I Went to Reno to Challenge Marianne Williamson this Week

As a progressive public policy advocate turned new thought minister who focuses more on prayer than picket signs as a way to change the world these days, you might not be surprised that I’m interested in Marianne Williamson’s candidacy for president. Recall that I also have been pleasantly surprised by Joe Biden’s presidency. Here’s at least one post in which I talked about that: 

bernie likes joe biden, why don’t you?

Despite what I said in this post, I don’t think we should be surprised that Joe isn’t polling well. Does anyone remember the 2020 primaries? The only people I knew who were excited about Joe Biden were political insiders. Everyone else had someone else they were excited about, mainly Pete Buttigieg, Elizabeth Warren, Corey Booker and Bernie Sanders. And yet, whatever happened happened, and we ended up with Joe. 

The decades-old conventional wisdom is that is a disaster to have the incumbent president face a real primary challenge. 

And so Joe doesn’t. But does that really serve us in this time and with this particular politician?  I continue to say no. I’m tempted to switch from all lowercase to all caps to say this: 

The main reason that Joe Biden has been a decent president is that Bernie Sanders came so close to winning the Democratic primary.

That fact may mean that the way to a) get Joe Biden re-elected and b) pull him as far away from his corporate cronies as possible is to primary him hard from the left.

Bernie clearly made a deal to the contrary–no disrespect intended for that choice.

No other, even potentially high-profile Democrat is running in the primary, so that leaves Marianne Williamson. From the perspective of someone I can vote for to show Joe Biden what I want in a president, she has a lot going for her. First, I agree with her on the issues, and she is up to speed on many important policies. Secondly, she has been running for months and is on the ballot in many states; Thirdly, as a best-selling author, she has millions of followers (many of them possibly previously nonvoters); and Fourthly, and most importantly to me, given her background she should have the ability to use consciousness to shift the parameters of the possible and make something else happen.

In 2019, I wrote a series of pieces about the ability of Democratic presidential candidates to focus their consciousness and “their word” enough to beat Donald Trump, who was (and is) clearly able to defy nearly all obstacles in his way. One of the candidates I analyzed was Marianne Williamson, whom I thought might be able to come closer to beating Trump at his own game than some of the others.

Marianne Williamson and the Power of the Word in her Candidacy for President

I had rated Joe’s ability to beat Trump as much lower than Sanders or Williamson. Of course, we never saw how Sanders or Williamson would do in a general election.

All of this is by way of explaining why I chose to drive 2 hours the day before last to see Marianne Williamson on the campaign trail at River School Farm in Reno, NV. I went there planning to challenge Williamson to be more like Donald Trump. What?! You heard me. 

I think one of the main ways Donald Trump attracts votes from unlikely quarters is that he doesn’t allow the apparent political limitations to hold him back in any way. Before he ran, the conventional wisdom was you must already be an elected official to win the nomination or the presidency, you can’t be a known adulterer and win (Clinton notwithstanding), you can’t brag about grabbing women by the pussy and win, you can’t be openly racist and incite violence and win, you can’t be under multiple criminal indictments and win, the list goes on and on.

I don’t want any other candidates to be criminal misogynist racist autocrats, but I would like her to defy certain other conventional limitations. To name a few:  women can’t win, Jews can’t win, short people can’t win (in high heels, she comes to my shoulder), non-politicians with in-depth policy knowledge can’t win, people who attack corporate power can’t win.

It’s worth noting that Bernie came very close to proving several of those truisms false.

So I went to Reno and engaged with Marianne directly on why she is not using the power of consciousness and love to gain more traction.  I challenged her to be more like Trump and overturn conventional wisdom. Turns out C-Span was there the whole time, so we have a record of our interaction – Below are the clips and the C-Span transcripts.  Enjoy!

https://www.c-span.org/video/?532092-1/marianne-williamson-campaigns-reno-nv

the part with me and Marianne is 37 minutes in and then 57 minutes in me again

37 minutes in

SSN: I ADMIRE YOU SO MUCH. I AM A PUBLIC POLICY LAWYER WORKING FOR HEALTH INSURANCE AND LABORING CONSUMER RIGHTS. I HAVE BEEN IN CALIFORNIA FOR YEARS. I’M ALSO A MINISTER AT THE CENTER FOR SPIRITUAL AWARENESS IN WEST SACRAMENTO, CA.

MW: WOW. A COMBINATION I RELATE TO.

SSN: THERE IS A WEIRD WAY IN WHICH THAT — IN WHICH, I ADMIRE DONALD TRUMP, I HATE EVERYTHING HE STANDS FOR BUT HE HAS SHREDDED EVERY CONVENTIONAL WISDOM THERE IS AND MADE IT TO PRESIDENCY. HE IS AHEAD IN THE POLLS AND RAISING MONEY WITH ALL THESE INDICTMENTS. YOU HAVE NOT ONLY DISPLAYED HERE YOUR DEPTH OF KNOWLEDGE AND POLICY. BUT I KNOW YOU TO BE A PERSON TO HAVE DEEP BELIEF IN THE POWER OF CONSCIOUSNESS, NOT JUST AS A MORAL VALUE BUT A TRANSFORMATIVE EXPERIENCE. WHAT DOES YOUR CAMPAIGN DO TO ACTUALLY USE CONSCIOUSNESS TO TRANSFORM THESE THINGS SO THAT THESE PARAMETERS THAT KEEP BEING HELD UP SO THAT IF YOU CANNOT WIN AND MAKE A DIFFERENCE CAN BE OVER IN A WAY THAT CAN BE AS POWERFUL AS WHAT WE ARE SEEING ON THE RIGHT. 

