Marianne Williamson, the progressive candidate challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination in 2024, has made a statement calling for a shift in economic priorities towards a “humanitarian bottom line.”
Williamson identified one of her favorite quotes as President Franklin Roosevelt’s assertion: “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
Williamson argues that the concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few leaves most Americans without easy access to health, education, or economic opportunity.
“As a nation, we seem to have forgotten those words,” said Williamson. “Over the last 48 years we have transferred $50 trillion dollars from the bottom 90 percent to the top one percent of Americans. Our public policies routinely make it easier for those who already have enough to get more, and harder for those who do not to even get by.”
While many in the establishment have sought to paint the candidate into a corner by disparaging her intelligence, her spiritual beliefs and her qualifications, there is a palpable enthusiasm among some voters who often liken her to Senator Bernie Sanders.
“Marianne Williamson’s presidential campaign makes me so excited to vote next year,” said Kayla Gonzalez, of Riverside, California.
A voter in Texas tweeted, “I just discovered who Marianne Williamson is and I have hope again.”
“Marianne Williamson recognizes the fact that since the so-called Reagan Revolution, trickle-down economics has made a few people very rich, while far too many people live with a constant fear of becoming poor,” said New Jersey progressive activist Lisa McCormick. “Marianne Williamson sees that poverty in America has reached a crisis level, with chronic economic anxiety preventing many from pursuing happiness.”
“Meanwhile, the richest people in America increased their wealth by a total of $6.5 trillion in 2021,” said Williamson. “Our defense budget is now $858 billion, $45 billion more than what was asked for. Fossil fuel producing companies rake in hundreds of billions in revenue every year, with huge profit margins, yet we still subsidize them by tens of billions of dollars annually.”
“When Williamson argues that the government should prioritize the needs of the average American over corporate interests, it is like she echoes the things I spoke about when I challenged Senator Robert Menendez in 2018, so no matter what the cable news distraction machine tries to make us believe and the malicious nonsense that corporate Democrats uses to disparage her, we must recognize that our political system is broken,” said McCormick. “Americans must rise to the responsibility of citizenship by disrupting the system that is working to protect the richest one percent while the rest of the world is falling behind.”
She calls for a massive dose of economic hope and opportunity to be put into the lives of average Americans. Williamson also states that while poverty rates plummeted drastically during the COVID-19 pandemic due to government policies like the expansion of the Child Tax Credit and unemployment insurance, these measures were only temporary. She emphasizes that poverty, like much of the suffering in America, is an unnecessary derivative of soulless economic policy.
Williamson believes that America can do better by adopting policies that are considered moderate positions in every other advanced democracy, including universal healthcare, free childcare, family and sick pay, tuition-free public colleges and trade schools, and a guaranteed living wage.
“While our Declaration of Independence declares that government is instituted to secure the inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, a life of chronic economic anxiety is not a life in which happiness can be pursued,” said Williamson. “That is one of the reasons I am running for president. A government should not be guided by the priorities of corporate interests; it should be guided by the priorities of a healthy family. We need to shift from an economic to a humanitarian bottom line.”
She argues that these policies can be enacted with fair taxes on the wealthy, corporations, and Wall Street, and reduced taxes on working people.
“In the words of the late Supreme Court Justice, ‘We can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can’t have both.’ The concentration of wealth in the hands of a very few leaves most of us without easy access to health, education, or economic opportunity,” said Williamson.
“Williamson’s call for a shift towards economic policies that prioritize the needs of the average American over the interests of the very wealthy few makes me believes that she only who is willing to make the government address the needs of the people,” said McCormick, who acknowledged that some people find Williamson to be an unconventional candidate.
“The same political experts who say Marianne Williamson is a longshot told us Hillary Clinton was the ‘inevitable nominee’ in 2008 and a shoo-in for the presidency in 2016,” said McCormick. “I say Marianne Williamson does not seem crazy when you know that Joe Biden
sold more federal oil & gas leases than Trump, or when you recall President Biden saying he would veto Medicare For All.”
“Marianne Williamson is the obvious choice when you know Joe Biden signed the biggest military budget in history, enthusiastically supported President Bush’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq and forced all the railroad employees back to work without the sick time off that they were willing to go on strike for,” said McCormick, who said Biden’s actions drove her away from supporting his re-election before she was attracted to Willliamson.
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