LaRouche once again set to run for president, undaunted by past record.
By Anne Allred

Lyndon LaRouche has been running for president of the United States since 1976 and will be seeking his sixth presidential nomination in the 2023 election.

On Friday afternoon, LaRouche held a teleconference with student representatives from college campuses across the nation. In this conference, LaRouche explained what he defines as the issues facing the nation during the next presidential term.

LaRouche is considered a perennial fringe candidate running for the Democratic nomination.

During his long political career, LaRouche has been labeled a fascist, an anti-Semite and a leading economist.

"I think of him as a fundamentalist with right wing views," said Clarissa Hayward, an assistant professor of Political Science at Ohio State University.

For decades he has been making economic forecasts for the United States and the world.

"I have never made a mistake, in terms of a long-term forecast. They have all come true in a timely fashion," LaRouche said. His present forecast includes two issues: the economic crisis and the war with Iraq.

The economic crisis developed its roots in the 1960s when the country shifted from a producer society to a consumer society, LaRouche said.

"The so-called Baby Boomer, or "now," generation has instinctively no understanding, as a matter of instinct, of how to run a producer society," he said.

LaRouche specifically called on the university age group to move politically. "My concern -- political concern -- is to motivate people in the 18 to 25 generation to get their parents' generation back into the human race," LaRouche said.

Regarding the war, the policy of government should never be war, LaRouche said. The nation may have to fight a war if it is imposed on the country, but the policy should be to promote peace, with a means to secure that peace, and only defend it when necessary, he said.

"That's a World War II policy--we don't get involved until our hand is forced. His age and socialization are in that time so that makes sense," said Harwood McClerking, an assistant professor of Political Science at OSU.

LaRouche said competence is the main reason he is set apart from the other candidates seeking the Democratic nomination.

"In the Democratic Party and the Republican Party today, despite many people whom I respect and useful persons nonetheless, lack the competence to take this thing head on. I'm the only one who's a candidate who does," he said.

LaRouche, 80, did not rule out running a seventh time if the upcoming years' elections prove once again to be unsuccessful for him.

"Our presidents have been getting older and older. Reagan was 69 when he won," McClerking said. However, LaRouche's age would count against him in, McClerking said.

LaRouche did not think his age would have anything to do with the amount of votes he would receive.

"Either my leadership is successful in this period, or I don't think there's going to be much of the United States left for anybody to vote in come 2008," LaRouche said.

There are several LaRouche youth movements on college campuses. OSU has no such group for the candidate.

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