MW: THE QUESTION IS NOT JUST ABOUT WHAT I CAN DO, IT IS ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO. WE REALLY HAVE TO GET THIS. WE ARE NOT POWERLESS. ONCE — ALL-POWERFUL ONCE WE PIERCE THE ILLUSION. IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT THEY THINK. IT MATTERS WHAT THE PEOPLE IN SOUTH CAROLINA, NEVADA, MICHIGAN THINK. …

(and she goes on at some length and takes other questions

Later, 57 minutes in, I interrupt MW.  

MW: was saying: … IF THE LEFT WOULD GET A SPINE, WE COULD. YOU KNOW? YOU TALK ABOUT THE NEW LAW, WHERE I HATE TO GIVE THEM ANY CREDIT, BUT THERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF WHAT DONALD TRUMP IS DOING. EVERYBODY UNDERSTOOD WHAT YOU MEANT. YOU KNOW WHAT TO ME IS THE ROLE MODEL? SHAWN FAIN AND WHEN HE LOOKED — LIFTED UP THAT PIECE OF PAPER, HE’S THE PRESIDENT OF THE UAW, WHEN THE UAW STARTED ITS STRIKE AND ALL THE BIG THREE CAR COMPANY SAID, OH, NO, WE CANNOT POSSIBLY DO THAT, WE WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO COMPETE OR DEVELOP OUR RESEARCH AND MANUFACTURE, AND THERE WAS THE ONE COMPANY CALLED STELLANTIS, WHICH GAVE HIM A PROPOSAL. AND ON VIDEO, HE TOOK THE PROPOSAL, LOOKED AT IT, TORE IT UP, AND HE PUT IT IN THE WASTEPAPER BASKET. AND THEY  (THE UAW) WON, BY THE WAY. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED TO, THAT LEADERSHIP. THAT IS WHAT WE NEED IN LEADERSHIP IN THIS COUNTRY. NO, WHEN YOU COME TO ME WITH A NEGOTIATION THAT IS FAIR, I WILL TALK TO YOU. UNTIL THEN, I WILL TEAR THIS UP. LOOK HOW IT MOTIVATED PEOPLE AND EXCITED PEOPLE. AND LOOK HOW IT WON.

I interrupt–

SSN: HOW COME YOU ARE ACCEPTING THAT THE FLORIDA DEMOCRATIC PARTY [STATE OF FLORIDA] WILL NOT PUT YOU ON THE BALLOT THEN? I DO NOT WANT TO SEE YOU SAY THAT THE STATE OF FLORIDA WOULD NOT PUT YOU ON THE BALLOT. I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU RIP THAT UP SOMEHOW.

MW: THIS IS THE DEAL. THESE ARE THE CHOICES. FIRST OF ALL, I HOPE YOU WILL MAKE SURE YOU SIGN UP ON MY MAILING LIST TODAY, PLEASE SIGN UP. THERE IS A QR CODE THAT YOU CAN USE. BUT MORE THAN THAT, IF YOU ONLY LOOK AT MY POWER TO DO THAT, AND IT IS ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL, THEN YOU CANNOT COMPARE THAT WITH VISIBILITY. BUT THERE ARE LEGAL, YOU KNOW, I COULD PERHAPS TAKE LEGAL RECOURSE, BUT EVEN IF I DO THAT, PLEASE NOTE THAT THAT WOULD COST MONEY. WHAT IS YOUR OTHER THING? YOU MIGHT SAY, WELL, SHE JUST NEEDS TO GO TO FLORIDA AND HAVE A WRITING CAMPAIGN. REALLY? YOU KNOW HOW MANY TENS OF THOUSANDS THAT WOULD COST? [INDISCERNIBLE]

SN: YOU ARE MARIANNE FREAKIN’ WILLIAMSON.  YOU HAVE HELPED PEOPLE HEAL FROM AIDS WITH THE POWER OF LOVE, YOU HAVE BEEN A MULTIMILLION DOLLAR BOOKSELLER. YOU HAVE DONE ALL SORTS OF THINGS THAT NOBODY WAS SUPPOSED TO DO, AND I AM NOT SAYING IT IS ALL ON MARIANNE WILLIAMSON.  I AM NOT SAYING YOU JUST WRITE THE CHECKS, I HEAR SOMETHING I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR SOMETHING OUT OF YOU, WHICH IS BELIEVING IN THE LIMITATIONS OF THE SYSTEM. THOSE LIMITATIONS ARE FALSE, AND OUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS POWERFUL.

MW: THANK YOU. I APPRECIATE THE AFFIRMATION YOU MADE FOR ME, AND THEY WILL SAY, IF I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT, I WOULD NOT BE HERE RIGHT NOW. IF I DID NOT BELIEVE WHAT YOU WERE SAYING, I WOULD HAVE DROPPED OUT LONG AGO. I PROMISE. SO I APPRECIATE YOU SPEAKING THAT WORD FOR ME. THANK YOU.  — THANK YOU. AND I AM ASKING YOU TO JOIN WITH ME.