Latest from LaRouche
Democratic Presidential pre-candidate Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed by KMOX Radio in St. Louis, on Jan. 27. LaRouche's name appears on ballot in the Democratic primary in Missouri Feb. 3.
KMOX: We're holding the line for Lyndon LaRouche.
Mr. LaRouche, thanks for coming to the phone. This is Kevin Killeen. I'm a reporter in St. Louis. We want to do a brief taped interview with you, so that we can get some sound bites, and give you some news here in St. Louis.
LAROUCHE: Okay, good.
KMOX: Tell us, for the people who know a little about you, they know that you've run for President, how many times? Is this your sixth time?
LAROUCHE: Yes, as a Democrat. Since 1980.
KMOX: Okay, and what are your big issues? I know you've been attacking the Vice President, and you're sort of an old-fashioned Roosevelt Democrat. Tell us just a little bit about you. Give us a thumbnail sketch.
LAROUCHE: Two interrelated issues: the issue of war policy of the United States, including strategic policy and economic policy. They're interrelated. Which means that I'm, of course, against Cheney, against his war policy, which is insane. It's unnecessary, it loses us cooperation we need with our allies and friends abroad.
Secondly, we're in an economic crisis, a breakdown of the present monetary-financial system. There's a lot of denial of it in the United States, but it's coming on fast. It will come on during the course of this campaign. We need to get the party together, the Democratic Party together, around these issues that I'm raising, on economic policy. And I think it will not be too hard to get them together on the question of military policy.
KMOX: Okay, well, let's take those one at a time, real briefly. The Vice Presidenta lot of people think it's the President who calls the shots, but you're saying that it's the Vice President's war machine.
LAROUCHE: I think that the O'Neill book, which was just published by Paul O'Neill, the former Secretary of Treasury for George W. Bush, is accurate in this: that Cheney is actually the puppet-master who's controlling the President. My concern has been for some time, especially since approximately August-September of 2002, to get the President out from under the control of Cheney. That, even though I don't like the crowd around the old man, old Bush, that they at least would not be insane. And I would hope that they would have been able to manage this situation, so that we'd get through without unnecessary crises.
Now it's becoming extremely dangerous.
KMOX: Again, a last thing on Cheney. Maybe an example that people can remember. How do you think he's the puppet-master, can you give an example of an event?
LAROUCHE: For example, take the case of the yellow-cake issue, the Niger yellow-cake, which was one of the key frauds that he pulled in trying to push through the Iraq war, while we were in the middle of discussions with the UN Security Council. That's typical of him. But, the man is a fanatic, a dangerous fanatic. And people have to get. I think some people have a smell of him, that he is a dangerous fanatic.
KMOX: You also talked about the impending financial collapse. Now, things are bad, and things are also getting a little better, they tell us. But why do you say we're headed for a collapse?
LAROUCHE: They're not getting better. What's happened is, the American people, over the past 40 years, have been gradually conditioned, at least most of them, to believe that somehow, that the market, the financial market, or gambling casinos, or the gambling casino called the market, are the economy. They've been losing their jobs, they've been losing their homes, they've been losing everythingtheir pensions, their health care. It's getting worse all the time. Reality says, if you're looking at what you're getting, and what you're about to get, we're in a collapse of the system. But meanwhile, of course, the financial bubble is growing. But when the bubble pops, where are we? We're in something much worse than 1929 to '31, already. That's the issue.
KMOX: Really? And what do you propose to turn that around?
LAROUCHE: Well, we have to go back to the kind of thinking that Franklin Roosevelt epitomizes in the mind of people today. That we have to use similar methods. We may not always do exactly the same thing he did, but similar approaches, that we can solve the problem. The important thing about him, is to use the example of what he did, to prove that, in such times of crisis as these, there are proven methods which exist, which can be used to solve these problems.
KMOX: Why does Lyndon LaRouche want to be President?
LAROUCHE: Because the country needs me.
KMOX: And, what do you mean by that?
