# Explain the LaRouche Movement **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 7, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967 "2009-06-07T01:22:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/21 "2009-06-08T09:15:59Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > A couple of years ago, I saw Larouche volunteers manning a booth on a small-town green, passing out Larouche campaign literature to passersby. > > In Quebec. North American Labour Party/Party for the Commonwealth of Canada/Parti pour la république du Canada is/was the Canadian Larouchan party. They ran in a bunch of provincial elections. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/22 "2009-06-08T16:38:02Z")
Several years ago, I saw them at Logan airport. They had a sign that said something like, “Support the Space Program Send Ted Kennedy to the Moon.” I could probably get behind that. ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/23 "2009-06-08T17:24:31Z")
LaRouchism is a gnostic cult that masquerades as a political movement. About 20 years ago they would place a table with weird placards at the entrance to the local DMV. The most memorable was during the AIDS scare: “Mosquitos don’t wear condoms” Here is an article about the movement by a former member who is now a poltical columnist: [http://www.firstthings.com/on\_the\_square\_entry.php?year=2009&month=05&title\_link=confessions-of-a-coward](http://www.firstthings.com/on_the_square_entry.php?year=2009&month=05&title_link=confessions-of-a-coward) ---
**Author:** ![Pashnish\_Ewing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8797f3/32.png) [@Pashnish\_Ewing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pashnish_Ewing)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/24 "2009-06-08T17:47:07Z")
> [@flonks](#): > > Discussions are impossible, since their whole philosphy and politics is incoherent. Its all slogans and blabla, but when you ask questions and want details, they can’t answer you. On tax day this year, they had a booth set up in front of my post office in NYC. I tried to engage one of them in conversation, but ran into the same thing **flonks** did. There were three points they guy kept hitting over and over. 1) Obama has been brainwashed by ‘The Chicago Economists’, 2) Can you make a donation?, and 3) Would you sign up for our newsletter? Anytime I asked a direct question, he would go back to the newsletter line, so I could never find out what they were actually all about (although on second thought it did give me a pretty good idea). ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/25 "2009-06-08T18:04:44Z")
Am I right in saying LR shared a jail cell with Jim Bakker? (Of did I remember the wrong name?) In his book Bakker (?) said LR was nutty as a fruitcake and had raisins for eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/26 "2009-06-08T18:25:48Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > LaRouche has swung both hard left and hard right in his career. (rejects obvious joke as just too easy) ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/27 "2009-06-08T22:55:59Z")
I picked up a few pamphlets when they were handing them out at my college. The basic gist of their ideas seem to be that trains solve everything ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/28 "2009-06-09T04:26:38Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Turns out it’s a political and economic ideology/movement named for its founder, American economist Lyndon LaRouche. I read the LaRouche’s ADL page and various other articles that seem to suggest that LaRouche is a right-wing extremist. > > Then I looked through a bunch of other articles which seem to suggest he’s a left-wing extremist. > > Then I read his Wikipedia page and the movement’s Wikipedia page, which suggest he’s both.. [He’s a floor wax **and** a dessert topping!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_LaRouche)🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/29 "2009-06-09T14:30:05Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > LaRouchism is a gnostic cult that masquerades as a political movement. **Really Not All That Bright** , give what **puddleglum** says here your full attention. LaRouchism has nothing to do with actual politics. That’s why you can’t figure out what their political values are. All it’s about is spreading the name of their dear leader and boosting his reputation. A few years ago I was in India and I noticed an article in the local paper about how LaRouche had organized some kind of symposium on a Eurasian land bridge or some such thing. I didn’t understand a word of it, and I don’t think the newspaper did either. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/30 "2009-06-09T20:59:10Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > I picked up a few pamphlets when they were handing them out at my college. The basic gist of their ideas seem to be that trains solve everything What I remember about those pamphlets is a centuries-spanning Manichean struggle between the philosophic traditions of Plato (good) and Aristotle (evil). Apparently high-tech and industry are on the Platonic side, and landed aristocracy and agrarianism on the Aristotelian side. No, I don’t get it either. But if _The Republic_ is anything to go by, Plato is the better inspiration for totalitarianism. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/31 "2009-06-09T21:14:55Z")
> [@PBear42](#): > > Ah, Lyndon. He’s been one of my favorite CTs for years. The cool thing about him is that the message morphs from year to year, yet remains mostly consistent. All our woes can be traced to a cabal of Jewish bankers. Unseat this hegemony and we can have cheap fusion power. All this with no credentials in economics or physics. Lyndon just knows. > . He’s seen the cave where the Jews hide all the money. It’s somewhere under New York. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967/32 "2009-06-10T23:44:07Z")
> [@flonks](#): > > I ran into them in 2001/2002 at the campus in Maryland (UMD). At first I found them rather interesting, so I went to one meeting. There I quickly found out that they are nutjobs… As a naive freshman at orientation I had no idea who LaRouche was, but realized something was odd when the girl handing out flyers suddenly started talking about how they had a “camp” to learn about “astronomy”. :dubious: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-the-larouche-movement/498967.md?page=1)