Author and motivational speaker Marianne Williamson
Marianne Williamson, an author and a motivational speaker, said America needs to focus on the causes, not the symptoms, of problems in the country.
Drawing a similar size crowd as the presidential hopefuls who spoke before her on Aug. 9 at the Des Moines Register political soapbox, Williamson warned against the “political establishment” throughout her speech, saying it endangered America’s “goodness.”
“Our politics are stuck somewhere in the 20th century, and our hearts are in the 21st,” she said.
Inadequate money for school supplies is a demonstration of politics not working for American people, she said.
Her speech didn’t focus on policy or positions repeated by other candidates this week, such as creating government-run public health-insurance options, providing free preschool, or creating infrastructure. Williamson focused more on healing America’s divisiveness.
“There are times in our history when our political status quo isn’t making things happen and it’s time that the people step in.” pic.twitter.com/4wx7x7BgQK
— Daily Iowan Politics (@DIpolitics) August 9, 2019
She listed closing loopholes people may use to obtain firearms and banning military-style weapons as legislation America needs in the wake of mass shootings, but, Williamson said, politicians and people should try to find the underlying causes of violence, too.
She wants to create a Department of Peace, saying she believes America needs to cultivate peace, not war, and she said more federal dollars should go toward mental-health resources, especially in rural areas.
“There are times when the political establishment is not getting it done, and that is when the people need to step in,” she said.
People should rise up to create change, Williamson said, much as people of past generations who contributed toward desegregation, ending slavery, and allowing women to vote.
“You can’t look to the political establishment to fix the problem,” Williamson said. “They are the problem.”
Defeating President Trump is not enough, Williamson said, you have to fix the system that created him.
— Daily Iowan Politics (@DIpolitics) August 9, 2019
She went on to call money in politics the cancer underlying all cancers.
“You are not a poker chip,” she told the crowd.
One campaign plank she didn’t mention during her speech was slavery reparations, giving dividends to descendants of slaves in the U.S. Williamson has called such reparations in the past, on the debate stage and at other events.
Williamson contended that there are “powerful forces” that don’t want her to participate in the third debates, in September. She hasn’t yet qualified for the third round of debates — nine hopefuls have.