Marianne Williamson is standing for President in the Democratic Party. She is a spiritual teacher, best-selling author, and former presidential candidate without debate. In this episode, we talk about her campaign, her spiritual journey, and why she thinks Joe Biden should debate his primary challenger. We also take a deeper look at the influence of corporate money in American politics, and what it tells us about the state of Democratic politics and why the party is so keen to shoehorn in the current President Joe Biden into the next election. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this interview with Marianne Williamson, where we discuss her campaign and what she thinks about the current Democratic Party and the current state of the country as a whole. See it first on Locals, where she will be joined by Gareth and Gareth's co-conspirator, Gareth's on-screen assistant, Gav, who will be talking about the issues that matter. Stay free with Russell Brand! Stay Free With Russell Brand: At least I have a war. And if you want to join us, press the red button on the bottom of your screen now... and if you're watching Locals you can be a part of the Locals community, then press the Red Button on the left-side of the screen now! You can join Locals and join in on the conversation by becoming a patron of the show. If you like the show, then please like, share it on your social media and tell me what you think of it! and tag me :) and let me know who you'd like to be included in the show! . Thank you, Russell Brand and I'll be looking out there in the next episode of Locals! See it on Rumble on Rumble. - The Awakening Wonders! - Shout out to You Awakening Wonders - by on Rumble! on Insta: & Thanks for listening out for a great show! - Your Suggestions? , : The Awakening Wonderings - What do you think about it? - Thank you for listening to the Awakening Wonders Podcasts? and I'm looking forward to hearing from You're a Friend of the Awakening Wonderings? ? Tweet Me! or in the AwakeningWonders? : or I'll send it out to you! & I'll get back to you soon!
00:00:14.000We're going to, in fact, direct her towards populist, libertarian and anarchist arguments about systemic corruption and the failure of power.
00:00:23.000Then, Joe, what I'm going to do sometimes, Gareth, my on-screen assistant and my friend, my co-conspirator, I'm gonna keep stitching in the spirituality from which she made her fame and fortune.
00:00:35.000Because you know that Marianne Williamson, I think she interpreted a book called the Book of Miracles, which claims that it's a message from Jesus.
00:00:42.000You've heard him, let me know in the chat, the comments.
00:00:45.000He re-engaged with someone and offered a new prophecy, like an update.
00:01:01.000Well, straight away, I wonder if the plates are even there.
00:01:05.000Anyway, we're going to be talking about that.
00:01:06.000We've got a fantastic presentation for you where we have a deeper look at a new story that I didn't even tell you about because it would surprise you.
00:01:13.000We'll be talking about Rand Paul and how the Republican Party are beating the drums for an ongoing war Stay free with Russell Brand.
00:01:20.000At least I have a war. There's been wars with China in the past. We had them, the box wars,
00:01:23.000they were called in them days. Let me know in the comments and the chat if there's anyone
00:01:28.000in American politics who doesn't want a war with someone. I'm going to ask Marianne Williamson who
00:01:32.000she wants a war with. I'm going to ask her about that. Do you want a war with somebody? Is that
00:01:35.000why you're here? I'm actually going to be nice to her. I know her and I've met her several times,
00:01:38.000so politeness. Stay free with Russell Brand. See it first on Rumble. I'd like to say a special
00:01:44.000hello to all of you watching us on Locals. And if you want to join us on Locals, press the red
00:01:48.000button on the bottom of your screen now.
00:01:51.000I'm very excited to announce that I'm being joined by renowned spiritual teacher, best-selling author of A Return to Love, and now presidential candidate without debate, please welcome to the show Marianne Williamson.
00:02:05.000Maren, what do you think it tells us about the state of internal politics within the Democrat Party that we are foregoing the possibility to see some interesting candidates debate the current President Joe Biden?
00:02:18.000What does it tell us about the internal machinery of the Democratic Party?
00:02:22.000Well, it tells us that there is an elite, an establishment elite, who feels that they have the right to shoehorn in the president.
00:02:30.000And for a party that claims to be and should be such a champion of democracy, There's no reason for it to be so wary of democracy in our own house.
00:02:39.000Of course the president should be debating his primary challengers.
