LaRouche Calls for Policy Debate: Open the Convention!

From Volume 3, Issue Number 28 of Electronic Intelligence Weekly, Published July 13, 2004

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LaRouche Calls for Policy Debate: Open the Convention!

Lyndon LaRouche and Helga Zepp-LaRouche were the guests for 90 minutes on The LaRouche Show internet radio broadcast on July 3. The program was hosted by Harley Schlanger, and included LaRouche Youth Movement leaders Cody Jones in Los Angeles and Michelle Lerner in Philadelphia. Excerpts from the transcript follow.

Harley Schlanger: ...You're leading the fight among Democrats for an open convention. Why do we need an open convention?

Lyndon LaRouche: Well, the first thing is, the world crisis, which is now existing—which is potentially a terminal crisis of civilization, unless we change some things—that this world crisis is, essentially, a conflict between two systems: The American System of Political Economy, which was the basis for the Franklin Roosevelt reconstruction of the United States from the depths of the Depression, which had been caused by the British system; and, on the other hand, the British system, which is the system of central banking institutions, private, independent central banking institutions of Europe, and much of the rest of the world.

Now, even though the American system is not functioning, it's part of our Constitutional structure. It's a Constitution which is the longest lasting in world history. That is, no constitution of any country has lasted as long as our Constitution, since that time. The British system is still the opposition.

What is crashing is the British system, and the United States system is crashing, because it is integrated, ever since 1971-72 especially, with the British system. We've now reached the point, that we have to make a change, in the United States in particular. That change has to go back to the American system, by way of using the kinds of precedents which Franklin Roosevelt set, especially over the period from 1933 to 1944. That would work for the United States.

However, we are not a lonely nation. We exist in a world, with a lot of other nations. Therefore, our relations with other states are indispensable, especially our relations with Europe. But, Europe, with its constitutional systems, presently can not take leadership, and could not save itself, because it's in a system which is doomed systemically, and can not be revived. However, if the United States takes the role of leadership, in changing our system back to the American system, by using the precedents of Roosevelt for getting out of a depression, like the Hoover Depression earlier, then, our leadership would engage Europe, and would engage other countries in the world, and we could start a rebuilding process, once again.

So, the question is: What is going to prevail? Nothing is going to come from Europe. Nothing is going to come from Asia, or anyplace else, that's going to solve this world problem. Because no other part of the world has the constitutional structure, to set the fuse off that will start a recovery. Only the United States. The United States is not functioning in that way now. As a matter of fact, we're on the edge of collapsing. Therefore, if the United States makes its change, in policy, and engages Europe and other parts of the world, in this change, the world will make it, and the United States will make it.

Now, we've come to a period, thus, in which, there's no way of fixing the existing system, either in the United States or in Europe. There's no modest reform. There's no slight change in this policy, this financial policy, tax policy, etc., budgetary policy. Nothing will work. We're now at a point, that all the existing ideas, which are presently accepted by the Democratic National Committee, for example, as well as the ideas that are associated with the Bush Administration, these ideas can not work. And no reform in the context of those ideas, would prevent the planet from going into the deepest dark age, you can imagine.

So, we're at the center. And I'm at the center. So therefore, the relationship of what Helga's trying to do in Europe, and what I'm trying to do in the United States, is crucial. If I can get this thing going in the United States, if I can induce a change in policy, even at this late date, then we are prepared, with our friends in Europe, to engage the European institutions, in joining us in making the world change. So therefore, we are at a point of history; history beyond belief; history that you measure in terms of millennia, not in terms of decades or Presidential terms. This is one of the great moments in history—and of the most dangerous.

Cheney: On the Ropes

Schlanger: ...[Democratic National Committee Chairman] Terry McAuliffe, who's playing a role in trying to, not only lock down the convention, but keep you out. You issued a call for the firing of McAuliffe yesterday, and also the removal of Kerry's lead adviser, Bob Shrum. What is it McAuliffe thinks he's doing?

