LAROUCHE’S NEW DEAL

In Trenton and throughout many cities, one encounters devotees of the perennial political candidate, Lyndon LaRouche of Leesburg Virginia. He has served time in prison and run for president of the Untied States and proclaims through his political action committee positions on the environment, the economy, education, and whatever topic gets his confused attention.

Now he is declaring that the old economics is dead, and a new one is needed. He has urged the forced retirement of Vice President Cheney and that we put George Bush under “compassionate care.” If we don’t, we will have a war spreading across the Middle East and also the worst financial crisis since the Dark Ages. He is critical of every president since the death of McKinley and regards Teddy Roosevelt as the nephew of a Confederate traitor. And he sees Woodrow Wilson as an advocate of the Ku Klux Klan. Only with the inauguration of Franklin D. Roosevelt did a president challenge the corrupt clique centered in London and Wall Street.

Like many commentator, he is concerned about our economic and political dependence on fossil fuels. He presents fusion as the technology of the future. But Baby Boomers are conditioned not to believe in the harsh truth. We need “bell canto” mode of singing in the streets to woo the next generation. HUH. He opposes a money economy and wants a “physical” economic and insists that the entire international money system be liquated. Put the whole system into bankruptcy, destroy the Federal Reserve System, and end banks.

Yet he is fulsome in his support of FDR’s interventionist New Deal with its huge public works programs over the years. He denounces outsourcing and globalization, and the Anglo-Dutch Liberal imperial order. He wants the USA to invest in the physical infrastructure.

We used to control China, now it controls us. He talks a swipe at the former Secretary Treasury, Robert Rubin, who thinks like a banker—which of course he was in several senses. LaRouche wants to go back to the protectionist model—which the early FDR indeed did do.

Lastly, he concludes that the biggest terrorist threat is Vice President Cheney. Al Qaeda was created by George Bush and the Carter aide Zbigniew Brzezinski who mobilized resources for the war in Afghanistan against the Soviets and which feed the al Qaeda forces. The Bushes are close to the Saudi families and interests and are personally allied to Bin Liaen’s family. These are the gist of La Rouche’s polices.

His position and than of his followers illustrates how complicated international economics has become and the difficulty of understanding the flow of capital, investment, goods and human labor in a global economy. He takes comfort from the last great president’s ways, but FDR was remarkably adaptable in his movements and philosophical underpinnings.

FDR did not understand the Depression neither did the academic economists or Was Street. But he pushed for a more humane state as part of his experimentation, and his fits and starts.