Author and Democratic Presidential Candidate Marianne Williamson re-enters the race, prioritizing women’s rights with a call for supportive Supreme Court judges, while advocating universal healthcare, income equality and environmental sustainability for a transformative vision. She delivers a perspective with the intention of reshaping America’s trajectory toward a more inclusive and sustainable future.
Aiming to secure the highest office in the nation, Williamson’s return to the presidential race brings these significant matters to the forefront of the national conversation, presenting voters with a distinct choice in shaping the country’s future.
Having been criticized for some of the same reasons that she was popularized; her novel “A Return to Love” and her background in spiritual leading, Williamson advocates for her earnestness.
“All it is, is PR to make it sound as if they are the serious grown-ups,” Williamson said. “In my mind, we’re the serious grown-ups. We’re talking about hungry children. We’re talking about people who don’t have health care. We’re talking about a planet that is ravaged, we are talking about people who have to work 2 and 3 jobs to survive. To me, we’re the serious ones. But there are PR narratives to the peripheral lie about anybody that doesn’t align with where the Democratic leadership is going.”
Agreeing with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s popular stance, Williamson argues that preventing a fascist takeover relies on the fulfillment of democratic pledges. However, democracy has yet to uphold its commitments within the nation’s borders. Considering other advanced democracies, universal health care, paid-family-leave, free college and live-able wages are present.
She invokes the insights of Adam Smith, a key figure in the development of free-market capitalism, who stressed the importance of an ethical center for its functioning. However, according to Williamson, the dominant capitalist ethos in contemporary America seems to lack this crucial ethical framework, leading to what critics label as “vulture capitalism” or “hyper capitalism.”
Focusing on a shift that has occurred over the last 50 years, which has moved around a staggering $50 trillion of wealth to the richest 1% of Americans, this change, she’s saying, comes from companies prioritizing making quick profits, even if it means not paying as much attention to local communities, workers, the environment, and the future.
Williamson believes that the notion of stockholders and CEOs as primary job creators is misleading. Instead, she contends that this perspective has contributed to job reductions and worker exploitation, exemplified by ongoing disputes such as the writer and actor strikes in Los Angeles.
Emphasizing the urgency of returning to an ethical center within capitalism, Williamson advocates for one that encompasses a broader array of stakeholders beyond shareholders and corporate executives. This perspective aligns with her ongoing push for change, evident in her candidacy and her advocacy for a reevaluation of the nation’s economic priorities.
“So when you ask me what morality and politics are,” Williamson said. “Morality and politics would be people saying, ‘you can’t take away that child tax credit?’ ‘You’re taking food out of the mouths of babies?’ ‘What are we talking about here?’ There is no moral or ethical consideration that does not include a concern for human suffering. It’s not an abstraction. It’s very practical. Too many people suffer in this country. We are the richest country in the world. There is too much unnecessary human suffering.”
The author/politician looks at the problem-solvers among the country. She acknowledges that there are people who already have the best practices in helping individuals rehabilitate back into society. She praises those that are helping with the incarcerated, the formerly-incarcerated, and children so that they do not fall into the cradle-to-prison pipeline.
The idea that local leaders with solutions often lack the influence to drive change while those in power frequently omit solution-oriented voices, she contends, is due to the potential clash between implementing these solutions and immediate corporate interests. Such interests, often driven by influential donors, can sway the decisions of legislators and leaders.
“I feel that when I get to open the door, I’ll say to people, ‘come on in guys. We’ve got 4 years,’” Williamson said. “Because a lot of people in this country really know what to do, and have very little power to actually actualize on a large scale, and are the kind of solution America most needs.”
Williamson argues that this situation underscores the importance of an external figure unaffected by corporate affiliations. She advocates for a novel-perspective, free from corporate influence, to instigate substantial change in the United States. According to her analysis, such a departure from the traditional system is pivotal for fostering constructive transformation in contemporary America.
Williamson poses the question, “Why must the current generation of young individuals continue to experience the consequences of outdated 20th-century notions?” The candidate contends that America is home to a cohort of young people possessing ample energy, creativity, enthusiasm, and aspiration for innovation.
“Public policy should be setting people up to thrive,” Williamson said. “Right now, too much public policy, especially in the lives of America’s young people, actually warts their ability to self-actualize, spread their wings and soar.”
Williamson also disagrees with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, believing that the Democrats should have codified it and that Obama did not follow-through with his promise by the end of his term.
“There is a majority on the Supreme Court now, who said, ‘I believe more with the corporate interests than with the health, safety and well-being of the American people,” Williamson said. “I think the Dobbs [Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization] decision will go down as one of the worst decisions in our history. But right now, it is what it is… That kind of suppression of women’s freedom and liberty is more than extremist,” Williamson said. “It’s worse. It’s fascistic. And that is the danger. That is the risk. That is the peril that stands before us.”
The candidate believes that describing the United States’s economy as “doing well” is a statement that is contradictory to the visceral experience of the majority of Americans. Ultimately, she does not perceive Biden’s economics to be an adequate message to defeat the republicans in 2024 nor to repair the current economic state of the United States.
“20% of us are living on an island surrounded by a vast sea of economic despair,” Williamson said.
Furthermore, her stance emphasizes that America requires fundamental economic reform, specifically in the areas of universal health care, free college and technical school education, accessible child-care, paid family leave, guaranteed living wages, and assured housing. This perspective underscores a critical need for individuals across the political spectrum to collectively reassess the bedrock of the nation’s fiscal structure.
The politician would like to redirect the attention from socialism to that of corporate tyranny. She believes that the threat is not socialism, but it is something that is already here and is rigging the social system against the majority of the American people.
“I’m not going to have a magic wand,” Williamson said. “No president has a magic wand… My basic message to the American people is, we’re a big ship and we’re headed for the iceberg. If you vote for a neoliberal corporate Democrat, we’re still going to hit the iceberg, just at a different angle. I say we need to turn around now. But it’s a big ship and it needs to be turned around wisely and responsibly and carefully. In my 4 years as president, you’re not going to say, ‘wow, she turned that ship completely around… No, but you would say, she got it around the curve. In 4 years, you got around the curve. Then, she hands it over to a millennial,’ whomever… But you’ll be on the trajectory… I always say that we need a mother in the White House. And you can take that however you want it. You’re going to feel that there is a woman who is sitting in the Oval Office every single day, refusing to bend now on one hand.”
