Long-shot 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson made quite an impression on some conservatives during the recent, first presidential debate. Her intriguing performance has even spurred some on the other side of the aisle to donate money to her campaign.
According to TheBlaze, Republicans are encouraging people to donate to the author and self-help guru’s campaign because they think she made a mockery of the debate and hope she’ll get the opportunity to do the same at future ones. The Democratic National Committee, DNC, has set stringent fundraising and polling requirements for contenders to participate in the primary debates. To be eligible to participate in the first debate, candidates had to have either received donations from a minimum of 65,000 donors, or registered at least one percent in three polls chosen by the DNC.
During the debate, Williamson proclaimed that she would “harness love” to beat President Donald J. Trump in 2020. The author stated, “So Mr. President, if you’re listening, I want you to hear me please: You have harnessed fear for political purposes, and only love can cast that out. So I, sir, I have a feeling you know what you’re doing. I’m going to harness love for political purposes. I will meet you on that field, and sir, love will win.”
Williamson will need all the help she can get to guarantee herself a spot on future debate stages. The September-October round of debates requires candidates to have at least 130,000 individual donors, and a minimum of two percent support in the polls. Jeff Roe, the Republican strategist, who spearheaded U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign in 2016, wants to make sure Williamson meets the donations requirement.
So, he’s requesting his fellow Republicans to donate $1 to her campaign. Roe tweeted, “Please, calling on all republicans to go to https://www.marianne2020.com/ and donate $1 to keep this vibrant democrat on the debate stage. One debate performance is not enough.”
Interestingly, numerous people responded to the Republican strategist’s suggestion with receipts showing they donated money to the self-help guru’s campaign.
Besides touting “love” as the means to defeat Trump in 2020, Williamson also provided an odd answer when all the debate participants were asked what they would do first in the Oval office after winning the presidential election. Obviously, some of Williamson’s competitors began spouting off detailed policy proposals such as how to deal with climate change or gun violence. However, Williamson said her first action would be to call the prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, in order to challenge her.
“My first call is to the prime minister of New Zealand who said that her goal is to make New Zealand the best place in the world for a child in the world to grow up,” she said. “And I will tell her ‘Girlfriend, you are so on, because the United States of America is going to be the best place in the world for a child to grow up.’”
Williamson’s unexpected comments about Ardern both raised eyebrows and earned her some ribbing on social media. The “Daily Show” tweeted, “MODERATOR: In one or two words, what would your first act as President be? BERNIE: Special interests KAMALA: Immigration MARIANNE WILLIAMSON: I was reading a wonderful article in GOOP about New Zealand.”
After the debate touched on an officer-involved shooting in 2020 presidential candidate and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg’s city, Williamson declared her support for reparations and said Americans were “woefully uneducated” on the history of race. The incident involved the fatal shooting of a black man.
“The underlying cause has to do with deep, deep, deep realms of racial injustice, both in our criminal justice system and in our economic system. The Democratic Party should be on the side of reparations for slavery for this very reason,” Williamson said. “I do not believe that the average American is a racist, but the average American is woefully undereducated about the history of race in the United States.”
No one expects a self-help guru promising to defeat an incumbent president commandeering a booming economy with love to secure the Democratic presidential nomination. But, scores of people were mocking Trump’s presidential run four years ago. And, well, everyone knows how that turned out.