LAROUCHE: There are some good people around, but none of them are prepared to bite the bullet, on some of these issues, like the economic issue, the way I am. At this point, my proven competence is absolutely indispensable, because there's no one else around who's capable of doing what I can do. I'm not just Johnny One-Note, but in a sense, I am a Johnny One-Note, in the sense that this is my job, this is what I've got to do.
KMOX: You've raisedI was talking to your friend Angela thereabout $7 million. You've got $840,000 in Federal matching funds, and you're going to spend $60,000 to be on television in St. Louis for half an hour. Why is that so important, to spend that money?
LAROUCHE: Oh, it's great fun. Apart from doing it, I've got a lot of good friends out there, you know. But, apart from that, the point is, St. Louis suddenly became very important, when Gephardt decided to drop away. Because it will now be a big bone of contention, in the national campaign, and you're going to find people coming into St. Louis, who had not planned to come into St. Louis, for this election campaign earlier. They thought it was going to be sort of locked up. It's not.
So, it's going to be very interesting, and I'm simply one of the guys who's alert to what's going on, and I'm saying, "I'm there."
KMOX: Are you on the ballot in Missouri?
LAROUCHE: Yes.
KMOX: Forgive me for not knowing. Good.
Now, let me ask you this. People, I've heard this in some of the different states where they're having the primaries, that they want to vote for somebody they think can beat George Bush. Now, in all honesty, address the people who think that Lyndon LaRouche is just a perennial candidate; he's not really a contender.
LAROUCHE: Well, that's only some mass-media talk. It's not true. It's true that when the people think that somebody is in the running, that is, in terms of the media, they are influenced by that. But when it gets to a real crisis, like we're having now, that goes by the boards, and they're then concerned with survival. And they're willing to do things, which they know are right, but normally they wouldn't do them. Normally, people say they want to do things which they'd be approved of doing. But in a time of crisis, when things are bad, they will look for the outside shot.
KMOX: And, do you think you have an outside shot in Missouri's Feb. 3 primary?
LAROUCHE: On a national level, yes. It depends. It's going to be national. The way the national situation goes, is going to determine the way it goes with me.
KMOX: All right. Last question. Sometimes, even when, and I don't mean to say you might not win, but even when candidates who are long shots don't win, their ideas get in there. Have you seen some of your ideas creeping into the talk of the other candidates?
LAROUCHE: Well, yes, of course. You see it now in terms of the attack on Cheney. There was a decision made to go after Cheney. The Democratic Party, heretofore, has been blocking that. I think there may be a shift in the way the Democratic National Committee, or others around it, are going to start treating my campaign now. I think I'm probably going to appear in some public discussions fairly soon.
KMOX: All right, but you're not included in the debates, are you?
LAROUCHE: No, and I don't think
KMOX: Now, why? Now, let me give you a chance to complain about that? Why don't they include you? You've been around all this time, you've raised this money. What are they using as an excuse to keep you out of the debate?
LAROUCHE: It's actually a Justice Department operation, a dirty part of the Justice Department, tied to the Keeney faction in the Justice Department. It's a little complicated, that's why I don't explain it too much, because you have to explain too many things. But they have a section of the Democratic leadership, typified by some of the Gore supporters, and especially by Liebermanthese guys really hate my guts. And they have put the pressure on, and the other boys are going along, to get along. I don't know how much longer they're going to do that.
KMOX: All right, well, you're well-spoken. Is there anything I didn't ask you, Mr. LaRouche, you want to underline for the Missouri listeners?
LAROUCHE: Well, I think that. I'm going to get something out, not through the campaign, but I did something on Martin Luther Kingand I was invited to give the keynote on that subject at Talladega, Alabama. That's going to get out soon. And I think people, when they see that, will see a lot of what my campaign is, by looking at that thing. It might be interesting to them.
KMOX: Well, all right. Well, listen, welcome to St. Louis. And you're actually coming in for the Thursday show, huh?
