July 30, 2008 (LPAC)-The LaRouche PAC transformed two Boston-area Barack Obama “meet-ups” into serious platform hearings last weekend. Out of dozens of similar events, which were billed as “issue dialogues”, these two in particular showed the sobering effect that the string of bank failures, the rising wave of home foreclosures, and the general sense of economic despair is having on activists and political leaders from within the Democratic base; the weeks leading into the national convention should be recognized by activists and Democratic Party leaders alike, as a time period in history in which common Americans are feeling ready and capable of discussing big and profound concepts concerning policy solutions for America’s future -- a fertile ground for LaRouche’s “Three Steps to Survival” economic policy leaflet and the newly produced “1932” documentary DVD.

These two events, one held at Boston’s historic Fanieull Hall, the other in a private residence in a former industrial town north of Boston, were both convened with the directed intention to discuss the issues of the Presidential campaign. Although the Obama campaign gave their supporters the option of just reporting whether the participants in these “issues dialogues” passively supported or did not support Sen. Obama’s stance on “the issues”, the participants in both of these get-togethers decided not to vote, passively, whether they agreee or disagree, but, rather, to write their own platform themselves, as if they themselves had been tasked to compose the official document for the entire national party.

The discussion of the bank failures in Nevada and California which had occurred the previous day, dominated the discussion of both of these events. Although, in the meeting occurring in Boston’s Fanieull Hall (the official meeting place of the American Patriots during our Revolutionary War), some of the participants got uncomfortable when the LPAC organizers present emphasized the importance of discussing the role of British-modeled free trade as the cause of the current economic crisis (one of the ladies, said that she wanted to put a “moratorium on discussing 19th century British economics”, adding that Adam Smith had been dead for two centuries), the sobering reality of the banking crisis in the United States put the participants in a state of mind to engage in a serious discussion about policy, in which the participants decided to put aside childish reactions and immature assumptions, and engage in an honest dialogue on Lyndon LaRouche’s proposed policies and solutions: LaRouche’s proposed 4-percent interest rate policy, the “four-powers” fixed-exchange rate system, the sort of infrastructure and credit necessary to replace the current failed HMO healthcare system, and even the benefits of nuclear power and nuclear waste reprocessing. This long discussion was translated into the first point in the group’s final draft platform, which reads: “We need a humane systemic reorganization of the economic system.” The group also chose to begin their draft platform with the preamble of the Constitution, with the names of all the people present inserted after the phrase, “We, the People”; and, on the bottom of the platform document, it welcomes the “Lyndon LaRouche PAC members who attended this meeting and contributed to the discussions highlighting their core principles ‘…speak not of parties but of Universal principle.’”

The city in which the other of these two successful platform hearings was held, had, last year, become one of the first cities in the country to endorse a resolution calling on Congress to pass LaRouche’s proposed Homeowners and Bank Protection Act. The citizens who attended this discussion were just as serious about engaging in a discussion of LaRouche’s solutions to the economic crash, the HBPA included. On the question of health care, one feisty lady brought up how we needed universal, single-payer health care, the Conyers bill; many people recognized this as what Hillary had been campaigning for. There was recognition that HMOs are designed to kill people and that the problem was the deregulation of the Hill Burton act. Included in the final draft resolution of this group, is a call to “Look at the Hill-Burton Act that existed under Roosevelt and implementing something like this again with or without variations,” elaborating that point by saying, “There should be a mandated caretaker-to-patient ratio in hospitals that is appropriate and not overwhelming on the nurses, etc.” and, “Hospital budgeting should be based on needs and by the size of the community it resides in and serves”.

Realizing that the bank collapses of the previous day were merely symptoms of an overall insolvency of the banking system as a whole, the Democrats present were eager to hear all of the details of LaRouche’s proposals of instituting a new financial system, freezing home foreclosures, protecting chartered banks, raising the Fed interest rate, instating a two-tier credit system, and even abolishing the global order of free-markets and free-trade. They listened intently to the solutions laid out in LaRouche’s “Three Steps to Survival”.

The Democratic Platform points written were based on this long discussion of LaRouche’s ideas for the economic recovery: it stressed an FDR New Deal plan, FDR’s bank holiday, FDR’s method of reorganizing and regulating the baking system, and a two tier credit system. This loose and open process of discussion allowed everybody in the room to think through and understand that LaRouche’s proposals were in fact the only solution which would work, and prompted the group to attempt to put the principles of LaRouche’s ideas into their own words. One lady said she thought the whole system had to be changed, “we should reform the whole capitalist system.” The two LaRouche PAC organizers used this as an opportunity to elaborate some of the history of the American System, as documented in the 1932 documentary video, and the fact that the true dichotomy is not between capitalism versus socialism, but the American versus the British System, and that Roosevelt was standing on the shoulders of the 19th century American protectionist economists Hamilton, Clay, Cary, and Lincoln. This point became included in the draft platform of this group, expressed as the difference between “Free market capitalism vs. state-protected capitalism”.

Finally, there was more discussion on an array of other related topics: Energy, Infrastructure, Immigration, Drugs, and Education. The platform ended up including a call to “Improve Central America and Mexican economies and develop their infrastructure” to help deal with immigration. In the area of energy and infrastructure, “Nuclear power based industrial economy w/ pebble bed reactor technology” for “water desalination” and the “Possibility of a magnetic elevated rail.” Although some people defended solar and wind, and other “alternative” energies, there was unanimous agreement that the Democratic Party must join the call to “Stop ethanol from foodstuff conversion”.

It was the banking crash and a discussion of the urgent solutions to it, proposed by LaRouche, which made the people who attended this event think soberly and clearly about the importance of them taking the responsibility to compose a serious platform and think about the implications of this important election.