Marianne Williamson

January 10, 2024

The Democrats’ Debate (without Biden)

Any Democrat who berates Trump for thumbing his nose at debates should be aware that Biden has done the same thing by refusing to engage with two other serious candidates, Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson. Both have standing in the polls and would have even higher numbers if there were not a concerted effort at suppression worthy of any Republican legislature.  Florida and North Carolina have gone as far as cancelling their Democrat primaries, claiming that Biden is the only candidate!  Maybe Biden is afraid to risk the contrast between an octogenarian and two more youthful energies.  That would be smart, but the voters are the losers. 

The debate took place in Manchester at New England College’s “College Conference” sponsored by AARP.   Speaking of geriatrics, why would AARP be involved in a student conference?   Well, there they were, some white-haired ladies behind a card table full of AARP brochures and buttons as hundreds of college kids milled around.  The hotel lobby was full of tables with campaign signs and fliers: Williamson’s, Phillips’, and even Ryan Binkley, the impressive Republican pastor from Texas who I’d seen months ago, had his table, but—metaphor time—no one was there to mind the booth! Just a bunch of sad-looking caps, shirts, and signs all on their own.  But even that was not as sad as the lonely merch on the untended table for Jason Palmer, a Democratic candidate from Baltimore who I had never heard of.  What a strange thing to have these people decide to run for president.  Why not start with mayor, or town council?   There was a place on the conference schedule later on featuring these candidates who are flying so far under the radar that they’re inches away from the inevitable crash landing. 

            The debate was moderated by the very effective Josh McElveen, formerly of a local Manchester TV station, who told us in no uncertain terms that we should restrict our applause to their introduction and their final speech, so no “whoopin’ and hollerin’” along the way.  Thank you, Josh! That was enough to make this a dignified exchange of ideas instead of the unwatchable chaos of the Republicans.  

Williamson arrived and was quickly surrounded by a swarm of acolytes, many wearing her t-shirts: “Peace, Justice, Love.”  Quite a contrast with the arrogant sloganeering favored by some of the Republicans.   Phillips’ made a more modest entrance, they took the stage, were introduced, they hugged (there was some whoopin’), and then they plowed through a number of key issues, efficiently and effectively.  Go to YouTube to watch for yourselves.  

They agreed on much, especially the key point, that if Biden is the choice, the Republicans will win—all the polls show that.  Williamson’s main issue is that corporations are running America and ruining the middle class.  The government is held hostage by them and DC has become a system of legalized bribery. 

Both trained their sights on the two main parties that are destroying democracy, placing party loyalty over all else as seen by the “invisible-ization of my campaign (Williamson).”   There is not supposed to be a political class but that’s what we’ve evolved into as dissent from the party line is suppressed.

They disagreed on some things.  Phillips admires Liz Cheney’s courage for standing up to the right wing and is proud of his own efforts at bipartisanship.  His cabinet would have members from both parties in it: “A team of rivals”.  Williamson rejects that idea, and is no fan of Cheney’s voting record in Congress.  She wants a Department of Peace and a Department of Children and Youth at the cabinet level. 

Williamson channeled Daniel Webster at several points, showing her fiery, passionate side, while Phillips was more contained, soberly laying out his plans.    Both have what sound like solid ideas to deal with the big issues like the border, social security, college costs, Putin, and Gaza, mostly falling in line with the progressives.   But as we all should know, no matter who the president is, you won’t get anything done unless Congress is behind it.  The President’s biggest power is the ability to slow things down through a veto. 

So, it’s time to make some choices. If you’re a Democrat you should take their warning seriously, that to back Biden now is to risk not just losing the presidency, but a Republican landslide in Congress in November.  Time for due diligence and a look at these two candidates.

It’s always possible that, as some pundits are suggesting, Biden will bail out before the convention, leaving it to the delegates to select someone else.  It’s a good bet they won’t pick either of these two who have dared to buck the system.

October 23, 2019

Compare the Candidates: Cory Booker

We crowded into a small bagel shop in Peterborough, NH this week to see NJ Senator Cory Booker.  With about 90 spectators it was standing room only.  Booker was fashionably late, as all the candidates have been, but that’s OK, there were bagels to munch on while we waited.