00:02:43.000I suppose what it shows you is that, in that instance at least, we have the appearance of democracy, or the claim is being made that we live within a democracy, and the party takes its name from that word, and yet we have a managed, siphoned, and stymied process How telling is it that Joe Biden was able to say to a significant portion of the donor class when he addressed them prior to becoming president that nothing will fundamentally change?
00:03:13.000What does that tell you about the influence of donation and external corporate funding upon the political process and in particular the funding of the Democrat Party?
00:03:25.000Although of course this would be true of both parties would be my assumption.
00:03:28.000Let's not pretend that the Republican Party is not completely pervaded by corporate influence.
00:03:34.000There's a reason why this is now called, by so many people, a corporate duopoly.
00:03:39.000The Democratic Party still tries to have it both ways.
00:03:41.000You know, there was a time when, more than not, the Democratic Party was an unequivocal, unabashed advocate for the people—the people, particularly the working people of the United States.
00:03:52.000It was during Bill Clinton's presidency, when he formed something called the Democratic Leadership Council, that they sort of decided to try to have it both ways.
00:04:01.000Yes, be there for the people, but we, too, can play with the big boys, raise all the money that it will take in order to remain competitive and so forth.
00:04:09.000And this really tore the soul—it's a rupture in the soul of the Democratic Party, so that now, in the Democratic Party, as in the Republican Party, there are these two major elements.
00:04:19.000And for the Democrats, there are the corporatists, the elitists, the establishment, and then there are the progressives.
00:04:25.000Now, the establishment elitists almost act as though the progressives are trying to hijack the party.
00:04:51.000How will it be possible to make the kind of significant changes that are required in the area of health, the way that it's funded and the way that it's administered, when big food has such coercive power over policy and the ability to promote and fund detrimental food sources?
00:05:10.000And when Big Pharma, through lobbying, donation and influence over regulation, has such significant power, but one example being the refusal to evoke the law that would prohibit a cancer drug being sold profitably.
00:05:24.000How can you change health without changing the corporatization of America, the corporatization of food and pharma?
00:05:33.000Well, I mentioned on the debate stage in the last election exactly what you just said.
00:05:41.000We have to ask ourselves, why do Americans have such a higher rate of chronic illness than, for instance, the Europeans do?
00:05:49.000And, as you just said, and as I said at the debates, for that, you have to talk about more than just the health insurance companies, more than pharmaceutical.
00:05:57.000You have to talk about big agriculture.
00:05:59.000You have to talk about the chemical companies.
00:06:01.000And, of course, you have to talk about big food.
00:06:03.000The corporatocracy itself puts short-term profit maximization—and when I say the corporatocracy, I mean all of them—insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, big food, big ag, big chemical, gun manufacturers, big oil and defense contractors.
00:06:18.000It serves us to see they're all one big matrix of corporate What is, at this point, tyranny, OK?
00:06:24.000And as long as they are put in short-term corporate maximization for themselves, and as long as the government supports them in that more than not, then that will be at the expense of the safety and the health and the well-being of the American people, animals, our children and our planet itself.
00:06:42.000And this has taken us on a trajectory that is now more than unsustainable.
00:06:47.000It is Self-destructive to our democracy and possibly long-term to our species.
00:06:55.000When, Marianne, the American economy appears to require war in order to sustain itself, and when the military-industrial complex has such significant power, again through lobbying, again through donation, when we have the slightly absurd spectre of an event like Gay Pride, which has always been a counter-cultural movement, being sponsored by Lockheed Martin, what does it tell us about where our values are?
00:07:23.000And may I fold into this question, forgive me, what do you think is a greater threat to global peace?
00:07:30.000Is it despots like Vladimir Putin and that he's admittedly criminal invasion of Ukraine, which many people believe was subsequent to a great deal of provocation from NATO, or is it an economic system that plainly and explicitly requires war to remain in business?
00:07:50.000I would disagree with the word requires, and you used it twice.
00:07:55.000We have about 51 percent of the American economy that is at least indirectly related to the defense industry.
00:08:02.000But it doesn't have to be that way, just as we have to make a just We have to make a just transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy.
00:08:10.000We have to make a just transition from a war economy to a peace economy.
