Why Marianne Williamson Belongs On That Debate Stage

Marianne Williamson is not a member of the Inside the Beltway Club, and the Democratic establishment-- including their media allies and polling firms-- have largely blacked her out and pretended her campaign doesn't exist. (That said, she will be a guest on Morning Joe tomorrow.) When some random polls do include her, she always polls ahead of the 1% crowd, even U.S. senators like Kirsten Gillibrand and Amy Klobuchar and Reps like John Delaney and Julian Castro. When she was asked how she's going to dumb down her message for the media, she responded that she isn't getting shallow with voters and that she wants them to get deep with her. That's not a campaign that appeals to mass marketing media, whose job is selling Liberty Mutual auto insurance, Lifelock Identity Theft service, Gold Bond Ultimate Healing, Hersheys, Zantac, Allegra-D, Coffee-Mate and Geico Insurance. (Yes, those are this year's top-spending TV ad buyers.) I bet Marianne's message would appeal to as many of them as anything Mayor Pete has to say.

When it comes to which candidates are being covered by TV, Dhrumil Mehta has the beat covered (at fivethirtyeight.com). Whose kickoff got the most coverage?. "[V]oters," he wrote," haven’t heard the same amount of noise from each campaign, because cable news has amplified their launches differently... We found that Bernie Sanders and Beto O’Rourke saw dramatic, mountainous peaks in mentions immediately following their announcements, and in some cases still days after. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren saw more modest bumps. And others-- such as Pete Buttigieg, John Hickenlooper and Jay Inslee-- saw molehills." Marianne Williamson? Not included. She rarely is. I was surprised to see her on the definitive NY Times list of candidates and probable candidates.

This week, Mehta updated his coverage to let his readers have a look at what the 3 cable news networks are doing since the announcement phase. Beto, Kamala and Bernie had the most, followed by Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker and Amy Klobuchar. Below 60 mentions between March 24-30 were Mayor Pete, Gillibrand, Frackenlooper, John Delaney, Julian Castro, Jay Inslee, Tulsi and Andrew Yang. Look how flat the graph of Yang's media coverage looks compared to front-runner (for coverage) Beto's.

[I]n the past week, Beto O’Rourke got the most coverage of any candidate on cable news, with Kamala Harris, Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker all at least 95 mentions behind. Jay Inslee, Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard got next to no coverage.

Pete Buttigieg, who saw some favorable polling in Iowa and nationally this past week, was the only candidate who didn’t have a large reduction in media coverage from the previous week, but the overall amount of coverage he received was still modest compared with other major candidates.

Another way to gage which candidates are getting their messages out has to do with Social Media, of course, rather than TV. These are the candidates that the NY Times listed, but listed here according to the number of their Twitter followers. The biggest discrepancy-- among declared candidates-- between Twitter followers and TV coverage is, as you might guess, Marianne Williamson.

• Bernie- 9.18 million
• Cory Booker- 4.23 million
• Joe Biden- 3.39 million
• Marianne Williamson- 2.61 million
• Kamala Harris- 2.52 million
• Elizabeth Warren- 2.33 million
• Kirsten Gillibrand- 1.39 million
• Beto- 1.39 million

• Amy Klobuchar- 667K
• Mayor Pete- 645K
• Eric Swalwell- 501K
• Tulsi- 320K
• Michael Bennet- 285K
• Andrew Yang- 211K
• Julian Castro- 197K
• Steve Bullock- 167K
• Frackenlooper- 141K
• Seth Moulton- 136K

• Tim Ryan- 69.3K
• Terry McAuliffe- 65.8K
• Jay Inslee- 43.2K
• John Delaney- 18.5K
• Wayne Messam- 5,170

The irony of the non-coverage of Williamson is that she is one of the most issue and policy-oriented of the candidates. Her campaign website's issues section is probably the best of anyone running. Nor does she beat around the bush, ducking and weaving like most careerist politicians who are afraid of the voters. Yesterday she sent her supporters a very clear statement on why she supports the Green New Deal.

There’s a lot of talk these days about the Green New Deal, and for good reason. I do support a Green New Deal, and I want to be very clear about why. We need job opportunities for more Americans. We need massive infrastructure repair. And we need to green our economy. A Green New Deal does all three.

The Green New Deal cites the UN Study that says that we only have a dozen years for global warming to be kept to a maximum of 1.5C, beyond which even half a degree will significantly worsen the risks of drought, floods, extreme heat and poverty for hundreds of millions of people. The Green New Deal assumes that the only way to save our climate is to make huge and fundamental changes to the underlying systems that have created the climate crisis.

The Green New Deal sets the goal of making America a zero emissions nation by 2030. In addition, it mandates universal health care and a guarantee of a living wage for every American, reinforces the strength of unions, and mentions enacting and enforcing trade rules with strong labor and environmental protections.

Opposition to the Green New Deal comes of the form of those who say it will be “bad for business,” but in too many cases an unrestrained business sector has been bad for our democracy and bad for our lives. The American people should no longer acquiesce to the canard that making short terms profits for fossil fuel companies-- or any other major corporate conglomerate-- is somehow “better for business.” In fact, while such an amoral organizing principle has increased the profits for a few Americans, it has led to devastation for far too many.

As president, I will not forget this. I believe in capitalism with a conscience, and responsible business leaders will find me an enthusiastic partner in any effort to claim for the capitalist enterprise a moral and ethical center.

I support the Green New Deal because we cannot wait any longer to repair our country. A better version of same old same old will not disrupt a dysfunctional trajectory. Some things need to change in this country, and if I am president they will.

Keeping Marianne largely off TV, prevents her from reaching potential contributors to her campaign. If she doesn't get the 65,000 donors she needs, she won't be part of the debates. Even if it's just a buck, please consider contributing to her campaign here Her voice and perspective can only make the Democratic Party stronger and more relevant. Take a look at this video of Marianne doing a Q&A session on Boston's NPR television station.