Booker is tall, with a commanding presence, a nice smile, and the occasional joke. He’s very pleasant company, but what is the most impressive are his rhetorical skills.   He’s a spellbinder.   Of all the talented speakers we’ve seen so far, he really knows how to sell it. Marianne Williamson is good too, but Booker draws on the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. and uses him as a springboard for some of the points he wants to make–powerful points, and no mistake. He had us on the verge of tears as he recounted the assassination at the Lorraine Motel and urged us not to give up on the dream.

There was not enough time to take questions or go into his proposals at any length. He told us that in any case the differences that separate the Democratic candidates are about this much (holding up a hand to indicate an inch), and the last thing they should do is start sniping at each other, a point he made on the debate stage last week.   This won a big round of applause, led by me.

He also said our democracy is in danger.  We’re at a point now where we actually hate the people who vote differently than we do.  Historian Jill LaPore makes the same point in her new book These Truths—required reading for anyone trying to understand what the heck happened to our country in the last 30 years.  Booker warned us that when he’s president, he’s going to demand more from each of us to build a healthy republic.  We can’t just sit back and watch the world go to hell in a handbasket.  That indifference is what has gotten us into this mess we’re in now.

And then he announced: “It’s selfie time!”   Those of you who reside on distant shores may not realize that the age of politicians kissing babies is over.  Now it’s the Age of Selfies! I know people who are collecting selfies with candidates like I used to collect baseball cards.   You can do that kind of thing in New Hampshire where every time you turn around you bump into a candidate.  2 thousand 20 is not just the year of the election, it’s the number of people running for president (Booker’s joke, not mine).

You came away feeling that Booker would make a great president. He’s smart, he’s got good ideas, he’s personable.  It’s easy to imagine he could get things done and project a positive image of the United States around the world, something we desperately need. So give him a closer look!

October 13, 2019

Compare the Candidates: Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang

We’re back on the 2020 candidates’ trail in New Hampshire, and I’ll say one thing for Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang: boy, can they talk!   They’ve got their facts and figures down, rattling them off, mesmerizing the crowd with their pitches.   And they are strong pitches, no question, with plans that seem like they could work.

Up in Concord, Williamson touched on lots of things before an adoring crowd, but her appeal for peace stood out.   She wants a Department of Peace, and compares military responses to surgery:  sometimes it’s necessary but anyone would want to avoid it.  Cultivating peace is like taking care of your health: you have to lay the groundwork for both with good habits or you’ll suffer in the end.   And what have studies shown to be the number one contributor to peace? The empowerment of women (huge applause).  Like Warren, she’s a human dynamo. She spoke for over an hour and never missed a beat.

Williamson is proud to be a non-politician and was right in her element in this crowd of 90% women, most of whom had taken part in a yoga session before the stump speech.  At the end she took some questions, but then finished with a meditation–or actually a “visualization–where we were asked to clear our minds, then conjure up and speak the image of the United States we wanted to see.  And while it’s true that some of my fellow citizens turned what should have been a brief sentence into a lengthy paragraph, nevertheless the crowd loved it.

Andrew Yang  never once mentioned peace, or for that matter foreign affairs, but that seemed to be OK with his audience—the “Yang Gang.”   He focused entirely on things like the economy, health care, education, jobs and with a kind of stand-up comedian approach, soon had them eating out of his hand.  He’s a funny guy, quick on his feet, very personable and chummy.  Yang’s managers had chosen the venue of a video-game arcade in Manchester which was intimate but a bit bizarre as we watched him lay out his plans for a redistribution of the wealth surrounded by old PacMans and pinball games.    He took a lot of questions and had a quick, but thorough answer to everything.  He did these little jog-in-place boxer moves as he waited for the questioners to finish, as if he couldn’t wait to get into the ring and start punching.  He’s a smart guy, and like Williamson, he underlined the fact that he’s not a politician.

But for all his appeal, to a gray-bearded guy like me, he didn’t seem as presidential as I might like.   I’d prefer someone who was a little less cool and loose, and a bit more statesmanlike.  But I don’t think that bothered too many others there, like the old guy wearing a rubber boot on his head, who, when my wife told him, “I like your hat,” suddenly handed her a dollar bill.  Perhaps he was inspired by Yang’s promise of a “freedom dividend” where  every American gets $1000 a month, taken from the pocket of Jeff Bezos & Co.?