San Francisco Blog

By Peter Jamison

It's an open secret that not much changes with the advent of a new year. Resolutions or no, most of us wake up on Jan. 1 with the same reluctance to exercise, 3 p.m. caffeine cravings, and freight of interpersonal neuroses that haunted us on Dec. 31. The same can be said of people's political convictions, and anyone out shopping for organic Brie and not-so-bargain bubbly in San Francisco on New Year's Eve could see that the ravings of Lyndon LaRouche (pictured below) are here to stay.

A trio of activists from the LaRouche Political Action Committee was canvassing in front of the Whole Foods on 4th Street yesterday afternoon, hoping to capitalize on a bumper crop of holiday tourists and shoppers. The canvassers, all of whom declined to speak on the record, said they were part of a group of more than 100 LaRouchites -- including roughly 20 paid staffers -- with an office in Oakland.

How can one to begin to describe LaRouche? American political culture has never lacked for voices on the fringe, but LaRouche -- a serial presidential candidate -- is remarkable by dint of both his longevity and the sheer outlandishness of his platform. What other candidate for the White House asserts that foremost among the enemies of the United States are Aristotle, the Anti-Defamation League and members of the British royal family? As George Johnson of the New York Times pointed out in an excellent 1989 piece on LaRouche, "There is something to offend everyone, or to appeal to every imaginable form of bigotry."

A sampling of the master's views could be gleaned from the propaganda peddled by LaRouchites in front of Whole Foods yesterday. Gems from one tract -- bearing the provocative title, "The Last Chance for Civilization?" -- include the following:

"There is no other empire on this planet today, except the British Empire."

"You have people in New York, like this crazy Mayor of New York: He wants to take over the infrastructure. He'll buy your sidewalk, and he'll put a tollgate at each block! This is not what I mean by infrastructure!"

And this cutting insight on the unforeseen consequences of solar energy:

"Where you want a green planet, you are creating a desert. And you say, 'That's better for nature.' This is only from the mind of denatured idiots, who think of these kinds of things. That's why they're called denatured."

Right. I'm guessing that went over great with the Whole Foods set.

The appeal of all conspiracy theories is the same: They purport to explain a world that for the most part escapes our understanding. To some minds, that appeal is so great that they reach for the likes of Lyndon LaRouche. For the rest of us, as we get ready to muddle through 2009, let's hope some Brie and bubbly will suffice.