How would a presidency of Lyndon Larouche look like?

[Gukpard]

I had no idea of who Lyndon Larouche was until last year when I made some research on him and found a article accusing the leader of a brazilian trade union to be his "trotskyist-fascist" ambassador in Brazil, and that was the moment when I knew that it would be a wild ride. From what I can gather the Larouche moviment transcends borders and it is present in over 50 countries, Brazil included, it possesses a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars (the brazilian article talked about 200 million) and tends to attract people from both sides, while also claiming that Dennis King wrote on the book "Lyndon Larouche and the new american fascist" that some his most insane claims are purposely made to make Larouche seems more goofy and soft and thus move the lights away from his real political beliefs.

So, with a PoD in 1900, the US get Lyndon in power on the mid 1970s, how would his government be like?

To fit the atmosphere even better, let's use Lyndon favourite sound, this frequency

 

[UCB79]

Frightening.

 

[LordPez]

It would be similar to making someone like L. Ron Hubbard president. Larouche was... esoteric in his beliefs, especially in his later years. Expect the Larouche state department to do something like declare a secret war against the Windsor menace.

 

[Gukpard]

It would be similar to making someone like L. Ron Hubbard president. Larouche was... esoteric in his beliefs, especially in his later years. Expect the Larouche state department to do something like declare a secret war against the Windsor menace.

Is this really the case? The article I saw claimed that these beliefs where a smokescreen to his actual beliefs

 

[Electric Monk]

There’s going to be a lot of lasers in space, that’s for sure.

 

[overoceans]

Is this really the case? The article I saw claimed that these beliefs where a smokescreen to his actual beliefs

From what I remember reading, LaRouche in his writings admitted knowing that the Queen is just a figurehead, but said that, technically, alleged British drug smuggling is carried out in her name.

So it seems that he was happy to have the more sensational interpretation of a legal formality get promoted as his view(ie. he wanted people to think that he really believes the Queen actively directs drug smuggling), probably in order to garner publicity.

That said, even his sincerely held views were pretty out there(eg. Walter Mondale was an agent of the German Green Party; the Tavistock Institute runs the world), so any LaRouche presidency is likely to be a little on the, umm, tumultuous side. Probably congress would try to find some way to get him declared incapacitated.

 

[Gukpard]

From what I remember reading, LaRouche in his writings admitted knowing that the Queen is just a figurehead, but said that, technically, alleged British drug smuggling is carried out in her name.

So it seems that he was happy to have the more sensational interpretation of a legal formality get promoted as his view(ie. he wanted people to think that he really believes the Queen actively directs drug smuggling), probably in order to garner publicity.

That said, even his sincerely held views were pretty out there(eg. Walter Mondale was an agent of the German Green Party; the Tavistock Institute runs the world), so any LaRouche presidency is likely to be a little on the, umm, tumultuous side. Probably congress would try to find some way to get him declared incapacitated.

He an idea that might make this more grounded, let's say that he doesn't reveal himself until after he's elected, could he get power this way without a nuclear war?

I have been reading some facts about him and this is what a friend told me

"LaRouche managed to weasel his way into the Reagan administration and convinced him to start the infamous “star wars” program. He also would create nonexistent physics problems and then would “solve” them in order to make himself seem more important"
I said that he seemed like a "Evil Chad", so to prevent me from stanning him, he added
"at one point he tortured a guy, recorded the audio, and sent it to the new york times calling it a deprogramming session. when they pointed out he at one point said "turn the voltage up" and responded by saying he was simply asking an assistant to make a lamp brighter."

 

[Polish Eagle]

The issue is that it's hard to get OTL LaRouche elected, especially if he doesn't stay "mask-on."

Last time he came up, I suggested he might follow the Trotskyite-to-Neocon line that a lot of American social democrats followed--like Jeane Kirkpatrick. Given his interest in high-technology, rubbing elbows with such men as Edward Teller and the SDI boys is likely, and he could be an important figure in the Reagan administration, paving the way for election to the Presidency in 2000--though that's pushing it since it would make him the oldest man ever elected President (just about matching Joe Biden). A LaRouche with an actual shot at power would be further incentivized to moderate his stated ideology--less sermons about the anti-human Aristotelian plot, more "Morning in America under a Fusion Torch!"