00:08:15.000And in terms of—the reason the word requires is inappropriate there is because the return on investment is much greater when you're talking about money that is given to health, that is given to education.
00:08:27.000It only is required by those small Donor class, the 1 percent of Americans who make so much money on it, it's only required by Raytheon, by Northrop Grumman, by Boeing and by their stockholders.
00:08:41.000So, this is a change that we need to make.
00:08:44.000In the meantime, the vast economic power and governmental power and the undue influence of the military-industrial complex on our government does create a problem in the world.
00:08:55.000And that goes back to the second thing you said, how much the military-industrial complex
00:09:00.000and the short-term profit maximization of defense contractors and that industry prevails
00:09:07.000within American foreign policy, to an evil degree.
00:09:11.000We saw it with—well, we saw it with Vietnam, but we certainly saw it with Iraq.
00:09:15.000We saw it with staying in Afghanistan probably 20 years longer than we should have.
00:09:22.000And certainly, it's a complicated issue in Ukraine today.
00:09:27.000I'm glad that you made the point that we should not be apologizing for the brutal invasion Vladimir Putin, at the same time it is naive of us to fail to recognize, at the very least, the meddling on the part of the U.S.
00:09:46.000defense establishment and the domestic affairs of Ukraine.
00:09:49.000One of the stories we covered on the show was how the International Criminal Court could not call upon the United States for evidence because if they were to participate in that trial, it would reveal the degree to which they had been involved in criminal wars themselves.
00:10:05.000And the reason we're not a member of the court is because there's too great a chance that they would come after George Bush and Dick Cheney.
00:10:12.000So we have, you know, for us to be now going on and on and on about other people who have caused wars that should not have been fought.
00:10:19.000The world sees the hypocrisy and the American people are beginning to see the threat that all that represents to our democracy itself.
00:10:25.000How did it feel standing as a candidate for the Democrat Party knowing that within living memory, and in fact recent memory, it was figures like Cheney and Bush and Wolfowitz that were regarded as the hawkish figureheads of militarism and now we have to accept that it is Joe Biden that said I'll make Saudi Arabia a pariah before doing weapons deals and oils deals and facilitating military deals from the LGBTQ plus communities friends at Lockheed Martin.
00:10:55.000How does it feel to see as Tulsi Gabbard acknowledges, recognize that the Democrat
00:11:01.000Party has become co-opted by the military-industrial complex. And how do you reverse a
00:11:06.000process that at this point seems so entrenched and institutionalized?
00:11:11.000This is not just about the military-industrial complex.
00:11:41.000This didn't start with Joe Biden, that you see the same kind of undue corporate influence among the Democrats, in too many cases, that you see among the Republicans.
00:11:50.000It's strange though, we covered this today, that it's Rand Paul that's saying we need to challenge the Forever Wars Emergency Act Bill that's being taken through Congress currently.
00:12:00.000That it's coming from figures, libertarians within the right, that are most willing, it seems to me, other than the candidature of yourself and RFK, to challenge the kind of establishment power that you are outlining and describing.
00:12:14.000Are you saying therefore, Marianne, that you think that it's wrong to accept Is it funding from Big Food that is wrong to allow Big Food and Big Pharma to fund their own regulatory bodies?
00:12:49.000Let's say something like the very secretary of defense.
00:12:54.000Traditionally, the secretary of defense was not to be a military man.
00:12:57.000And the last thing that the secretary of defense should be is someone who comes from the defense industry.
00:13:03.000Now, with Trump, Trump made General Mattis a military man.
00:13:07.000This is what's so dangerous in this country.
00:13:09.000I'm old enough to remember, wait, we're not supposed to do that.
00:13:13.000But you have too many younger generations who don't even remember a time—they don't have it in their institutional memory—when people would go, hey, you're not supposed to do that.
00:13:22.000And people in Congress who even know it won't say anything.
00:13:25.000Now, what they did with Biden, not only is our Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, a former general, he is a former president.
00:14:22.000Of course, prior to your incarnation as a political figure, you are most well known for your work in the area of spirituality and wellness, which I know can be regarded unfairly, I think, as somehow unsubstantial or insubstantial.
00:14:42.000What I feel is that there is a lack of integrity in politics that you alluded to then.
