JOSEPH FORD COTTO INTERVIEWS LAROUCHE
Lyndon LaRouche on the
Significance of Donald Trump’s Victory
[Print version of this interview]
Feb. 21—The San Francisco Review of Books recently published an interview of Lyndon LaRouche by Joseph Ford Cotto, in five parts, of which the following is a condensation. Reprinted with permission.
Cotto: People have said a great many things about Lyndon LaRouche over the years.
To be fair, he has shared more than a bit about his own views—and why not? At 94, he has a lifetime of experience in traversing the maze of politics, economics, science, and cultural pursuits that makes our world go ’round.
While LaRouche’s claim to fame is principally of a fiscal nature—his LaRouche-Riemann Method is perhaps the most accurate economic forecasting model yet devised—the man has delved into so many different facets of the human experience that one can legitimately elevate him to polymath status.
Whether one should read his views on classical music or space technology, it is a wonder that a single fellow is capable of holding so much knowledge about such a diverse array of topics. Even in the case that his views are found to be disagreeable, it must be admitted that he knows his stuff.
The child of an independent-minded New England Quaker family who served in World War II, LaRouche was imbued with a deep sense of purpose from a young age. Having interviewed the man on several occasions and reviewed his biography, it seems clear to me that, for the immense complexity of his life’s work, the overarching goal is raising the bar of civilization so as many people as possible enjoy a more-than-decent standard of living.
Of course, certain voices will point out that he ran into a financial snafu with the federal government, for which he did some jail time, or that the LaRouche organization is run with military-like efficiency—something starkly unusual for civilian politics.
I say that nobody is perfect. I also say that, given his age and multitude of life lessons, he should be deemed a living historical monument. Special emphasis is due the word ‘living’ as LaRouche’s movement is arguably stronger than ever, thanks to the Internet, and the finely-tuned publishing empire he built ensures that his views will remain in circulation for quite awhile.
LaRouche spoke with me about several timely issues. Some of our conversation is included below.
Lyndon H. Larouche gave his answers on January 13, 2017.
Cotto: A few years ago, certain political forecasters claimed that the future of America’s center-right belongs to libertarians. Since the 2012 presidential election, protectionism has surged in both major parties. Now, in the age of Trump, libertarianism’s once-ascendant nature seems a distant memory. Would you say that right-libertarian politics have any serious potential under Trump?
LaRouche: The point is the support for Trump’s coming Presidency, that is the key. Right wing libertarian politics per se is not important. It is Trump and his role which is important. It is a new, improved practice. Trump has promised to invest $1 trillion in urgently needed infrastructure and promised the implementation of a 21st Century Glass Steagall Act. If he implements his infrastructure promise he will need that reform to finance it.
Cotto: More than anything else, why are protectionist economics transforming the American conservative movement?
LaRouche: Trump! Trump’s method. Trump’s way of dealing with the people. Protection—the issue is to make the economy work with real measures, as I just mentioned. It is a buoying up on Trump’s efforts. It is not that the Old Right are no longer important, but is the question of bringing together a more novel way, not doing the same old thing. Ronald Reagan conservatives would surely find something interesting in Donald Trump. Absolutely! We had a president who was taken out of action [the assassination attempt on Reagan—Editor] but he came back in. It was not a simple thing, because I was one of the victims of that thing. What was done to him was that. Reagan survived the attack on him. He had a long period, extended period, an inability to function, but he got back into that function and he tried to build up more and more what he had as his intent, and I had been one of the key figures of his administration.
But we’re talking about Trump. Really we’re talking about Trump on the basis that he is now the new leader for the United States. He has promised to build up the American economy again, and there are great precedents of American Presidents using the American System of Economy as it was developed by Alexander Hamilton, explicitly in contrast to the British System of Free Trade. That is the system that worked in the past, and it will work again. Now, what Trump has done by his success, here, is to build up the possibility of a revival of the U.S. economy.
Cotto: The social justice warrior left and the alt-right have found success in spreading their ideas via Internet memes. Memes, by their very definition, are simplistic and emotional in nature. Untold millions of Americans, presumably Millennials in large part, appear more influenced by memes than longer, more reasonable arguments. Has the Internet dumbed down the political acumen of our country’s young adults?
LaRouche: Yes, but there is, of course, still the potential of reversing that trend. Human beings are human beings, and once they have hope for their future, they get inspired to improve. On the Internet making people more stupid, it doesn’t work that way. It is not the Internet per se. The education system has moved away from real scientific discovery. Young people think that because they got something from the Internet they know something. The question is, we have now this new government. Is the new one going to be better than the old? Everything follows from that.
Cotto: In America, entertainment is no longer clearly separated from news. Talk radio hosts, bloggers, and even television personalities devote time to amusing their audiences and vilifying the ‘other side’—delivering a cartoonish version of reality which leaves untold millions misinformed. Is the average American adult now less cognizant of the issues than he or she might have been, say, 40 years ago?
LaRouche: Not quite. It comes from a different way. They are reduced in their functioning to an inferior level, compared to the former, better operation. What has happened is you have the degeneration of the effectiveness of the whole system. The citizens become citizens as such in a real sense, which Trump can do obviously—that’s the change, that’s the point. Given the economic data of the state of the U.S. labor force, shorter life expectancies, drug addiction, suicide rates, unemployment—a real effort to increase the real productivity of labor will be required. And Trump will have trouble with this thing, as he doesn’t know how to explain the argument. Trump himself will understand the argument, but many of the people who are involved with him, as on his economic team, will have to face up to and understand this.
Cotto: What do you anticipate the primary legacy of Trump’s election will be, specifically as far as American conservatism is concerned?
LaRouche: It will be the revival of the traditional U.S. American System of Economics, which will now have a better chance of succeeding given that other nations are moving in the direction of those Principles, like with “Win-Win” cooperation with China and the Belt and Road Initiative, where over 70 nations are using American System principles.
Cotto: For the sake of our national interest, was Trump’s victory preferable to a Hillary Clinton win?
LaRouche: Ha! There is no comparison. She is dumped. She is not anything, she is a dump.
Cotto: More than anything else, why do you think Trump managed to secure a victory that many seasoned political operatives deemed unlikely?
LaRouche: That is sort of an amusing question. The answer is that Trump is actually supporting a refreshed status for the economy. The Trump vote in the U.S. is one of many expressions of populations being fed up with being victims of the system of globalization, which made the poor poorer and destroyed the Middle Class. Trump gave expression to that sentiment.
Cotto: How large a role do you believe that Barack Obama’s presidency played in driving late-deciding voters into Trump’s column?
LaRouche: No. There was no connection in that sense. The point was, we dumped that. Obama was dumped, and just keep it that way. Trump was the good guy as opposed to the bad guy. It is not a mystery for me, something that I have to explain away. Trump moved in and he changed the course of history. He got the job that Obama lost. Trump will have to lead a successful renewal of the economy of the United States.