LaRouche: I don't know, I think McAuliffe is a very inadequate personality. And sometimes a person who does bad things, does it because he is a morally and intellectually inadequate person. And everything I've seen in his performance, especially in the recent period, shows me a person who is morally and intellectually inadequate. Now, I've attacked him, and strongly. I had to. But, I never treated him seriously: That is, I never regarded him as a super-criminal or something; he's just a plain fool. But, unfortunately, if you put a fool in charge of a plane, a guy without a pilot's license, in a storm, you may have some trouble.

Schlanger: I guess he indicated how big a fool he is, two days ago, when he told Matthew Ogden, one of the LaRouche Youth Movement members, that he sees no reason to remove Cheney.

Now, you've made the removal of Cheney a major point, including back when you first insisted that Cheney had to go, everyone said, "It'll never happen. You can't do it." Well, Cheney's aura of invincibility has taken quite a beating, due to your efforts.

First, I'd like to know, what is it that you knew about Cheney back then, that others either did not know, or chose to ignore? And, can he hang onto the Vice Presidency?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, what I knew is, very simply, what people didn't want to say. It was considered impolite: Cheney's a fascist. He's not a very intelligent one. He's a fascist and a thief. His whole crowd around him are the neo-cons, so-called, followers of Leo Strauss and company—these guys are dangerous, but intellectually incompetent. I know some of them personally; they're personally incompetent. And here they are, trying to run a dictatorship, and they're running a sort of a Keystone Cops version of fascism, which is vicious, in every respect. But, they're Keystone Cops, essentially, or Keystone SS Men, probably more accurately.

So, the point was, that the United States didn't have a chance of surviving, if Cheney's in it. Europe wouldn't have a chance. Therefore, the institutions were going to be put to the test: That either they would dump this Cheney, who was actually the Svengali, for Trilby Bush, essentially. Dump this guy!

You know, Bush is—people attacking Bush is a mistake. They should attack him for what his function is, for his behavior. But, they have to realize, he's a mental case! The guy's a cripple, a mental cripple! And I don't think he even knows half of what he's doing or saying most of the time. He's just repeating his lines. And he has trust in this baboon, Cheney. He said, once, for example, earlier in his Presidency, "When Cheney speaks, that's me." So, he's nothing but a puppet, for ventriloquist, Svengali Cheney. And Cheney is nothing.

So therefore, the question was: If the United States is going to survive, it's going to have to dump Cheney. Not because Cheney is that important, otherwise, but because by putting him in a non-functioning part, in the works of the system, we assure the system is going to go down. As we've seen, for example, in Iraq, where he created this mess, with his lying and so forth. So, the point was, get rid of him.

I realized, from the beginning, that the political party system, especially the Democratic Party, was morally and intellectually incapable, as a party system, of dealing with this problem. Therefore, I said, there's only one institution, in the United States, which is capable under our Constitution, of dealing with this kind of crisis: And that is the larger institution of the Presidency. That is, people who are associated with the Presidency, because they were professionals or are professionals, military, intelligence, diplomatic, and so forth; or because they are retired, or associated with the Presidency as advisers over a period of decades; or are members of the Congressional organization, in the Senate and in the House, people who are longstanding stalwarts of those institutions. They have a sense of the Presidency. And working together, this kind of moral leadership in the House of Representatives, and in the Senate, combined with the institutional processes within the Executive branch, these are the institutions which we can rely upon, if any, to rally the American people, and the institutions of the United States, around solutions.

So, my policy was always: Cheney must go. If anyone says, "Cheney must not go," they're out of the equation. They're stupid, they're out of the equation. They're bunglers. They're dangerous. ...

The People Come First

McAuliffe is the kind of guy, the jangle of money from big-money sources, really gets his attention.

And McAuliffe is operating on the assumption, which is "in," among these banking institutions, who are playing games with both the Republican and Democratic side of the equation. They're saying, "Well, whatever happens in this crisis, we're going to come out on top. It's not going to be the Democrats. It's not going to be the Republicans. It's going to be we, the international banking group, the international financial cartel, which is controlling the financing, essentially, of both parties." And McAuliffe is looking at this financial cartel.

