U.S. political cult leader Lyndon LaRouche dies at 96

I missed this when it occurred a month ago: Lyndon LaRouche, economic theorist, conspiracy theorist, perennial U.S. presidential candidate, and cult leader, died on February 12, 2019 at the age of 96, as reported in a laudatory obituary published in his Executive Intelligence Review.

Mr. LaRouche's cult--the International Caucus of Labor Committees--revolved around himself rather than around fixed dogma, which enabled him, over a period of 40 years, to retain much of his following while migrating from Marxism to a position on the political spectrum that could be described, in the words of a former professor of mine, as "slightly to the right of Nero."

Mr. LaRouche achieved some success at infiltrating the Democratic Party in the 1980s, but his tentacles reached beyond the United States. This blogger has seen LaRouche cultists at the Lester B. Pearson International Airport in Toronto, while the Schiller Institute, which was founded by his second wife Helga Zepp-LaRouche, had, and perhaps still has, a base in Sherwood Park, Alberta. In the mid-1980s, an obscure critical article about Mr. LaRouche by Alberta cultwatcher Chris Milner in Alberta Report magazine prompted a handwritten rebuttal to Mr. Milner from a well-known American admirer of Mr. LaRouche.

For more on Lyndon LaRouche, see the following articles:

Lyndon LaRouche, Cult Figure Who Ran for President 8 Times, Dies at 96 by Richard Severo, The New York Times, February 13, 2019

Lyndon LaRouche Jr., conspiracy theorist and presidential candidate, dies at 96 by Timothy R. Smith, The Washington Post, February 13, 2019

Ideological Odyssey: From Old Left to Far Right by John Mintz, The Washington Post, January 14, 1985

Political Theater of the Absurd by Scott McLemee, Inside Higher Ed, February 19, 2019