LAROUCHE: That's what I intend to.
WMOX: You ought to, when you do that show, wander up the steps here. At KMOX, we've got a lot of talk shows that are always going on, see if you canmaybe take some calls from listeners, it might be fun.
LAROUCHE: Fun. Absolutely.
WMOX: Thank you, Mr. LaRouche, bye, bye.
LaRouche was interviewed on WJBR Radio, Wilmington, Del., Jan. 30. Delaware's Presidential primary takes place Feb. 3, and LaRouche in on the ballot.
WJBR: For the record now, identify yourself, full name and title.
LAROUCHE: I am Lyndon LaRouche, the candidate for the Presidential nomination of the Democratic Party for the year 2004.
WJBR: Okay, in just a few words, though, what type of message would you like to get out to Delawareans, as we head to the primary on Tuesday?
LAROUCHE: Well, this is a very interesting period, in which Kerry and I will be the most significant candidates over the months to come. What is important about this campaign, is less the actual votes collected, because that can changedelegates can change their opinion, particularly when it comes to the convention, after the first vote. What is important, is the dialogue, in effect, between Kerry and me, and whoever else is involved, which will mean that the discussion of the issues of the campaign, and the Presidency, will be much more serious than anything that we've seen on the mass media heretofore.
So, this is a very important and interesting period.
WJBR: What do you see as the major issues?
LAROUCHE: The major issues are the economy, and the war issue. The war issue is typified by the role of Cheney, in unlawfully, by fraud, leading us into a war which was unnecessary.
The economic question: The fact is, the financial system is collapsing. Forty-eight of the 50 states are virtually bankrupt. The time has come for using the attitude of Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, to get us out of this mess. The problem is, to get the war pushed aside, and to get at the really serious issue, which is the economic question.
WJBR: What are some of your solutions for these problems?
LAROUCHE: Well, first of all, we have to go back to Roosevelt's policy on economy. Not exactly copying exactly what he did, but using that attitude as a guide to how we must approach this.
Secondly, on an international scale, with a collapsing financial-monetary system, we must return to the Bretton Woods policies, of the immediate post-war period, that is, the fixed-exchange-rate policies, with a gold-reserve system, if we're going to manage to get our way out of a bankrupt world.
WJBR: Why do you think we're seeing some the policies that we're seeing coming out of Washington?
LAROUCHE: Well, I think it's influenced very strongly by the actual compulsive insanity shown by the Bush Administration, and the failure, up until a recent time, when Kerry broke the ice, in particular, at which the real issues were never put on the table. Now the issues are being put on the table from the Democratic side, especially by me and by Kerry.
WJBR: Why do you think it took so long, for people to come out and start speaking up, when they saw some of these things going on in Washington?
LAROUCHE: People just get habits. You know, we're in a. People look at politics as a kind of entertainment. They may have passions about it, but it's the kind of passions they bring to spectator sports. They're not really emotionally involved in actually thinking through the result. They're now going through a period in which they're beginning to think about the result. The war issues have become real, rather than something on a screen. The economic issues were about to become very real.
WJBR: A lot of people have problems with, for example, NAFTA, but many of the candidates, especially when they debated last night in South Carolina, admitted, we have some problems with NAFTA, but it's unlikely that too much is going to change, or you're all of a sudden going to see these manufacturing jobs, and things coming back to America. What do you think about that?
LAROUCHE: Well, that's part of the blindness and stupidity among the candidates. NAFTA has been a catastrophe for the United States, internally as well as externally. We reduce people in other countries to virtual slave labor, to take our jobs, and produce them at slave labor wages. We destroy our communities, especially the small industries, the small farms and small industries, which are put out of business, by this kind of cut-throat competition. It's insanity. It never should have happened. The time has come to face the fact that it was a terrible mistake.
WJBR: Okay. Is there anything else you'd like to add?
LAROUCHE: Well, you got enough?
WJBR: I've got plenty. Thank you.
|