Spiritual author Marianne Williamson will answer questions from a live audience at 6 pm ET, followed by businessman Andrew Yang, 7 pm ET, April 14.
CNN’s Dana Bash will moderate the first town hall, while CNN’s Ana Cabrera will moderate the second.
To view:
CNN Town Halls with Andrew Yang and Marianne Williamson
Author Seeking Dem Presidential Nod
Calls for ‘Moral and Spiritual Awakening’ in US
By Veronica Stracqualursi, CNN, January 31, 2019
A best-selling author who is a spiritual counsellor to Oprah Winfrey and is now seeking the 2020 Democratic nomination said Thursday she’s running to bring a “moral and spiritual awakening” for America.
“We need a moral and spiritual awakening in the country,” Marianne Williamson told CNN’s John Berman in an interview on “New Day” Thursday.
“Nothing short of that is adequate to fundamentally change the patterns of our political dysfunction.”
She painted a grim picture of the US, depicting it as a country plagued by an amoral economic system and systematic racism, with millions of children living in “chronic despair and trauma.”
“We need someone to articulate what’s happening, the deeper levels of moral dysfunction,” Williamson said. “I have had a 35-year career in naming and transforming those dynamics. That’s my qualification for the presidency at this time.”
Williamson formally launched her campaign Monday night with a speech in Los Angeles.
Her campaign website outlines her proposals that mostly align with progressive policies like universal health care, free higher education and a Green New Deal.
She’s also proposing $100 billion in reparations for slavery, $10 billion a year to be distributed over 10 years.
“I believe $100 billion given to a council to apply this money to economic projects and educational projects of renewal for that population is a debt to be paid,” she told Berman.
Williamson, a Texas native, has written several best-selling books beginning with her first, A Return to Love, which got the attention of Winfrey. Since then, Williamson has been a “spiritual friend and counselor” to Winfrey for years. She’s one of five women so far running for the Democratic nomination and the only candidate who’s Jewish.
In 2014, Williamson ran for a congressional seat in California only to finish fourth in the primary, despite name recognition, $2 million spent, and celebrity endorsements, including a campaign song written by Alanis Morissette. That seat eventually went to Rep. Ted Lieu.
She endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders in the 2016 presidential election.
Asked Thursday by CNN how she sees a path to victory, Williamson said, “My strategy isn’t strategy.”
“My strategy is that I seek to speak as deeply, articulately and passionately as I can,” she told Berman, adding, “I’m not trying to figure out what to say to get people to vote for me. I’m seeking to have the conversation that I believe we need to be having. These are very serious times. We need to be very serious, deep thinkers.”
Marianne Williamson:
America is Becoming an Aristocracy
This is a post written by Marianne followed by several YouTubes.
By Marianne Williamson, CNN, April 14, 2019
httpss://www.cnn.com/2019/04/14/opinions/america-becoming-aristocracy-marianne-williamson/index.html
During my 35-year career working with individuals and groups going through traumatic experiences, I have helped people navigate the consequences of an irresponsible political establishment. As a result, I have strong ideas about some of the things that have gone wrong in America and how to help us heal.
While I have spent my career empowering people and turning them into leaders, Washington has been disempowering people and turning them into followers.
The stress and anxiety that has become so endemic in American society, due to chronic economic and social despair, has fostered a population disconnected from civic engagement.
Today, this chronic disempowerment represents a threat to our democracy.
Relatively few Americans have abused their rights at the expense of the many, turning the US government into their own personal playground.
From tax cuts that benefit only the wealthiest among us, to corporate subsidies that aid industries (oil, big pharma, agribusiness, etc.) already profiting to the tune of billions, money has been sliding for decades away from expenditures that support the public good to expenditures that support the lucky few.
Though American politicians continues to say we are a democracy, we are sliding ever more dangerously into a veiled aristocratic system.
The mindset of the new aristocracy has not only imbued our politics — it has hijacked America’s value system, leading us to swerve from our democratic and deep human values.
We have forgotten that public morality even matters.
We need to remind ourselves that economic injustice is a moral transgression.
Neglecting the medical, educational and social needs of millions of people so that a few can swell their bank accounts is a moral transgression.
And until we bring our political policies back into alignment with our moral core, then nothing will fundamentally heal this country.
The political establishment has had 40 years to correct itself.
And so, it is time for the American people to step in, to stage an intervention and to disrupt the status quo.
When millions of American children live in chronic trauma, trapped in schools that do not even have adequate school supplies to teach a child to read (a child who cannot read by the age of eight has not only a drastically decreased chance of high school graduation but also a drastically increased chance of incarceration) and our government does little more than normalize their despair, that is a moral outrage.
That is why I propose creating a Cabinet-level US Department of Children and Youth.
When mass incarceration, racial disparity in criminal sentencing and rampant layers of systemic racism are responded to with incremental changes — as opposed to the fundamental recognition of a racial debt that is yet to be paid — that is a moral outrage. That is why I propose that the United States pay reparations to the descendants of enslaved Americans.
When the US spends billions more on preparing for war than promoting peace, that is a moral outrage.
It is why I have proposed a more robust and equal relationship between humanitarian efforts by the State Department, and legitimate needs for war preparedness by the Defense Department. I would also create a US Department of Peace to address violence here in the United States.
People have been trained in this country to ask for far too little, and it is time to not only ask, but to demand, that the powers of the US government be returned to advocacy for the health and wellbeing of the American people over advocacy for short-term corporate profits.
While some politicians might know a bit more about how Washington works, I know enough to know that how Washington works is contributing to what is wrong with the world.
Americans are waking up to the deep corruption that has taken hold of our government, and we need a president who is not afraid to name it.
Those who see the world through the limitations of the corrupt system that got us into this ditch are not necessarily those best qualified to get us out of it. In the words of Franklin Roosevelt, the primary role of the president is “moral leadership.”
We need a political visionary as much as we need a political mechanic.
A massive uprising of consciousness among the American people, backed by the personal motivation to take their passion to the polls, is the only force strong enough to override the threats to our democracy.
Someone with a well-established and well-developed knowledge of the American people, and deep faith in our abilities, is the best qualified candidate to lead us into the next chapter of America’s history. It’s not enough to just water the leaves of our democracy; we must water the roots — and those roots are within us.
The skill of the moral awakener is the skill most needed in an American president today. It is a skill that I have, with which I have helped move the lives of millions of people from trauma to transformation. I am prepared to do that for this country.