The issue is very simple: When the system goes down, is the Constitution of the United States going to be enforced? That is, are we going to protect the people of the United States? Or, are we going to scrap the people, and turn them into cordwood for burning, as they're doing now, in Germany? Under that kind of influence, under a Social Democratic government. Which they would do here—as they're doing in Argentina. These bankers, when their system collapses, they eat people! Especially poor people.

And therefore, as Roosevelt did, the job of the President of the United States, is to lead the institutions of the country, in defending the general welfare of our people, first. And bankers come second. These guys, the financial cartel say, "No. We come first, and the people come last!"

So, what McAuliffe is, essentially he's a stooge for this kind of financial cartel. It's the same financial cartel, which in 1931-1933—including Morgan, Harriman, du Pont, Mellon, and so forth—this cartel, together with the British who led them, put Hitler into power, in 1933. And later, some of the Brits joined some of the Americans, in saying, "We're not going to make Hitler, a German, the emperor of a world fascist system." So, we went to war against Hitler, but then, at the end of the war, we covered up for the cartel which had put the Nazis into power. And we're doing the same thing again.

This same cartel, is the cartel, which is controlling the politics, through the financial control of both the Democratic and Republican parties. And therefore, the issue is: Will the institutions of the United States, the real patriots in the Congress, the patriots of the Executive branch and the professionals, and other people—will they rally, to defend our Constitution and our nation, against these fascists? That is, the same syndicate of international, financial cartelists, who put Hitler into power in the 1930s? Are we going to submit to them, and let them run the Democratic and Republican Party? Or are we going to take the party back? If we don't take the party back, then this United States is finished. And the world civilization is pretty much finished.

So therefore, we have to get rid of McAuliffe. Because, if we don't get rid of McAuliffe, even though he's a jerk, he's a stooge, and the problem is, what he represents is a stooge—he and that fool, Shrum.

Open the Convention!

Schlanger: [Reads an e-mail] "What are the dynamics of the Democratic National Convention? More important there are those who want to keep it closed. Are there others, besides yourself, who are pushing for an open convention, and what can we do to get it?"

LaRouche: There are others pushing for an open convention, including circles around Clinton. As to whether they're as determined as I am, to make it an actuality, or whether they're making it a point of reference for the future of the Democratic Party—it's unclear. There are many reasons to do that.

We have two problems: We have Kerry. Now, Kerry, left to himself, is not much. He's not capable, as he's shown, he's not capable of being a President of the United States, in reality, that is, what we mean by a President of the United States. But rather, he's sort of a repetition of Bush. Bush is mean-spirited; Kerry tends to be less so, of course. George is rather stupid, mentally aberrant; Kerry is, in a sense, a normal human being, good-natured, intelligent. But, both are similar, in the sense, as they stand now, of being creatures, who could not really be the President in a time of crisis, but are sort of placeholders, for some team of people who would give the Presidency some kind of character. In the case of Bush, it has been largely the Cheney neo-cons, and some others, who have been the dominant controllers of the virtually empty chair, occupied by George Bush.

Now, in the case Kerry, it's a similar situation. We have two things that have come out: Kerry could be replaced as the presumptive candidate. There are various ways that could occur. One is that he simply agrees to give up his position, and releases his delegates, to vote their conscience. That would have to happen on the first ballot, presumably. That could happen. The crises that are now occurring could lead to that kind of conjuncture. If it doesn't happen, you have another process, which is: Who is going to control the Kerry campaign, and presumably the Kerry Presidency? Presuming there's some relationship between the two.

Kerry can't do it. Kerry can not win the Presidency, himself. Also, he would not be competent to be President, in and of himself. But, he could be a placeholder—maybe an agreeable placeholder—for other influences, advisers, so-called, who would actually induce him to make certain decisions in a timely fashion. That's a possibility.

