Marianne Williamson will make a good president—at least she is not a centrist

By SJ Otto

Public News Hour did an article on Marianne Williamson who is running for president. I don’t know if she has a chance, but she is a major improvement over the centrist running, who keep telling us that they are what it takes to win against President Donald Trump. I’ve already written about Pete Buttigieg who said he wanted to gradually introduce universal health care. That is not what we want. I’m totally against voting for, or backing a centrist Democrat.[1]

Another centrist Democrat running is Joe Biden. I’m not backing him either. PBH, covered Williamson on eight issues. Issues are what is important. We need to undo the damage done by Trump and his Republican Party. It is not enough to just stop trashing working poor people. We need improvements.

Here are some issues important to me:

Health care is a real important issue and we have people, as me, who are too young for Medicare, but they get sick a lot because they are old. We need health care and we need it NOW! And that is what she wants:

HEALTH CARE: Backs universal healthcare

Williamson supports universal health care coverage. She has also backed policies that would restrict the marketing and production of highly-processed and sugary foods.

She has also called for greater government investment in programs aimed at reducing patient overcharges and environmental toxins and diseases.

On foreign policy we need someone who will slow down or stop the US’ imperialist foreign policy. Occupying other people’s countries is not acceptable. We need someone who will respect the rights of other people in other countries. Williamson hasn’t come out and said that, but she has said she is unhappy with our position of supporting ANYTHING Israel does. She also criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for being a hypocrite. It is an improvement over a lot of the others:

FOREIGN POLICY: Re-examine foreign relationships.

In an interview with CBS News, Williamson called Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hypocritical for, in her words, seeming to believe “you can promote values around the world and still have strategic partnerships with countries that display no such values,” she said. “You are not promoting your values if you’re not willing to stand on them.” She’s specifically criticized the relationship between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, tweeting in February: “Any sane person would realize that if you do something completely immoral (selling arms to the Saudis while they’re killing people in Yemin[sic]) then it will probably come back at you in unintended ways?”

She has also commented on Afghanistan on Twitter. In a tweet in February, Williamson wrote:“The Taliban’s violently oppressive attitude toward women isn’t something we can change, but we should be led by a president whose concern for the well-being of Afghani women is a major factor in determining our policies there. We should always bear witness to the agony of others.”

Williamson also offered her perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and peace process, saying in an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: “I don’t think the ultimate answer will be about settlements or checkpoints,” she said.

After seeing Republicans trash abortion rights and the rights of doctors, so it is a relief that Williamson supports abortion rights and the rights of LGBTQ people:

SOCIAL ISSUES: Supports LGBTQ rights, access to abortion

Williamson supports the Equality Act to protect LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in the workplace, housing, health care and service industries.On her campaign website, Williamson said she is “one hundred percent pro-choice.”

Williamson has also proposed providing reparations to descendants of African American slaves. Her original proposal was $100 billion, distributed $10 billion per year over 10 years. She’s since proposed $200 billion to $500 billion over 20 years.

Whether Williamson can beat out the other Democratic competitors is a big question. But if she can, she is a welcome improvement over the centrist who need to be rejected. We badly need a progressive. There is no reason to keep putting up “do nothing, meaningless Democrats” who offer us no real improvements over their Republican rivals. We have put up with conservative politicians and their governments long enough! It is time for some real change!

For the rest of the article click here.

---

[1] Rep. Alexandria also rejects the centrist or “middle of the road” Democrats….

A day after calling Republicans "sea sponges" for believing she was serious when she said "the world is gonna end in 12 years if we don’t address climate change," democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez took clear aim at a key figure on her side of the aisle: Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden, who is reportedly working on plans to provide a "middle ground" approach to address the "existential threat."

"I'll be damned if the same politicians who refused to act (in past decades) are going to try to come back today and say we need a 'middle of the road' approach to save our lives," Ocasio-Cortez declared at a rally Monday hosted by the radical left Sunrise Movement, the same group the incoming congresswoman joined in a sit-in protest at the office of presumptive Democratic House leader Nancy Pelosi just days after getting elected last year.

As CNN notes, Ocasio-Cortez's "middle of the road" comment appears to be "aimed directly at Biden," about whom fellow democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders had just blasted on the same stage for not being progressive enough. Their complaints appear to be in reference to a recent Reuters report on Biden's plans to find "middle ground" on climate change.

"Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is crafting a climate change policy he hopes will appeal to both environmentalists and the blue-collar voters who elected Donald Trump, according to two sources, carving out a middle ground approach that will likely face heavy resistance from green activists," Reuters reported Friday. "The backbone of the policy will likely include the United States re-joining the Paris Climate Agreement and preserving U.S. regulations on emissions and vehicle fuel efficiency that Trump has sought to undo, according to one of the sources, [former Obama adviser] Heather Zichal, who is part of a team advising Biden on climate change."

But Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez made clear Monday that they want none of Biden's "middle ground" when it comes to the issue that Ocasio-Cortez has said is "our World War II." To combat what she and Sanders portray as an existential threat, the freshman congresswoman has proposed her radical "Green New Deal," which even CNN admits would "fundamentally overhaul the US economy," and includes unsustainable promises, like a federal jobs guarantee and complete carbon neutrality in ten years — costing what a former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates could cost anywhere from $50 trillion to over $90 trillion over ten years.