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MR. BUSH, WHY NOT GIVE ME CONDI RICE'S JOB AND LET ME GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE NEXT FOUR YEARS?
Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed Nov. 16 by the Internet radio network Louisiana "Live," which is then picked up by many broadcast stations throughout Louisiana. His host was Don Grady.
DON GRADY: Now, we're going to turn our conversation to the world of politics and Lyndon LaRouche. First time I've ever had a chance to speak with Lyndon LaRouche. How are you, sir?
LAROUCHE: Pretty good for an old geezer.
GRADY: "For an old geezer"! My golly. You've run eight times for President, and that's probably the way most people can recognize you.
LAROUCHE: Well, I suppose it depends. Some people recognize me in a completely different way, for example, the author of SDI, and for several other things I've been involved in, rather than just running for President.
GRADY: Why did you always do that? You've run eight times, and quite honestly, twixt you and me, you knew you weren't going to win.
LAROUCHE: No, not necessarily so.
The problem is this: The reason I ran in the first place, was because of Brzezinski. I knew Brzezinski, with his Trilateral Commission, and what his program was, were trying to take over what they proposed to be the Carter Administration. And, it was terrible. And, from that point on, the Democratic Party itself, as well as the Republican Party in a similar, parallel way, moved in a direction which had transformed this country from the world's leading producer society into a post-industrial, bread-and-circuses society, somewhat like Rome: We've lost our industry, we lost our agriculture, we lost about everything. And now, we've come to the end of what I've been fighting about all these years.
I ran for one reason: To restore this country, back to the tradition which Roosevelt had bequeathed to us, at the time of his death. I thought that was the way to go. And I thought the Democratic Partyone time, Kennedy for example, in January of 1995, said, the country does not need two Republican Parties. And now, I would say, we need a real Republican Party and a real Democratic Party, as opposed to what we're looking at, by and large, right now.
So, that's what I've been running about.
And, I've always been right. The record shows I've been right on all these issues. Now the time has come, again, when I've sort of exhausted my running potential, but I'm still capable of giving some direction to the way my survivors, shall we say, shall go.
GRADY: Why can't we have an active third party? A viable third party? Are the two biggies squeezing out the third one?
LAROUCHE: No. The problem is very simple. First of all, we've had changes in political parties in the United States many times. The Federalist Party failed under John Adams. The Republican Democratic Party, under Jefferson and under Madison was a complete failure. We later went to a number of parties, including the Whig Party, which was a good party. We had the intervention of the Liberty Party, which was a terrible party, which wrecked the Whig Party. We had the emergence of the Republican Party, which was a very good party when it started, with some problems in it. It degenerated. And then, we had both the Democratic and Republican Party had pretty much degenerated at the beginning of the last century.
Then, we had a crisis, and we got Roosevelt, and Roosevelt changed the character of the Democratic Party, transformed it absolutely. We continued to roll on on that legacy more or less, at least in the roots of the party, up through the middle of the 1960s. Then, after Nixon, we got Nixon out of there, but then we, under the leadership of Brzezinski and Co., went in the very same direction of the worst of what Nixon was doing to us.
So, what we've had is, with the creation of so-called "Crisis in Democracy"/Project Democracy project, we've had a management system, run out of Washington, which manages the parties, in such a way, that really, the expression of the opinion, the interest, of the typical American, the lower 80% of family-income brackets, really has no voice.
So, we have, actually, two parties. But, in a sense, we have no parties. We came close, with Kerry, in the last two months of the election campaign, to actually reviving the Democratic Party as a viable instrument. Now, it's possible that may come about despite the so-called defeat in the election. On the other hand, you have Republicans, who've had more than enough, of the reign of the neo-conservatives. So, we're in a very unstable period, where we might get a new party combination. You might get the best of the Democrats and the best of the Republicans, in the immediately coming period, beginning to come together, and forming a new Democratic-Republican coalition.
GRADY: Wow, that would be interesting.
[station break]
Lyndon LaRouche is our guest, a man of many talents. Most people know that he ran eight times for the Presidency. Now has a political action committee. And what is the purpose of your PAC?
LAROUCHE: Well, the purpose was essentiallyI planned to launch it at the time of the certification of the candidacy of Kerry was announced at the convention. I did it just then, the day afterward.
The point is, it's a long-term prospect for rebuilding the political process in the United States. That's the purpose. We're now dealing with the aftermath of an inconclusive election: The final word has not been written on that. Even if Bush is confirmed, as is probable, at least, we don't know what kind of a government his second administration would be. It's still very much up for grabs. So, that's where we lie.
We're also dealing with the fact that the greatest financial collapse in modern history is now onrushing. This requires some changes in policy. It requires, also, new standards of cooperation between the United States and our friends in Western Europe and elsewhere. That, I'm a specialist in. We're working on that, too.
So, there are many things, that a Democratic Party intelligentsia should be doing. We're doing it. We're doing it in cooperation with a number of Democrats. We're also in discussion with many Republicans, on the same kind of question: about what are the policiesthe action policies, not the long-term policies alone, but the current action policies, in questions like the Middle East, and so forth.
GRADY: Yeah. You've been keeping a watchful eye on Iraq, and you don't necessarily like what you see.
LAROUCHE: Oh, this is Dien Bien Phu. It's not exactly the same in detail. But, the decision was the same one. Here, we have a lost situation, that's been bungled to the nth degree. We're getting people killed for an ego-trip in that state, for no reason. We're going to get a situation, which is uncontrollable. We can blow up, as I think.