Those are the options that are before us, now.

Apart from that, you're dealing with a situation, which is rather typical for me, as a forecaster. I've always insisted to people, you can forecast if you know what you're doing. But, forecasting does not mean predicting. Because, there's a factor of human free will, in all social processes. Therefore, you can forecast, where a current trend of policymaking is leading, to what reality, to what juncture with reality, crucial junctures, it's leading.

You can also indicate what the choices will be, when that point of crisis is reached, or approached. But, you can not say exactly how institutions will respond, because free will will intervene. But, you can then go another step, and show what the result would be, of choosing any one among the several alternative courses of actions, which can be chosen at that point, in the branching of the road.

Schlanger: ...What should delegates or Democrats do, who support you, who are not LaRouche delegates, but are going to the convention? Who would like an open convention, would like to have you present? What can they do?

LaRouche: Work with me, as a policy group. Irrespective of what their ties are to some presumptive candidacy, for President. Work with me as a policy group. And, use our joint force, to make sure these policies are forced into the floor.

The problem we have at the convention now, is the attempt of people like McAuliffe and the people who own him—or like Shrum, who's a real piece of work. These people are going to try to make a joke, a farce out of the convention. "You're gonna march in. You're gonna nominate Kerry. You're gonna pick a Vice President. And you're gonna go home!"

So, that's what the problem is.

So therefore, what we have to do, is, we have to blow the convention open in two ways: One way, an open discussion of the Presidency, not a foregone conclusion. Because there is no foregone conclusion. Even the selection of Kerry is not a foregone conclusion, as to what kind of a Kerry you're going to get, if you nominate him. Secondly, that you've got to blow the convention open: The questions of policy, of national policy, have to be thrown on the table. Not just perfunctory, boolah-boolah, "Let's take the hometown boy, and bring him to victory."

A Question of Method

Michelle Lerner: I have a question about method, in fact. Because, I'll put it this way: Organizing in D.C., in particular, we've definitely created somewhat of a legacy with the "Children of Satan [III: The Sexual Congress for Cultural Fascism.]" pamphlet. And the first two specifically went after the mind-set of the neo-conservatives, of Dick Cheney, where these guys got their thinking from, so people could, in a certain way, put it outside of themselves, in looking at the issue as something else. But this pamphlet is something completely different, in the sense that, they now have to reflect upon how this current entered into the culture in the first place.

So, my question is, what was it, that allowed you to determine that now is the appropriate time to go after that? Really, the question of why is that the appropriate time to use that as a flank right now?

LaRouche: Well, first of all, because I think in terms of ideas. You know, people think in terms of conversations; I think in terms of ideas. Now, ideas may be mediated by conversations, but they have an existence which is independent of the vocal act of conversation. They're the ideas that people radiate, from the experience of, for example, conversation.

That was apparent to me—remember, the first issue of "Beast-Man," Beast-Man I, we circulated about a million copies or more. And then, Beast-Man II was a little less, but in the same order of magnitude. In the same period of time, we had influenced institutions of government and around government to build up a clear image of what this Iraq issue was. Our attack on the Beast-Man symbol, clicked, in terms of what the experience of the United States was, looking at the Iraq war issue, its inception and so forth.

So, a point came, somebody asked a question: Well, these terrible things happened to us. We made these stupid decisions to allow these kinds of people to run our government. How did our parents, and our grandparents, and we, become so stupid, we let this happen? So, Beast-Man III was the logical answer.

Of course, I knew it very well. But, it just was obvious to me, that, in the flow of ideas, which are radiating around us, and the intersection of these ideas, with the experience that people were having of the Iraq war and so forth, that the time had come—people would now ask the question: You've proven your case. Cheney is on the ropes; you put him on the ropes with this campaign. Now, explain to us, how we got here. Now, if we're going to solve the problem, we have to know how it happened. How did we become so stupid, that we would let this happen to us?

And, Beast-Man III gives you the answer, essential answer. It gives you an insight into the inside, of the American personality.

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