Marianne Williamson's ongoing presence in the primary, in Bernie Sanders's campaign, on the national stage is a problem and it's one that appears to be growing, not shrinking.
When she endorsed him, a lot of people were critical. Even Bernie fans. I said, and I meant this, that I didn't think less of him for accepting it. Keeping her voters, few as they may have been, engaged and in the fold and bringing them into his coalition was a positive thing.
But.
Okay. I get why people don't like the idea of politics as usual. And I get that Bernie's appeal is that he's supposedly beyond or outside them.
But he can't win without politics, and if he does win, he can't make changes without them.
Okay. I get why people don't like the idea of politics as usual. And I get that Bernie's appeal is that he's supposedly beyond or outside them.
But he can't win without politics, and if he does win, he can't make changes without them.
I'm sure when I talk about the importance of him actually getting the majority of delegates before declaring victory, it's easy to assume that this is just me trying to protect the establishment (if you don't know me at all) or boost my own candidate (if you don't know me well).
The "rigging" that happened in 2016 was run of the mill politics and it was mild compared to what he would have faced in the general, which I'm told he would have walked away with easily because polls said so, and also change, and also revolution, and also Bernie.
Marianne Williamson raising the temperature on talk about "coups" or "rigging" or any of the other buzzwords to describe "hey, how come the people who don't like our platform are trying to elect someone with a different platform? Is that allowed? How is that legal?" is bad.
It's not good for Bernie because you're not winning over voters outside the base by acting like normal stuff like endorsements and running an opposing campaign and voting is nefarious dirty tricks they invented to stop him.
And it's not good for the Democratic Party and it's not good for the country. I mean, she's repeating Trump's favorite talking points. I think it's slightly more likely than not that Trump references her deleted tweet to say even wacky Marianne can see it, or something.
Bright spot in this is that she deleted it, which makes me hopeful that someone in the campaign saw it, recognized the problem, and laid down the law.
But I don't think her light can be contained for long.
But I don't think her light can be contained for long.
And it's not just going to be Trumpian conspiracy theories. She's... dangerous fringe. I don't mean radical left. I mean dangerous fringe. You do not want Bernie's campaign associated with her ideas. We do not want a Democratic nominee associated with her ideas.
And in fairness to the Bernie campaign I don't think he can really afford the distraction of getting into a spat with her if she feels like he's become "negative". So I understand if she's not shut down or disavowed completely.
But, yeah, she's a problem.
But, yeah, she's a problem.
Also, a lot of people asked me why I said I was relieved she hadn't endorsed my candidate.
This is why.
This is why.
