Marianne Williamson will likely announce her Democratic primary challenge to Joe Biden on March 4. While she has no chance of winning, Williamson’s taking on Biden will benefit the country.
Partisanship is a huge problem in American politics. Many people refuse to admit that their side ever does anything wrong. If things go poorly, they make excuses. They also blame the other party for the country’s problems, even when their side is in power. Under the current administration, that means blaming the country’s woes on Donald Trump and the extreme MAGA Republicans. When Charlie Baker was governor of Massachusetts for eight years, his loyalists blamed the Democratic supermajority for his inability to improve lives—as if he was the first elected official who needed to forge a bipartisan path to get results.
Republicans noisly eviscerating Biden’s record won’t resonate, even if the points are solid. While millions of Biden-supporting Americans will dismiss a primary challenge because nothing can convince them the president is doing a poor job, a pissed-off Democrat’s message could resonate more with people who dislike Ron DeSantis or Trump. Maybe someone won’t listen to a party they fear will cut entitlements, deport their relatives, or outlaw abortion. However, if someone addresses economic and social problems from a perspective they like, then it could sour them on Biden.
When was the last time Biden mentioned a minimum wage increase, a public option, or larger Social Security payments? These were three popular issues he ran on and stopped talking about shortly after winning the election. A $15-an-hour minimum wage was never going to happen. Yet, the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 an hour, as it has been since 2009. With today’s inflation that wage is losing purchasing power daily. Even though bipartisan support exists for some minimum wage increase—and minimum wage increases are popular—the administration has taken little action.
Williamson endorsed Bernie Sanders for president twice (in 2016 and 2020) and supports many of the same government programs. What's great about this is it’s another opportunity to critique Biden. Conflict exists within the Democratic Party about the best way to solve many problems. Biden opposes Medicare-for-All and the Green New Deal and threatened to veto them if they made it to his desk. Williamson supports them. She also supports reparations. As a right-winger, I wish liberals spent more time infighting about reparations. If conservatives were smart, they’d force the issue in every national election. Biden’s no champion of reparations, and the issue divides the Democratic Party.
Williamson has discussed health differently than other politicians. One of the biggest problems with America's response to the coronavirus pandemic was a lack of emphasis on health itself. Younger and healthier people are less likely to die of coronavirus. If America had a healthier populace, coronavirus would’ve caused fewer deaths. An unhealthy population has a shorter lifespan and higher medical costs. Therefore, if Williamson tells people to lose weight, drink less, and eat vegetables, that’s a net positive for society. Some have accused her of fatphobia. As a fat guy, I think it’s a good thing.
Williamson dislikes the Democratic National Committee. She’scriticized them for switching up the primary order, making South Carolina first on the 2024 schedule, to benefit Biden.Biden had an embarrassing fifth-place finish in the 2020 New Hampshire primary. Even so, New Hampshire will likely hold a primary before South Carolina as state law requires, state Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley has claimed. He thinks Biden won’t participate in the New Hampshire primary—and lose it as a result.
Not being named Joe Biden is a good enough reason for frustrated liberals and progressives to support Williamson.