Strangely enough, James Baker III probably agrees with me, at this point! Both of us have endorsed the idea of [Palestinian leader Marwan] Barghouti being released from [an Israeli] prison, so we'd have somebody to negotiate with on the Israeli side, for the Palestinians, in order to finally make a move for peace again. If this blows up
Look, we're losing petroleum around the world. The North Sea oil may run out in a couple of years. Russian oil is very expensive. It may run out in 10, 12, 15 yearswho knows? Gulf oil, or the Gulf region oil, costs about 75 cents a barrel to produce! And that thing will be there, from my survey with experts, for about 80 years or more to come.
If we start, and continue this nonsense, in this region of the worldI think that's where the Carlyle Group around George Bush I and so forth are lookingif we blow that up, what are we going to do? We've made ourselves dependent upon petroleum as a fuel! Our reliable source of petroleum is from the Gulf region. We want to spread warfare, in that region, now? When we're looking at $50 a barrel oil, right now. We're looking at least, at $100 a barrel if this kind of thing continues. Where are we going, when it comes wintertime, and we have to get heating oil for our homes, and we have to try to keep those buggies on the road?
So, we're in a period of insanity, which requires some immediate action, from a concert of forces in the United Statesnot just Democrats, but we hope, sane Republicans.
GRADY: Also, the dollar is concerning you. The value of the dollar. I just saw a front-page story, I guess it was yesterdayit just keeps sliding.
LAROUCHE: Well, the dollar was supposed to be nominally equivalent to 1 euro. And now a euro is worth $1.30and that's highly artificial. They're fighting out in the streets virtually, to try to keep the dollar from going below that price. It certainly will. We're looking at the potentiality of $2 a euro.
GRADY: Wow!
LAROUCHE: So, we are looking, alsoremember, look at our Federal debt. We're coming up, immediately, with a Federal debt crisis. We can not continue to balance the budget, or that is, within the debt limit, on this basis.
We're faced with a major collapse of the mortgage-based securities market, in England, and a much more serious threat here. We're faced with raw materials prices, are zooming, as a result of a vast speculation in raw materials, which includes petroleum, but zinc, tin, nickel, and so forththe rest of the lot.
So, we're in a crisis, beyond belief. We're actually, contrary to all this talk about growth, unemployment is increasingit's the only thing that really is increasing. We did this survey in Ohio: All jobs have been lostremember, Ohio is one of the most prosperous agricultural/industrial states in the Union. Now, it's lost that in the past 14 years. And the jobs are no longer high-grade steel, or technology jobs, or high-grade agriculture: The jobs are the lowest-paid hotel and restaurant workers.
So, we are destroying the United States. And some people are not looking at the clock.
So, somebody's got to do something about it. There are solutions. But they mean rather drastic policy changes.
GRADY: Right.
[station break]
Right now, Lyndon LaRouche, continuing our conversation with the eight-time candidate for the Presidency. Mr. LaRouche, right before the break, I said, if you had one minute with George Bush, what advice would you give him?
LAROUCHE: I would tell him, first of all, let's get rid of Cheney. He's probably guilty, but he's also got a health problem; let's get him out of there, just for your safety. And, in the meantime, what I suggest either, is that you take it easy: Give me Condoleezza Rice's job, let me guide you through the next four years, and you'll get the best deal you possibly could getand the American people, too!
GRADY: And the odds of him taking your advice would be?
LAROUCHE: I have not the slightest idea in the world. This guy is, what he is: So, he might take it. He probably wouldn't. But, at least I'd make the offer.
GRADY: That's right. Have you ever had access, or a chance to talk to him at all?
LAROUCHE: To him? No. Well, I don't think he's quite reachable; he doesn't like me very much, you know.
Cheney really hates me. But, George Bush! I don't know exactly what he thinks about me, but I don't think he likes me. But, that's all right. I'm a generous person. I can take care of him.
GRADY: Huh! It's probably something you said.
LAROUCHE: Could be!
GRADY: You know, somewhere along the way! Ohh!
Who is in politics now, that you admire, and that you would say is virtually a shining star.
LAROUCHE: I don't think we have any. I've looked around Europe. I've looked around the United States. We don't have any.
As I've said repeatedly, I have the mental qualities of a commander-in-chief. We used to have a number of these guys around who could do that. We have Kerry, who is probably a good colonel in command of troops. But, when it comes to leading the battle into war, as, say the case of Douglas MacArthur at Inchon, in Korea: There's a commander-in-chief, who took a maximum riskwhere the risk of the United States, the risk of his forces, are totally at stakehe took the risk.
We don't have that kind of politician. We have "maybe" politicians: "Maybe I'll do this." "Maybe I'll do that." We really don't have a person who is. We have good people. People I like. People I think would make a great contribution, many of them. But I don't think we have a potential commander-in-chief apart from me, anywhere in the sight right now.
GRADY: Okay. Can we do this again, sometime soon?
LAROUCHE: Why sure.
GRADY: I'd appreciate it so much. Lyndon LaRouche, thanks for your time. Ohyou have a website for your PAC?
LAROUCHE: Yes, larouchepac.com.
GRADY: larouchepac.com, all right. Thank you much, sir.
LAROUCHE: Good day.
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