Guess Who’s Back

Most college universities have a hustle and bustle center where concerned people pamphlet different causes.

Lord knows I experienced this at Berkeley. At Columbia it has been fairly mild, so when I finally saw someone handing out what appeared to be a magazine, mumbling something about Bush and Cheney, I thought I’d pick it up and give it a read.

It was a Lyndon LaRouche newsletter. LaRouche is a nine time candidate for President (and one time convicted felon) who, as far as I can tell, is supported by students that follow him like a cult leader, often dropping out of college and
removing all ties from friends and family members after joining his crusade to save America, nay, the planet.

Upon one quick glance I became disgusted. "Ahhh, the LaRouche people are here too," I said
almost out of reflex.

I did a story about the LaRouche youth movement in Berkeley. It was probably the scariest and the most successful piece I ever wrote for the Daily Californian. If you look up LaRouche on Wikipedia, you’ll find my article.

It seems they have a strong presence here on the East coast too.

I never did find out where the East Bay youth members live. I went to one of their meetings in Oakland and after their lecture I introduced myself as a reporter and they talked to me until about midnight. It was an…let’s choose my words here….. interesting conversation.

Near the end I wanted to find out where they all lived in the Bay, but nobody wanted to answer. At one point a higher-up quietly told everybody not to answer that question and would force the conversation back to their passion — LaRouche himself.

At the end of the night, they all left in one big van. I never confirmed it, but I have a feeling they live in co-op somewhere, which is somehow supported by LaRouche. Again, that’s unconfirmed. What I can confirm is that a large percentage of LaRouche youth members drop out of college so they can dedicate themselves full-time to getting LaRouche in office.

Particularly scary is how well at rhetorical arguments these kids are. They aren’t dumb kids. They come from some of the best colleges in the country (I met Berkeley and Stanford drop-outs), and they have a lot of time to study the internal logic of LaRouche. Arguing with them is like trying to debate a bible thumper — they know quotes off-hand and for them those quotes are the final authority, so there is no point in trying. So I kept on walking, hoping to myself that the undergrads here at Columbia won’t get duped by anyone today.