Washington DC – Marianne Williamson says she’s not just leading a protest campaign.
A spiritual author who challenges President Joe Biden for Democratic nomination In the 2024 presidential race, Williamson believes someone needs to stand up to the growing influence of corporations in the U.S. government.
“And I’m not the type of woman to keep my mouth shut,” Williamson told Al Jazeera from her apartment in Washington, DC, earlier this month.
Only once in U.S. history has an elected president not received his party’s nomination for a second term. This makes Williamson’s campaign difficult. But she doesn’t let that discourage her. His campaign is one of two Democratic challenges seeking to thwart Biden’s nomination, amid falling poll numbers for the incumbent president.
While the other Democratic candidate, Dean Phillips, is running on a centrist platform, Williamson hopes to rally progressives, a growing force within the party.
With his sometimes outraged voice, Williamson decried how corporate greed was moving the country — and the Democratic Party — away from their long-held ideals.
“We are now at a point where maximizing short-term profits for big business has become America’s primary goal,” she said.
“And this corporate perspective supersedes democratic values, humanitarian values, and the safety, health and well-being of the American people. »
A progressive challenger
His 2024 agenda echoes many of the Democratic priorities articulated by the senator Bernie Sandersone of the country’s most recognizable progressive voices.
He ran for president twice, in the 2016 and 2020 races, facing Williamson herself in the latter. She eventually dropped out of college, instead endorsing Sanders.
Williamson rose to fame in the early 1990s with her bestselling book A Return to Love and appearances on a television talk show hosted by Oprah Winfrey. Later, in 2014, she unsuccessfully ran for Congress as an independent in California.
But with her presidential program, she hopes to go further than Sanders on several political issues.
For example, Williamson supports a universal health care system, but his plan emphasizes the need for healthier food, water, and air and a less stressful lifestyle, arguing that the current economic system increases “the probability of disease”.
The candidate also wants to create a Department of Peace to quell violence and address its root causes domestically and internationally.
Williamson’s almost holistic approach to politics is underscored by his soft-spoken, guru-like personality. The author’s spirituality led some to reject his candidacy, considering it unserious. She went viral, for example, after saying during a 2019 primary debate that she would “harness love” to beat then-President Donald Trump and his “fear” campaign.
Williamson is not unaware of this reputation. She admits to having made “idiotic” statements during the debate, which she attributes to her “nervousness”.
However, Williamson said there had been a deliberate push to sideline her in the 2020 race — a campaign she said has intensified this time around.
“This time, it is a large-scale assault: a distortion of my personality, of what I have done with my life over the last 40 years. It’s a strategy. It’s intentional,” she told Al Jazeera.
Shortly after Williamson announced her candidacy in March, Politico published an article quoting anonymous former staffers who called the candidate “abusive.” At the time, she called the story a “hit piece” and refuted its details.
And on Wednesday, Williamson’s campaign suffered another setback when the Massachusetts Democratic Party submitted only Biden’s name for the state’s primary ballot, effectively excluding him from the list of Democratic candidates.
“There is no room for maneuver”
Nonetheless, Williamson has generated some momentum, albeit limited. A Quinnipiac University poll last month showed her at 12 percent, far behind Biden with 74 percent.
The progressive monthly The Nation noted last month, however, that the gap between Williamson and Biden in the polls is similar to the gap between Republican rivals Trump and Nikki Haley — although less attention is paid to the Democratic race.
While the gap is nonetheless huge, Williamson says she deserves more media attention, especially with some polls showing Biden trailing Trump in the general election.
For his part, Biden dismissed polling data. “Everyone running for re-election this time is in the same situation. There’s nothing new about this,” he said when asked about his low approval ratings earlier this year.
Instead, Biden and his allies have hoped to redirect attention to the U.S. economy, which shows faster than expected growth, low unemployment and gradually controlled inflation.
But Williamson said the often-cited economic data doesn’t tell the whole story. For example, she highlighted a recent study showing that 62 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.
She also highlighted the high cost of living faced by many Americans, which she said is due to cyclical inflation as well as corporate price gouging.
“For millions of people, this could be the difference between whether or not you keep your apartment,” Williamson said. “So for the majority of Americans, there is no wiggle room.”
On Gaza
Democratic voters are also divided on the Biden administration’s support for the war in Gaza. Biden expressed his “unwavering support” in Israelpromising to provide him with billions of dollars in additional aid despite humanitarian concerns over his military campaign.
The Israeli offensive has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians and Israeli leaders have pledged to continue the war until Hamas is eliminated. The Palestinian group attacked Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 Israelis and capturing hundreds more.
The White House and Pentagon have repeatedly said they do not draw “red lines” to limit what Israel can do with U.S. aid. Meanwhile, Biden continues to reject growing calls for a ceasefire.
For his part, Williamson called for an end to the fighting, the release of Israeli prisoners and international pressure for a broader resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“I understand the need for Israel to kill the monster. But this military action just feeds it,” Williamson said. “There has never been a military solution here. And there is no military solution at the moment.”
Williamson added that while there is “no minimizing the horror, the barbarity and the sheer evil of October 7,” Palestinians are suffering under Israeli occupation. colony expansion and blockades around their territory.
“I don’t see any other solution here than a ceasefire, a release of the hostages and an architecture for a two-state solution immediately,” she told Al Jazeera. “The death of a Palestinian child is no less horrible than the death of an Israeli child. »
Williamson’s position reflects the views of a majority of Democrats. A December New York Times and Siena College poll found that 64 percent of Democratic voters believed Israel should stop its military campaign to avoid civilian casualties, even if Hamas had not been “eliminated.”
But Williamson attributes policymakers’ opposition to a ceasefire to outdated worldviews.
“The president is stuck in the 20th century – not just on this, but on many things. And that’s the problem,” she said.
Biden has been a strong supporter of Israel throughout his decades-long political career, dating back to the 1970s — a time when the country was considered a key U.S. ally in the Middle East during the Cold War.
In fact, the president has repeated the same pro-Israel statements verbatim for the past 40 years.
This position has led many Arab and Muslim Americans to pledge not to vote for Biden in the upcoming elections because of his support for the war. So what is Williamson’s message to these voters?
“I have a hard time saying that anyone should vote for me,” she said. “People should vote according to their conscience. People should listen to what candidates have to say, think deeply in their hearts and minds about what they think is best for their country and the world, and then vote accordingly.
Asked about the United States veto a United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and the release of captives, Williamson said: “Shameful. Ashamed.”
The Democratic primaries begin January 23 in New Hampshire.