Socially, he seems like he'd be fairly far right on sexual matters. He expressed contempt for attempts to combat overpopulation (believing them a plot by global elites to depopulate the third world), and considered homosexuality a British plot ("we all know the real reason they love boarding schools so much").

Fiscally, he considered himself to be operating in the tradition of FDR and LBJ--big government infrastructure and research projects.

He'd be an extremely polarizing figure, but if he has a successful presidency and puts some of his ideas into effect, the American political landscape will never be the same again.

 

[Gukpard]

The issue is that it's hard to get OTL LaRouche elected, especially if he doesn't stay "mask-on."

Last time he came up, I suggested he might follow the Trotskyite-to-Neocon line that a lot of American social democrats followed--like Jeane Kirkpatrick. Given his interest in high-technology, rubbing elbows with such men as Edward Teller and the SDI boys is likely, and he could be an important figure in the Reagan administration, paving the way for election to the Presidency in 2000--though that's pushing it since it would make him the oldest man ever elected President (just about matching Joe Biden). A LaRouche with an actual shot at power would be further incentivized to moderate his stated ideology--less sermons about the anti-human Aristotelian plot, more "Morning in America under a Fusion Torch!"

Socially, he seems like he'd be fairly far right on sexual matters. He expressed contempt for attempts to combat overpopulation (believing them a plot by global elites to depopulate the third world), and considered homosexuality a British plot ("we all know the real reason they love boarding schools so much").

Fiscally, he considered himself to be operating in the tradition of FDR and LBJ--big government infrastructure and research projects.

He'd be an extremely polarizing figure, but if he has a successful presidency and puts some of his ideas into effect, the American political landscape will never be the same again.

A neocon LaRouche in 2000, wow

What kind of policies do you think he would have passed? Could him try to revive the rusty belt?

I saw this fanfiction of a game that has him being elected as the president somewhere on the 70s, take a look

 

[Polish Eagle]

A neocon LaRouche in 2000, wow

What kind of policies do you think he would have passed? Could him try to revive the rusty belt?

I saw this fanfiction of a game that has him being elected as the president somewhere on the 70s, take a look

I absolutely think he'd try to revive the rust belt, though how he goes about it might be unorthodox. Along the lines of trying to replace coal and light-manufacturing jobs with high-technology research positions (imagine a second NASA dedicated just to bringing fusion power into being) or public works ("Here's a shovel. You see the Rocky Mountains? I don't want to").

He would also support de-funding the EPA, since reintroducing DDT to combat malaria was one of his planks, and the belief that CFCs don't damage the ozone layer was another.

His other economic policy ideas were rather more radical--bringing back Glass-Steagall, for example. It's hard to imagine that a Neocon Republican LaRouche could sell that to his own party. Then again, since its repeal in the 1990s happened on a Democratic President's watch, there might be an opportunity. Similarly, his policy of essentially nationalizing the banks in response to the housing crisis was popular with Democrats IOTL--he'd probably get flack from the Republicans as a RINO if he ran for the GOP. Maybe a Neocon Reagan Democrat would be a better fit for him. OTOH, if he's clever, he can manipulate the right-wing press into supporting him against the rest of the party--like an early iteration of Trump.

Drugs: he'd make the Reagan Administration look like Harold and Kumar by comparison.

Foreign policy is the big question mark--how would a President LaRouche respond to 9/11? IOTL he favored strengthening ties to Russia and China (despite his earlier anti-Soviet policy), so we might see a joint Russia-America invasion of Afghanistan.

 

[Gukpard]

"Here's a shovel. You see the Rocky Mountains? I don't want to"

🤣 🤣 🤣

Foreign policy is the big question mark--how would a President LaRouche respond to 9/11? IOTL he favored strengthening ties to Russia and China (despite his earlier anti-Soviet policy), so we might see a joint Russia-America invasion of Afghanistan.

What would be his relations with Putin? Could he sponsor Zyuganov on a vain hope to restore the USSR?

 

[Polish Eagle]

What would be his relations with Putin? Could he sponsor Zyuganov on a vain hope to restore the USSR?

I don't think he would--as I say, he was anti-Soviet by the 1980s, and ITTL he'd probably be even more so. A strong Russia as an ally against terrorism, a trading partner for his schemes of a tunnel across the Bering Strait, and a counterweight to his personal boogeyman of the Atlanticist-globalist elite? Sure. A restored USSR? No.