00:14:48.000There's no one saying that you shouldn't be doing this.
00:14:50.000There's no one pointing out the obvious fact that you shouldn't have board members of weapons manufacturers within the Pentagon advocating for further deals.
00:15:00.000How do you feel, and what do you feel, is the appropriate role for spirituality in politics?
00:15:07.000What are we going to do about this kind of moral abyss at the heart of our global politics?
00:15:12.000And this kind of, I want to almost say, institutionalized self-centeredness that you see, it seems to me, in figures like, and I know a lot of you love Donald Trump, but he is a pretty egocentric kind of guy, And then career politicians like Joe Biden who, for me, while even when seeming convivial, appears to be an entrenched old-school politician who's there to represent establishment values.
00:15:38.000What do we do about this self-centredness?
00:15:40.000In our politics over here in the UK, Boris Johnson, it's like you're dealing with man-child mentality, unawakened, uninitiated people.
00:15:49.000How do you suggest that those kind of cultural changes could be made and how are we suffering as a result of the lack of those changes?
00:15:56.000I want to start by saying the first time I ever heard you speak publicly.
00:16:00.000It was at a luncheon in Los Angeles for a home, I think, for women.
00:16:08.000You, so I really want to thank you, because you are one of the people who has helped elevate, for those of us who have heard you, and I don't know how much you've done this in broader mainstream circles, but you, more than anyone that I've ever heard, has talked about spiritual principles, issues of whether it's AA or any other, and how serious they are, and how substantial they are.
00:16:29.000Now, in terms of the effect of a lack of spiritual principle on personal behavior or political behavior, when you have a lack of conscience, when you have a lack of remorse, when you have a complete lack of any sense of responsibility, moral responsibility to people, to life, to planet, that's called sociopathic.
00:16:51.000It is considered, and rightfully so, in terms of personal behavior, a malevolence, a deadly malevolence.
00:16:58.000Now we need to recognize that our economic system is at this point.
00:17:03.000When you're talking about hypercapitalism, when you're talking about unfettered capitalism, it is a sociopathic public phenomenon.
00:17:11.000Even Adam Smith, who was the primary architect of free market capitalism, said, it cannot exist outside an ethical context.
00:17:23.000So, what's happened is that capitalism has completely gone off the rails.
00:17:27.000And there is this—has been for the last 40 years or so—this canard, this wool over people's eyes, where people are supposed to agree that that's a good idea.
00:17:38.000Because the argument was, well, it's really good, see, if you just move all the money into the hands of the stockholders, even though it's at the expense of the safety of the workers, at the expense of the benefits of the workers, at the expense of the community, at the expense of the environment, People were told—and this is such a delusional, malevolent canard—it's going to be good, because those people who are going to get all that money, they're going to create jobs, see, and all that money will trickle down, and it will lift all boats.
00:19:22.000Marianne, and even appearing on platforms like this, it's possible that you will be charged with participating in platforms that carry conspiracy theories, that are alt-right, because entire platforms are now being dismissed as somehow morally unhygienic.
00:19:42.000I think solely on the basis that we are willing to carry alternative voices, that we are willing to challenge establishment power, that we have no alliance to the Republican Party, Well I'm already in the belly of that beast and I know what they did to me last time, I know what they're doing this time.
00:19:57.000will be heard sufficiently to carry some support within the movement?
00:20:02.000Well, I'm already in the belly of that beast, and I know what they did to me last time,
00:21:51.000Yeah, it's a powerful message and it's a personal risk.
00:21:55.000It's interesting to know that both political parties have to, in different ways, elicit the support of, let's say, kind of Christian interest, knowing that what those value sets are meant to be representative of are Spirituality, kindness, decency, morality, but sometimes they become representative of a slightly more murky set of interests.
00:22:20.000But I think that what people are craving are genuine values, integrity, authenticity, service, willingness to sacrifice yourself in favor of a greater cause.
00:22:33.000It seems to me that Our values have been kind of hollowed out and we have the appearance of compassion but not the delivery of compassion.
00:22:41.000We have gestures and performance in place of real sacrifice.
00:22:46.000But when you arrive at a point where the party that claims to be liberal operates so plainly on behalf of elite interests that we are at a point of, as you say, Peaceful revolution.
