Marianne Williamson has continued for months across America — to audiences large and small, from churches and colleges to spiritual centers and soup kitchens — in a demanding appearance schedule in her determined, defying second run for the presidency.
The best-selling spiritual author and one-time adviser to Oprah Winfrey did not make it to the 2020 primary in a wide-open Democratic field.
Now he’s running against a sitting president from his own party, and the Democratic establishment has closed ranks behind Joe Biden.
Even some of his staunchest followers doubted he could be elected.
So why is Williamson running? He said it was the faith he had in himself and the American people.
“The most important things you do in life, not because there’s a guarantee of success on some external level, but because you feel in your heart it’s the right thing to do,” Williamson, 71, said during an interview in New York City.
He admits it’s exhausting at times — not just the punishing campaign schedule, but even more the emotional bruises of the uninteresting cast of characters.
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson addresses the crowd at The Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth, Sunday, Sept. 10. 2023.AP
For him, it was “the main challenge to have a hard skin, but a soft and open heart,” he said.
But Williamson worries that negative perceptions are affecting his policy positions, including financial compensation for black Americans and the creation of the Peace Department.
“What words do they use? Wacky, cooky, crystal lady,” he said, listing the names he was called. “People will take a line out of a book, completely out of context. That certainly did to me. Plus, you know, they lie.”
Born in Houston to a Jewish family, Judaism remains his core faith, and he also embraces universal spiritual themes, such as loving one another.
Williamson came into the limelight with his 1992 hit book, “A Return to Love.” Oprah, highlighting it on her own website, wrote: “I have never been more moved by a book.”
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, left, listens to questions from Detroit.AP’s Matthew Miller
Williamson, the author of more than a dozen titles and known for his support of LGBTQ people, maintains a dedicated group of fans. Millions buy his books, attend his lectures and interact with him on TikTok.
“He was very sincere in his beliefs, intelligent in many ways,” said Issac Bailey, a communications professor at Davidson College in North Carolina who has written about Williamson’s faith and politics. “But he also has a streak that takes him beyond the pale.”
He showed his caution and sharp criticism of the government’s vaccine mandate that arose during his last campaign. He later said he supports vaccines.
“I’m a Jew in the middle of society who goes to the doctor,” he said. “I am not a crystal woman. I understand how important science is.”
Even some of his staunchest followers doubted he could be elected. AP
Williamson entered politics with an unsuccessful independent congressional campaign in California in 2014, then broke onto the national stage two years later as a vocal supporter of Bernie Sanders’ failed presidential bid.
In 2020, he entered the race himself. He admitted to making what he called “terrible” comments at the time, like how he would use love to defeat former President Donald Trump.
“When they can be contextualized in a way that makes me look stupid, almost nothing gets past the mockery,” he said.
People may embrace semi-spiritual language in their personal lives, but if it’s from a political candidate, it usually doesn’t play well on the campaign trail, says Galen Watts, a professor of sociology and legal studies at the University of Waterloo in Canada.
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, center, is cheered by the crowd after finishing her talk at The Interfaith Center for Spiritual Growth, AP
But this is not new territory for Williamson.
Over the years, he’s come under fire from intellectuals who think his theology is too shallow, from politicians who scoff at his ideas, and more recently from some former campaign staffers who say he’s hot-tempered and just trying to sell more books.
He admitted that he probably swore more than he should have in his last campaign, but scoffed at the book’s sales.
“The way to sell books is to go on book tours, not presidential campaigns,” he said. “The way to sell a book in my field is to not mention politics.”
Some question his political experience. But he rejected that: “I reject the notion that only those whose careers have been caught in the car that drove us into this ditch are the only people we should consider worthy of driving us out of the ditch.”
He announced his candidacy in February, and is now arguably the most prominent Democrat still challenging Biden for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024.
But a recent poll showed him running more than 60 percentage points behind.
He is well liked by many young people, including 21-year-old Jose Serna at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Serna hopes he stays in the race “because he shines a light on ideas that young people are passionate about” including Medicare for all, fair wages and affordable housing.
“While I believe it’s unlikely that Marianne will win the nomination, it’s not because of her policies,” he said, citing a common complaint by Williamson and his supporters about the lack of media attention.
Marie Griffith, a professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Washington University in St. Louis, said there were practical reasons why Williamson had no chance of winning.
“He has no connection that I know of to the Democratic machine politics — meaning the people who raise all the money and make or break their political careers who identify as Democrats,” Griffith said.
Williamson sometimes speaks in religious and spiritual terms to describe America as a nation in need of confession and penance. He is concerned about huge economic inequality and wants to declare a climate emergency.
Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson, second from right, answers a question from University of Michigan senior Mahi Vyas.AP
One of his signature policy proposals would require the government to pay black people reparations for centuries of slavery and discrimination.
He advocated this in his 1997 book “The Healing of America.” Today, he proposed creating a council of Black academic, cultural and political leaders to disperse at least $1 trillion to black Americans over two decades.
Author and rabbi Jay Michaelson praised Williamson for raising the issue with other political candidates, and for his work during the AIDS crisis, but in 2019 he wrote a scathing critique of his bid for president.
He called him “selfish, deluded and stupid by discrediting science” and said he gave him a bad name spiritually.
Michaelson, in a recent interview, said he agreed with Williamson “that our spiritual commitment and our religious commitment should impact our political life.”
But he said he would remain a fringe candidate because some of his policy positions were too radical for many.
“To say, ‘We need a politics of love’ without explaining what that is,” he said. “Either we need a new paradigm, or we need some kind of revolution — one that isn’t playing out on Main Street.”
Williamson denies discrediting science and disputes broader criticism of his campaign.
“This idea I don’t take seriously – my campaign is one that talks about the one in four Americans living with medical debt. My campaign is one that talks about the fact that the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck,” he said.
“My campaign is the most serious campaign.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
