Into the vacuum left by LaRouche came Ron Paul. Without doubt, some of what Paul says makes sense. Americans are concerned with tremendous government waste and the intrusion of nanny-state governance into our daily lives. But, on foreign policy and defense, Paul supplements his isolationism with the same mold of conspiracy as LaRouche. Many of “the Bush lied, Americans died, Cheney led a secret cabal” conspiracies which Paul’s followers—if not Dr. Paul himself—seize upon have their origins with LaRouche acolytes like Dreyfuss or former Pentagon official and congressional candidate Karen Kwiatkowski, who seemingly hopped from the LaRouche bandwagon to Paul’s. Paul may not publish so many newsletters any more—with good reason—but his followers have certainly taken full advantage of cyberspace to connect imaginary dots and weave creative conspiracies that put the old LaRouchites and even Maxine Waters to shame.

The Iowa Caucus results suggest Paul has peaked. Good conspiracies never die, however. Paul has become the Lyndon LaRouche of the 21st century, an increasingly marginal figure with a disproportionately poisonous and vocal following, one which will never win elections, but will satisfy itself by spinning wild conspiracy theories and trolling comments pages on internet news sites for decades to come.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 911truther; freepers4mitt; larouche; larouchies; libertarians; lyndonlarouche; randpaultruthfile; ronpaul; ronpaulbashing; ronpaultruthfile; rupaul; skinheadkeywords; smellthefear
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To: driftless2; RKBA Democrat; mkjessup; trisham; onyx
Here you go ;) And thank you driftless2 for the idea :D



41 posted on 01/16/2012 9:24:05 AM PST by Bikkuri
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To: Republican Wildcat

LaRouche’s movement is alive and well and six members of his organization are running for US Senate. People on FR have strong views about LaRouche without ever reading a word he or his organization wrote. He is the one who popularized the image of Obama with a Hitler moustache. Anyone here who has the intellectual integrity to research source material rather than the flap jawed puppetry of ideological hacks can do so with the click of a mouse button here:

http://www.larouchepac.com/
http://21stcenturysciencetech.com/
http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/contents.htm#global
http://wlym.com/pages/campaigners70-76.html
http://www.larouchepub.com/
http://american_almanac.tripod.com/leiblock.htm
http://wlym.com/tiki/tiki-index.php
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/
http://www.larouchepub.com/search.html
http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/search.htm
http://www.schillerinstitute.org/about/site_map.html#search


42 posted on 01/16/2012 9:31:33 AM PST by Yollopoliuhqui
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To: ncalburt
I am not a Paulbot. I just don't believe that he is a complete loon.

Nor am I an anti-semite or am I anti-Israel.

You anti-paulbots need to work on your propaganda. Make it a bit more sophisticated and effective.

Merely repeating the same memes over and over doesn't really work that much anymore.

43 posted on 01/16/2012 9:54:00 AM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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44 posted on 01/16/2012 10:09:09 AM PST by TheOldLady (FReepmail me to get ON or OFF the ZOT LIGHTNING ping list)
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To: Bikkuri

That’s actually pretty well done. The RuPaul reference, though, I think is lost on a lot of folks. I had to look it up.

I like the creativity. Don’t agree with the theme of course, but propaganda should be of good quality.


45 posted on 01/16/2012 10:24:36 AM PST by RKBA Democrat (The party of Liberty - The GOP. Join today!!)
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To: RKBA Democrat

Had to make sure they didn’t take it seriously ;)


46 posted on 01/16/2012 12:05:43 PM PST by Bikkuri
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To: Bikkuri

“Had to make sure they didn’t take it seriously ;)”

That’s true. There are a few people who would. Thanks again for the chuckle.


47 posted on 01/16/2012 4:20:11 PM PST by RKBA Democrat (The party of Liberty - The GOP. Join today!!)
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To: Bikkuri

Ha,ha, thanks, great decal. I’d like to put it on my car, but I have a son-in-law who’s a big Paul supporter. He might not appreciate it. He’s an excellent son-in-law by the way, but politically naive.


48 posted on 01/17/2012 6:06:39 AM PST by driftless2
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To: driftless2

My pleasure ;) Just stick it in a spot he would never see ;) or remember to pull it off when he’s around :D

I am still naive in many areas.. learning something new every day... I was calling my father (God rest his soul) when I was 30-35 years old asking him to explain something dealing with politics.. and I have a ways to go before understanding as much as we all should.

Take care, my FRiend :)


49 posted on 01/17/2012 7:29:12 AM PST by Bikkuri
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To: Eleutheria5

Larouche turns 93 today.


50 posted on 09/08/2015 12:22:04 PM PDT by Borges
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