00:23:01.000It's interesting to watch it unfold because I don't suppose that you imagined that you would find yourself in this position when you were a successful author or becoming a spiritual teacher or and having roles that are not easy really to define actually because the culture doesn't really frame people in that way anymore.
00:23:20.000In a secular culture we're kind of that's been absented somehow and yet politics requires it and public life requires it.
00:23:26.000The over-secularization of America's political dialogue has not actually served us.
00:23:32.000And that over-secularization—and I don't mean a removal of religious language, because we are—I think political dialogue, being secular, is important, but that doesn't mean it should be devoid of spiritual values.
00:23:46.000And the spiritual values that you just indicated are not just Christian.
00:23:49.000They are universal spiritual values at the heart of all the great religious systems of the world.
00:23:54.000Now, Christian nationalism is—people are seeing it for what it is.
00:23:58.000The Bible does not talk about how, you know, what you should do is give tax cuts to the very, very richest people.
00:24:07.000So, people—there is a spiritual revolution going on on the planet.
00:24:12.000And people are recognizing—certainly I recognize, and I believe there is a listening for this—that our public behavior, our political behavior, who we are collectively, cannot be devoid of moral values any more than our individual lives can be and have a life that works.
00:24:32.000You know, I think that we're living at a time of two simultaneous phenomenon.
00:24:37.000On one hand, there is a world that is crumbling before our eyes, an old order of organization, and we see the signs of this crumbling everywhere.
00:24:48.000But at the same time, you see that world that is struggling to be born.
00:24:52.000And we are called to be midwives both to the death of one world and midwives to the birth of another.
00:25:00.000And the world that we want is a world in which we take the best of the old and bring forth and reclaim, bring back into our public and collective lives principles like mercy, compassion, humility, forgiveness, integrity, kindness, If you see a hungry child, you feed that child.
00:25:21.000If you look at the earth, you know, you remember this was God's creation.
00:25:25.000It was given to us to be proper stewards.
00:25:27.000You don't desecrate it so a bunch of oil companies can make a lot of money.
00:25:33.000I think that a lot of people are processing all of this right now, and that's why I believe that there is a political possibility that lies before us.
00:25:43.000Right now, where we are now is unsustainable.
00:25:48.000There is going to be this political earthquake.
00:25:53.000It's going to go one way or the other.
00:25:55.000It's either going to be in the direction of democracy and justice, or it's going to be in the direction of autocracy and authoritarianism.
00:26:04.000And that's why I think it's important for all of us to decide which are we going to contribute our own energies toward, because There's, there's, you can't be neutral at this point.
00:26:16.000Being neutral is serving the oppressor.
00:26:18.000I believe you and I agree with you and I fancy that this line between democracy and compassion and autocracy and tyranny is no longer, we can no longer claim it's drawn down the line between the two parties.
00:26:34.000It's plain that there is a version of centralized authoritarianism that has emerged out of the
00:26:39.000Democratic Party in your analysis since Bill Clinton but for me is now reaching
00:26:45.000I hope it's Zenith or Nadir depending on how you regard it. It's plain that after
00:26:51.0002008 and Barack Obama's decision to bail out the banks rather than bailing
00:26:55.000out ordinary Americans and we've since seen nobody prosecuted,
00:26:58.000persecuted or held accountable for those financial crimes and transgressions
00:27:04.000that we can no longer confidently claim that either party or any individuals
00:27:09.000within it have any moral high ground and I think that continuing the conversation
00:27:14.000along partisan lines is reductive. I know you've said many times
00:27:18.000when I've asked you before Marianne that it's important to change the
00:27:21.000system from within it and change the system outside of it that you don't have to
00:27:25.000choose one of those options you have to do both of them
00:27:29.000And I appreciate the work that you're doing within it and the manner with which you're carrying it out.
00:27:36.000Are you concerned even in your discourse about presenting a partisan perspective when something bigger than that appears to be required, by my reckoning at least?
00:27:47.000Well, I actually don't agree with you about the moral equivalence between the two parties.
