As many online have noticed, Lyndon LaRouche managed to travel from the far-left to the far-right of politics, all without the help of Twitter. Born into a Quaker family, LaRouche was a conscientious objector during World War II and later became involved in the Trotskyite Socialist Workers Party. He first achieved a sizeable following during student protests in the 1960s, when he founded the neo-Marxist Students for a Democratic Society, which organised the first teach-ins against the Vietnam War.
However, after spending time in West Germany, LaRouche decided that the Jews were to blame for everything, and dragged his followers to the right with him. His main theory was that the entire history of Earth was a battle between the Platonists (the good guys) and the Aristotelians, who use sex, drugs and stories about climate challenge to win the war for evil.
His place in history comes from his eight failed bids to become US president, and his followers’ in-roads into mainstream Democratic politics in the 1980s – in 1986, two LaRouchists were nominated as Democratic candidates for governor and state secretary of Illinois.
Always ready to swing back and forth as the need depended on it, LaRouche supported the presidential bids of both Barack Obama and Donald Trump – the former for his perceived anti-war stance, the latter for his traditionalist economic views. He soured heavily on Barry O after military attacks on Syria. He didn’t live long enough to do a 180 on The Donald.
Lyndon LaRouche
September 8, 1922 – February 12, 2019
Died aged 96 (three picks)