I don't know exactly when you were living there, but back in the 2004-2007 time window LaRouche managed to pick up a bunch of new supporters by coming out stron

I don't know exactly when you were living there, but back in the 2004-2007 time window LaRouche managed to pick up a bunch of new supporters by coming out strong against the Iraq war, at a time when pretty much every establishment voice on both sides of the aisle was still shell-shocked by 9/11 and terrified of saying anything that might make them look soft on terrorism. So when young people who opposed the war went looking for a leader to follow, LaRouche was one of the few out there who appeared to be talking sense. He wasn't, of course, Lyndon LaRouche was totally Looney Tunes, but if you were desperate to find someone willing to be against the war and too young to be familiar with LaRouche's crackpottery in the '60s and '70s, it's easy to understand how you could get sucked in. (One of these unfortunate kids, a young man from Britain named Jeremiah Duggan, ended up dead under somewhat mysterious circumstances -- see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeremiah_Duggan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeremiah_Duggan .)