Author and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson first shared the following words on her substack, Transform, in 2022 – on the first anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. They are as relevant today as they were then.
Our democracy wasn’t just attacked on January 6; our democracy is attacked every day of the week, and has been for the last forty years. The real “attack on our democracy” wasn’t just one event that took place [on January 6, 2021]; it’s the larger pattern of legalized bribery that’s destroying our democracy from the inside. Every time resources of hope and opportunity are transferred from the many to the few, our democracy is attacked. The main point of attack is the systemic corruption that goes on in that Capitol building every single day.
. . . The real dichotomy in American politics is not between the Right and the Left; it’s between the powerful and the powerless. The political-media industrial complex, headquartered in both parties, has created the Left-Right culture wars to distract Americans from the truth of who and what actually oppresses them. Our fellow citizens are not our enemy. Greed is our enemy. Abusive power is our enemy. Injustice is our enemy. Unfettered corporate influence is our enemy.
And those are the things that have been attacking our democracy. Many of the people [who will be singing] democracy’s praises today . . . are for all practical purposes but handmaidens to democracy’s enemies. No legislator who takes money from Big Pharma or insurance companies; gun manufacturers, Big Chem or Big Ag; Big Oil or the MIC [media industrial complex] has any right to call themselves a defender of our democracy. Not today, and not any day.
Related Off-site Links:
January 6: The Day That Still Divides America, Three Years On – Kayla Epstein (BBC News, January 5, 2024).
One Attack, Two Interpretations: Biden and Trump Both Make the January 6 Riot a Political Rallying Cry – Will Weissert AP News (January 4, 2024).
Three Years After the January 6 Attack, Propaganda About the Insurrection is Poisoning the American Public – Oliver Darcy CNN (January 5, 2024).
The Insurrection is Far From Over – Chris Lehmann The Nation (January 5, 2024).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
• A Deeper Perspective on What’s Really Attacking American Democracy
• Marianne Williamson: “We Need to Disrupt the Corrupt”
• Marianne Williamson: “We Must Challenge the Entire System”
• Marianne Williamson’s Politics of Love: The Rich Roll Interview
• Marianne Williamson’s “Radical Idea” of Putting People First
• Now Here’s a Voice I’d Like to Hear Regularly on the Sunday Morning Talk Shows
• Marianne Williamson on the Tenth Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street
• “The Coup Attempt on Jan. 6th Was a Warning for What’s to Come If We Don’t Act”
• Will Democrats Never Learn?
• Insurrection at the U.S. Capitol
• Michael Harriot: Quote of the Day – January 7, 2021
• The Republican Party in a Nutshell
• Dan Rather on America’s “Moment of Reckoning”
• Refuting Surface Level Comparisons Between the Insurrection at the Capitol and Black Lives Matter Protests
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