When do you recall first being aware of LaRouche or the LaRouchies?

[salin]

Not sure why it came to mind - but as I was thinking of early points in my political awareness (during college) I suddenly thought of being up late procrastinting writing a paper and seeing this guy go on and on with charts and the like on some obscure cable channel. Probably 1983ish. Didn't pay much attention to him. Next I heard of him was when his followers would take to a corner in front of one of the House Office Buildings everynow and again to advocate sending all people infected with HIV to an isolated island and quarentining them in perpetuity. Then there was the defrauding via credit card of donors to his campaigns, the stealth candidates (state-wide offices) in Illinois who did not disclose their Larouchian ties until after the primaries... and so on.

As I thought about it - I recalled the periodic postings of LaRouche materials on this forum - and then the requisite disparagement of LaRouche and the cult - with really interesting stories per folks interactions. This guy has been at this hucksterism for decades.

Collectively how far back and how recent can we trace our LaRouche memories/experiences. Two decades? Three decades? More?

Just curious.

[trackfan]

1. 1975-6

[bbinacan]

2. Early 80s. n/t

[formercia]

3. 1983

I was heading back to work from lunch and someone at a stop light handed me a laRouche flyer. When I got to my office, I began to read it and called my supervisor over to show it to him. he took one look, grabbed it out of my hand and stuffed it into the bottom of a burn bag and warned me never to let anyone see me with his material or the would be consequences. It was years before I noticed his group on the net.

[salin]

4. that's an odd response... I mean they are wacky and wacked, but

"there would be consequences" at work - for a flyer? Wow. Wonder what that was about.

[formercia]

7. I didn't ask

but he was visibly upset. I avoided that group like the plague. I could tell he wasn't joking.

[melody]

5. When I was a kid in the early 70s and they used to trip me at the post office

I hated those guys. Yeesh.

[CK_John]

6. Right after Watergate, he was the product of the campaign finance reform which set up matching funds

He seen the potential to make some bucks. For every buck he could scam it was matched with tax bucks. He was just too greedy and finally ended up in jail for credit card fraud. But he is still living well on his big 4 yr payoffs and he will be running again.

[Democrats_win]

8. Nov. 3, 1980: Paid TV ad night before Bad Actor elected president.

He was running for president.

[MUAD_DIB]

15. I remember him on late night TV as well: early 80s.

[MrSlayer]

9. He is a huckster but he's also right about a lot of things.

Particularly about the Bush family and Cheney, the sophists in our government, the dismantling of our manufacturing industry, the slow destruction of every good thing FDR accomplished from the moment of his death and the need for massive public works projects to upgrade the country's entire infrastructure. I think if someone other than he made the same statements they would be embraced wholeheartedly here.

[ihelpu2see]

10. I think early 80s, my dad always talked politics and mentioned that there

was this "crack pot" group of LaRouchees..... His term, not mine...

[The Magistrate]

11. About 1970, Sir

He was largely on about space exploration and fusion power....

[salin]

13. missed that part of his history, btw

it is madam ;-)

[The Magistrate]

17. It Was In His Leftist days, Ma'am

My memory can be like Swiss cheese at times, hence my forgetfulness in regard to our previous exchanges, but this one comes with an image of candlelight by which I read the paper while a lady was doing those mysterious 'I'm almost ready' things in the next room....

[salin]

20. no problem, just a gentle reminder...

in the early days it happened all the time. Always good to cross paths with you, Sir. (and that is quite an image you conjour up... nice way with words!)

[Help me help Earth]

12. I registered thinking this was a LaRouche message board.

Please tell me I'm not wrong!

[salin]

14. heh...

as if there were that many LaRouchies as registere Duers. I get the sense that it is a very marginal and small group.

[Totally Committed]

16. I live in Massachusetts, so the early 70's (maybe as early as '70, actually)...

He was a nut then, and he's a nut now.

And, not in a good way.

TC

[Spirochete]

18. I hadn't really heard of the LaRouchies

Until Phil Donahue beat the shit out of one at an airport. I don't even remember what year that was.

[stimbox]

19. Around 1990-91

During the first gulf war the Larouchees showed up on campus and I made the mistake of attending one of their anti-war meetings.
I got on their call list. BIG mistake. After a few calls I finally told the guy to fuck off.

[illinoisprogressive]

21. 1980s

[AnotherGreenWorld]

22. I hadn't heard of him until a few years ago.

Burns: People, if we meet this week's quota, I'll take you to the most duck-filled pond you ever sat by! (the old folks begin working faster)
Grampa: Oh, hot-diggity! That's how they got me to vote for Lyndon LaRouche!

[salin]

25. great line - leave it to the Simpsons!

[TankLV]

23. 70's in College - they're a CULT. Talk about Tinfoil! There's a conspiracy around every corner...

and ONLY THEY know/have the answers to SAVE THE WORLD!

Won't ever forget that even if one gave their last dime - it wasn't good enough!

Creepy, just plain CREEPY.

Made Jim Johnson and his group in Gyana look dignified and LOGICAL...

[murielm99]

24. I live in Illinois.

I had heard the name, but paid no attention to them. Then they fucked with our electoral process here, and Thompson became governor.

[SaveElmer]

26. I live in Virginia...

They jump you when you go into the DMV quite often...so probably 1985 when I switched my residency from Minnesota to Virginia...

[baldguy]

27. College, early '80s