The Wild Reed: Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run: “There’s No Downside to Her Doing This”

I have to say that The Humanist Report’s response to President Biden’s Press Secretary’s mocking of Marianne Williamson and her presidential candidacy is spot-on.

I also appreciate David Doel’s take on Marianne’s candidacy, a candidacy I wholeheartedly support. Observes Doel:

Marianne Williamson’s challenge of Joe Biden, if it’s properly covered by the media, has the potential to move the conversation during the Democratic primary; it could move Joe Biden to address many of the economic issues being addressed by Marianne Williamson. So regardless of what you think about Marianne, [her running for president] is a net positive; there’s no downside to her doing this.

Also worth a look-see is Kyle Kulinski’s critique of the members of the congressional progressive caucus and their support of Biden over the “thousand times” more progressive Marianne Williamson. (As one wit commented in response to Kulinski’s piece: “With progressives like these, who needs centrists?”)

The congressional progressive caucus are all in for Joe Biden. They know Marianne’s running; they know that what Marianne supports is much closer to what they say they support. But they’re all in for Joe Biden. . . . For the best of them, and I’m being so kind in saying this, the reason they support Biden is, We think he’s inevitable, we want to make some change in the direction that we prefer, and the way to do that is to play the game, back the guy who we know is going to win, and hope that [it will be a case of] I supported you so you’re now going to support me and some of the things I prefer. . . . None of them are acting from principle. If they claim that they’re in favor of [the range of progressive policies being championed by Marianne Williamson], if they claim those things and actually meant it, then the principled thing to do would be to say, Who’s close to my actual positions? Ah! It’s not even close! Marianne’s a thousand times closer to my actual positions. I’m going to support her. Not a single one of them is acting based on principle.

And finally, despite it being primarily a jaded hatchet-job, Nic Rowan’s March 9 Washington Examiner piece on Marianne can’t help acknowledging the political progressivism and inspiring humanity at the core of her presidential bid. Following are excerpts.

[Marianne Williamson] wants universal healthcare, free college and the cancellation of all existing student loan debt, a raft of family policies, a wealth tax, prohibitions on “dark money” in politics, and a transition to a green economy. These were certainly not Trump’s priorities. And while Biden may give lip service to some of them, Williamson sees him and other Democrats as limited by an “oligarchic system” in which “corporate profits take precedence over the good of the people [and the planet].” Her vision is different and, she says, untainted by the nihilism and cynicism that has marked Washington politics since World War II.

Williamson would know about cynicism since she is a Washingtonian herself. She moved to the city shortly after dropping out of the 2020 presidential race and became a fixture on the activist circuit. She told reporters that she was just keeping “an ear to the ground” and learning about the mechanics of politics in the Capital, but she was always preparing for another run.

. . . Insofar as Williamson does have a constituency, it has always been made up of people driven by conscience. . . . Williamson is one of these people herself. She was raised by parents who took public morality very seriously, to the point that her father once flew [the family] to Saigon to demonstrate the grave evil of America’s involvement in the Vietnam War. When she was still beginning her career as a spiritual and self-help [teacher and author], she raised her profile in Los Angeles by giving speeches around the city to raise awareness about the AIDS crisis. And during the darkest moments of Bill Clinton’s presidency, she served as an adviser to Hillary Clinton, organizing retreats and counseling sessions for the beleaguered first lady.

In the past few years, as Williamson has become more enmeshed in Washington, she has grown beyond her old world. But her spiritually inflected self-help attitude still animates her approach to politics, often in ways that positively distinguish her from her rivals. Unlike most other professional politicians, Williamson’s posture is perfect, her skin luminous, and her suits well-brushed, never wrinkled. She does not sweat. She always stays on message and speaks from memory. (“Never, never a teleprompter,” a staffer told me.) When she wants to move through a crowd, it parts before her as if on command.

. . . “I am not naive about the forces that have no intention of allowing anyone into this conversation who does not align with their predetermined agenda,” she admits. Still, she begs her audience to “reject within ourselves the nihilism, reject within ourselves the cynicism, reject within ourselves the personal anger,” and march with her to battle the forces of injustice and, maybe, defeat them.

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– March 14, 2023

The Wild Reed

Thursday, March 09, 2023

Progressive Perspectives on Marianne Williamson’s Presidential Run: “There’s No Downside to Her Doing This”

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