00:27:53.000And I do think that the voices of people who are standing forth and saying, let us have a profound Democratic correction, in 99 percent of the time are within the Democratic rather than the Republican Party, sometimes in third parties, sometimes even outside parties.
00:28:09.000So, I wouldn't be running as a Democrat if I did not feel a personal choice to be part
00:28:16.000of the effort to reclaim the soul of the Democratic Party.
00:28:19.000Now, having said that, I hope that there are people—and I think that there probably are—who
00:28:23.000are trying to reclaim the soul of the Republican Party, as well.
00:28:27.000I think that some people are feeling—I mean, obviously, look at Cornell running as a third-party
00:28:38.000Abolition came from the Abolitionist Party.
00:28:40.000Women's suffrage came from the Women's Party.
00:28:43.000Social Security came from the Socialist Party.
00:28:46.000So, no, I'm not a fan of the way, over the last few decades, The Democratic and the Republican Party have formed this unholy alliance, making it very difficult for third-party voices to be heard.
00:28:57.000And, you know, George Washington, our first president, warned us about political parties.
00:29:02.000In his farewell address, he said it would form factions of men more concerned with their party than with their country.
00:29:12.000President John Adams said that he saw political parties as the greatest threat to our democracy.
00:29:18.000At this point, every individual has to decide, and I don't think that there's a right or a wrong answer, because it's one more area where there's a whole systems breakdown, and we have to give a whole systems response and do whatever you feel is the best way, best thing you can do to serve the larger sense of repair.
00:29:36.000For me, take something like debating the president.
00:29:39.000If I weren't running as a Democrat, I couldn't You need to debate your opponents.
00:29:48.000It's because I'm running as a Democrat that I can do that.
00:29:50.000So everybody has to do what they think.
00:29:53.000I don't think there's a right or wrong answer there.
00:29:55.000Why is Joe Biden not debating you and RFK?
00:30:03.000They think that they can just shoehorn in the president.
00:30:06.000And it makes no sense, because if the president cannot take on Bobby Kennedy and myself in a debate, why should we feel confident that he will do well taking on DeSantis or Trump in a debate, or any of the other Republicans?
00:30:21.000Theoretically, it would only make him a stronger candidate.
00:30:25.000People should have—in a democracy, as you were saying before, in a democracy, people should have as wide an array of options as present themselves.
00:30:56.000They should meet the president and hear our agendas.
00:30:58.000And right now, it's not just the DNC, but it's also their minions in the corporate media, who are doing everything possible to make sure that the likely Democratic voters do not meet in the way that is clear and meaningful, the president's opponents in this primary.
00:31:14.000It's clear that at a time when many people think that the Biden administration has something to hide, I'm speaking specifically of the at the moment absolutely denied allegation that Biden took a five million bribe during his time as VP.
00:31:28.000Now that we know that the Hunter Biden laptop story was repressed, Biden's unwillingness
00:31:35.000to debate people within the Democratic Party that at least superficially would appear or
00:31:41.000seem to have the same basic rubric of beliefs, i.e. they are within the Democratic Party,
00:31:47.000is a suggestion that if there isn't something to hide, and let me know in the chat and the
00:31:51.000comments what you think, there certainly appears to be fear, fear around having conversation
00:31:56.000with people perhaps with more moral integrity.
00:31:59.000Let me know what you think in the chat and the comments.
00:32:01.000Gareth Roy is my favourite journalist online.
00:32:03.000Gareth, do you have any conversations for Marianne Williamson?
00:32:06.000Or have I done such a brilliant investigation that there's literally no territory?
00:32:11.000You usually manage to add to these conversations.
00:32:14.000I wonder what you'd like to add this time?
00:32:16.000No, I think it's been a great interview and I think it's given us a chance to hear some of your very strong views about the corporatisation of politics, which I think a lot of our audience feel very strongly and passionately about.
00:32:32.000I think, as Russell mentioned, the 2008 crash, I think also the pandemic, During which of which there was a wealth transfer, I think people started to, I think from both sides, started to feel like this myth that they'd been told for a long time about trickle-down economics and how capitalism's working started to really see up close how it wasn't working and how it was kind of at warp speeds not working for them.
00:33:04.000I just wondered, from your perspective, do you feel like change is inevitable?
