Maybe you saw them here last week. Maybe you talked to them. Every now and again, they set up tables in the Arbor. They approach you with bright smiles. They’re a friendly and racially diverse crowd. They seem to really hate George W. Bush, something that plays really well on this campus. If you manage to break away in spite of their disarming friendliness, they won’t let you leave without at least taking one of their fliers, on the top of which exclaims, “Lyndon LaRouche, Democrat for President!”

Now if you’re a political junkie like me, you were probably thinking, “Wow, a Democratic candidate I haven’t heard about?” But it’s more likely you aren’t a loser, so you probably took their flier and went on your merry way.

When I started to do some research into this Lyndon LaRouche, that’s when things got weird. On his campaign website, LaRouche claims to be a “Franklin D. Roosevelt-style” Democrat, and the only man who can save America from economic ruin. The website’s singular focus on him as the sole panacea of America’s problems was an immediate red flag. That and his claim that the feds tried to kill him.

Delving further into LaRouche’s personal history did little to dispel my skepticism of him. His political r