 

[Gukpard]

I don't think he would--as I say, he was anti-Soviet by the 1980s, and ITTL he'd probably be even more so. A strong Russia as an ally against terrorism, a trading partner for his schemes of a tunnel across the Bering Strait, and a counterweight to his personal boogeyman of the Atlanticist-globalist elite? Sure. A restored USSR? No.

Special programs, Cointelpro, unethical experiments, can you think about him doing stuff like this?

 

[David T]

"So, with a PoD in 1900, the US get Lyndon in power on the mid 1970s, how would his government be like?"

The obvious answer is that he would not have the slightest chance of coming to power unless he was very different from the Lyndon Larouche of OTL.

 

[HelloThere]

I think that he can become president, if he tones down the craziness. He wouldn't even have to change his personality (paranoid, authoritarian, control-obsessed), because at the end he just needs not to be viewed as a lunatic. I think his time to shine could be the 90's, where he presents himself as a "pragmatic" candidate who isn't wedded to liberalism or reaganism (a bit like Perot, just even more authoritarian).

 

[Gukpard]

I think that he can become president, if he tones down the craziness. He wouldn't even have to change his personality (paranoid, authoritarian, control-obsessed), because at the end he just needs not to be viewed as a lunatic. I think his time to shine could be the 90's, where he presents himself as a "pragmatic" candidate who isn't wedded to liberalism or reaganism (a bit like Perot, just even more authoritarian).

We are going for this neocon Lyndon in 2000 =v his personality is still the same

 

[Fred the Great]

I don’t know much about him in the US, but I do know his acolytes in Australia - the Citizens Electoral Council - are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who never get more than the informal vote at elections. They came most to my attention when they claimed the Port Arthur Massacre was carried out by a sleeper agent on the orders of Prince Philip to disarm Australia. Nutters doesn’t begin to cover it.

 

[Gukpard]

I don’t know much about him in the US, but I do know his acolytes in Australia - the Citizens Electoral Council - are a bunch of conspiracy theorists who never get more than the informal vote at elections. They came most to my attention when they claimed the Port Arthur Massacre was carried out by a sleeper agent on the orders of Prince Philip to disarm Australia. Nutters doesn’t begin to cover it.

On my country, Brazil, there are LaRoucheistes too, and this was the reason that made me create this thread, he built a line of supporters covering 50 countries, he cleary had an idea of what he was doing, there is even a pro LaRouche newspaper called "GGN" and a anti LaRouche called "A nova democracia", and back in 2003 a LaRoucheist seemed to have goten a position of power on a very important trade union

 

[Fred the Great]

On my country, Brazil, there are LaRoucheistes too, and this was the reason that made me create this thread, he built a line of supporters covering 50 countries, he cleary had an idea of what he was doing, there is even a pro LaRouche newspaper called "GGN" and a anti LaRouche called "A nova democracia", and back in 2003 a LaRoucheist seemed to have goten a position of power on a very important trade union

Yeah I guess he’s got some of the attributes of a cult leader and has been somewhat successful in drawing some conspiracy theorists to him. No one with half a brain. It’s more people who are dissatisfied with politics for whatever reasons. They’re sure there must be something bigger to explain why things are not as they think they should be.

 

[Gukpard]

Yeah I guess he’s got some of the attributes of a cult leader and has been somewhat successful in drawing some conspiracy theorists to him. No one with half a brain. It’s more people who are dissatisfied with politics for whatever reasons. They’re sure there must be something bigger to explain why things are not as they think they should be.

That is exactly what my friend concluded here

"yeah that’s pretty much him. from what i can tell from reading about him wasn’t that he got pleasure from his more sadistic actions but instead he simply believed cult like indoctrination techniques were simply the best way to, well, start a cult. he was able to entrench himself into conservative politics by simply not giving a f**k about political ideology and instead doing whatever would benefit his cult of personality. as a result there’s still conservatives in the us who know about him and begrudgingly admit he was useful for the conservative movement because he would send his followers to run in democratic elections and while being a candidate use their platform to say “i’m a democratic nominee and even i won’t vote for mondale” in order to create voter apathy."