00:33:11.000We seem to be at a point whereby you're doing very well in the polls, RFK's doing very well in the polls.
00:33:17.000In the way that maybe Donald Trump talked about draining the swamp, that sentiment seems to be something that I think voters from both sides Are now, have really bought into the idea that there has to be change to the corporatisation of politics.
00:33:34.000Do you feel that if, we have a lot of our viewers who are often quite despondent about change, who ask, what can we do?
00:33:58.000You know, we need to end our magical thinking that, oh, our democracy will be OK, oh, our institutions will hold.
00:34:05.000We've seen enough happen in the last few decades that it should convince any reasonable person that our institutions are fragile and they are, in many ways, under attack.
00:34:15.000I see authoritarianism as an attack on our democracy from the outside, but this kind of trickle-down economics on federal capitalism, neoliberalism, is eroding it from the inside.
00:34:25.000So, no, it's time for Americans to wake up.
00:34:31.000It is not a guarantee that our democracy will survive.
00:34:34.000However, if you look at the trajectory of American history, we have course-corrected before.
00:34:41.000You know, it's Winston Churchill who said, you can always count on Americans to do the right thing after they have exhausted every other option.
00:34:50.000That's sort of our characterological propensity.
00:34:54.000We sort of like—we're kind of like distracted, but boy, once we get it.
00:34:58.000So, this is—mine is a country that ultimately responded to slavery with abolition.
00:35:06.000Ultimately responded to the institutional suppression of women with the Women's Movement and the 19th Amendment, that ultimately responded to the Gilded Age with the labor movement, that ultimately responded to segregation with the civil rights movement.
00:35:20.000This is—what we are going through now is simply the latest iteration of a struggle that has baked into the cake in my country, that has been with us from the very beginning.
00:35:31.000We have always been a country which is struggling, this almost bipolar nature, on one hand, based on these extraordinarily enlightened principles, and at the—on the other hand, containing forces, starting with slavery, who, for their own ideological and financial purposes, Had no intention whatsoever of seeing those principles realized and would go to great lengths, even violent ones, to make sure that they did not.
00:36:00.000So, what we're experiencing now, it's just our turn.
00:36:04.000Do I think it's possible for us to do what our ancestors did?
00:36:08.000To rise up, to figure this out, to say, hell no, no way, and push back?
00:36:22.000It will take a strong labor movement, which is why the regeneration and revitalization of the labor movement going on in this country, in my country right now, is a really good thing.
00:36:32.000But we can't leave out electoral politics.
00:36:35.000And it would be very, very helpful right now to have a president who laid it down and told it like it is.
00:36:41.000And that's the last one we really had like that was Franklin Roosevelt.
00:36:44.000And it's time for another Rooseveltian character.
00:36:48.000Certainly, if a new poll is to be believed, the American public, even those that define
00:36:55.000themselves as Democrats, want debates.
00:36:57.000A recent poll says that eight in ten Democratic primary voters want Joe Biden to debate.
00:37:01.000Let us know what you think in the chat and comments.
00:37:03.000On Locals, which you can join by the way by pressing the red button, it's on your screen now.
00:37:09.000The Karen Dorn says, I owe all of my works in the animal rights world to Marianne Williamson.
00:37:13.000I used to sing in the choir before lectures at the town hall in New York City.
00:37:17.000Though animal rights are not the top of her priority list, they moved me more than anything else and she inspired me to devote my life to what mattered most to me, to shine my light and to pray use me.
00:37:26.000She is one of the most Inspiring people on the planet.
00:37:30.000So you're having a real impact over here.
00:37:32.000Elsewhere, people are commenting on Gareth's tan and saying that Gareth looks very well.
00:37:37.000So there's an entire gamut of emotions and opinions.
00:37:40.000Marianne, thank you so much for devoting your time to us today on the show.
00:38:15.000To follow Marianne's campaign, go to marianne2024.com and continue to advocate for democracy, I would say, across the spectrum in any way possible.
00:38:26.000That's all we've got time for this week, but to join our locals community, you've just got to press the red button.
00:38:29.000You can hit us up with your comments and stuff and you get lots of podcasts, meditations and all sorts of inside information.
00:38:36.000Thanks once again, Marianne Williamson.