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Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson has been passing her time doing campaign events in New Hampshire since announcing earlier this month. Cockburn headed down to one in Milford and it was, well, quite the experience. A little over twenty people were in attendance, not including campaign staffers, and the candidate worked the room chatting with voters before the event began. A local news crew was standing by.
Taking the podium, the candidate wasted little time getting to the heart of her message: the system is corrupted, it is cruel — and it needs to be “fundamentally changed.” To Cockburn, her proposals suggested “revolutionized” might be a more aptly chosen verb. Marianne characterized the modern American system as utterly brutal: “But let’s be very clear here. The violence is the violence that is being done now. The violence that is being done to people’s health… to our economy… to our planet. So, the system as we have it isn’t nice. It is inherently violent.”
The entire economic system, per Marianne, is basically one giant conspiracy — with the complicity of the government — to give corporations power at the expense of the little man. “Of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations” is how she encapsulated her view of the system as it stands. Marxist much, Marianne?
After dropping out in 2020, Marianne endorsed Bernie Sanders. It’s unsurprising therefore that her economic philosophy was copied and pasted from her fellow leftie: free stuff! She wants universal healthcare, free college, free childcare and every other item on the progressive wishlist. How it will all be paid for in America’s current economic environment was not fully addressed in her pitch.
Williamson’s environmental agenda was also a touch extreme: “We are going to leave a planet to our descendants that could be inhabitable [presumably, she meant uninhabitable].” She continued, “You know, if you’re going to continue with this kind of carbon emissions what’s going to happen is that entire swaths of continents could basically become uninhabitable, the heat could be so great… So then you’re going to have massive implosion of food systems, massive implosion of economic systems, what could be up to, let’s say, 200 million environmental refugees, where are they going to go?” Blimey, cheer up Marianne! Cockburn thought you were meant to be an optimistic spiritual leader.
To fix this, Marianne proposes a Green New Deal. The details are spotty, but the complete transition to clean energy and the ending of fossil fuel extraction were explicitly mentioned. What about all of the workers in industries tied to fossil fuels? “If once you have, for instance, a Green New Deal, which is part of what we need, a lot of people who are already working in the kinds of infrastructure jobs involved in fossil fuel extraction can be moved over,” she said. Still concerned? Don’t be: “But the government owes it to people, we cannot allow thousands of people to just fall through the cracks.” Of course: the government will save the day. Anyone remember “shovel-ready jobs”?
One attendee expressed concern about Marianne’s policies involving too much government power. She rejected those assertions, and when the attendee tried to explain the concern that the poor will be harmed during an energy transition, she went ad hominem. “Yeah, I get what your spiel is… what you said at first I agree with… But the stuff you were talking about were not high-minded conservative principles, they were MAGA extreme right.”
Another attendee asked candidate about what she would do to actually support the poor during an energy transition, beyond just investing in green energy to make it cheaper. Williamson responded, “Well the people who are make – I have absolutely – even though this gentleman [gesturing to the first attendee] might call it a government intervention or socialism — I have no problem with government…” Why did she choose to go after the first attendee again? Cockburn suggests Williamson revisit her 2020 book, A Politics of Love.
Speaking of her books: at one point, someone asked Williamson about what she could do to change the system, such as writing a book or something similar. Williamson then interjected in a half-joking exasperated tone, “I have written…! [throwing up her hands] AHHHHHHHHH!” Marianne has written thirteen books to date. That’s eleven more than Sleepy Joe — which, judging by her performance here, is the only department in which she’ll be besting the 46th president.
