Thanks to Sabot Cat for helping with the premise.
Some notes:
Don Merrill was a fellow soldier of LaRouche's who introduced him to Marxism. The POD is that Merrill reads Trotsky's articles on The French Turn and entryism, and shows them to LaRouche.
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Part One: Rise
March 5th, 1946
Don Merrill lay in his bunk, smoking a cigarette and reading the paper. For several minutes the only thing he could hear was the sound of him blowing smoke, the turning of paper, and the creaking of the ship. All of the sudden he heard footsteps and a the notes of Vivaldi's Winter. He looked up to see his friend Lydon LaRouche. “Come here Lyndon, I have something to show you” Merrill said. He set down the paper and fished around, eventually finding the paper he was looking for. “This is by Trotsky. Do you know what entryism is Lyndon?” “No idea Don.” “Trotsky explains it better, but entryism is founded on the realization that revolutionary ideologies aren't exactly the most popular. We could try to build popularity on the outside, ignoring electoral politics, but another way to gain popularity is to join a bourgeoisie party and spread our message from the inside.” LaRouche took his glasses off, cleaned them off, and said “So basically to succeed we pretend to be Democrats?” Merrill thought for a minute, then said “Almost. It's more about spreading our message inside the party, and you can't really do that if you are pretending to be a mainstream Democrat. Seriously, Trotsky explains it much better.” He handed LaRouche the paper.
November 12th, 1948
Lyndon LaRouche shivered as he entered his apartment building. He shook the snow off his coat and went into his tiny apartment. After turning the radio for some background noise he opened up his voter registration form and began filling it out. Now seemed as appropriate a time as ever to join the Democrats. Truman had just been reelected, the biggest upset in electoral history. After finishing filling the form out he noticed the essay by Trotsky that Merrill had given him a few years before. How naïve,he thought. Ideas are only half the battle. What really matters to fulfilling your goals is power. Of course, a Trotskyist in the Democratic Party would never get power, unless, LaRouche smiled at his idea, they weren't an obvious Trotskyist. But once in power a person could move mountains. Satisfied he put on a Brahms record and let the music overtake him.
Still looks really interesting, and I hope the OTHER Lyndon will appear in the story.
