Marianne Williamson is a bestselling author, political activist, and spiritual thought leader. Williamson is the author of 15 books, four of which have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. She is currently a candidate in the 2024 Democratic presidential primary. Williamson joined HPR to discuss her experience and platform going into the 2024 race.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Harvard Political Review: How are you feeling about your campaign and visits?
Marianne Williamson: Running for president is grueling. It’s brutal. But it’s also exhilarating.
HPR: What have been some highlights throughout the campaign trail? Have you had any particular moments that you’ve thoroughly enjoyed or any particularly uplifting and honorable experiences?
MW: Talking to young people has been particularly meaningful. I see and hear quite a bit from the younger generation. And the conversations I’ve had have been inspiring and poignant.
HPR: Young people have been engaged in the election more significantly than ever before. How are you hoping to continue to keep them engaged?
MW: Well, first of all, the adage that young people don’t vote is no longer valid. The Democrats wouldn’t have kept the Senate this last election in 2022 if that were true. And now, in a genuine way, the younger generation knows they’re voting for their lives. So, younger people will only be coming out if there is something to vote for.
I believe the most significant danger electorally to the Democrats in 2024 is not Donald Trump but rather the absence of any compelling alternative. And if there is something to vote for that represents a fundamental change and disconnection from a malfunctioning past and a new American beginning, I do not doubt that younger people will vote. I hope they will understand how important it is to vote in the primary.
A voter is a voter. I say the same thing whether I’m talking to a broad audience, a Black audience, a young audience, an old audience, a left-wing audience, or a right-wing audience. I think there was a sense of people coming out of their silos and thinking, feeling, and analyzing from a deeper place as an American, exploring in terms of what the country needs, not just what I want, and also as human beings. So the thing with young people is that I can get to them because they’re on TikTok.
It doesn’t cost me money to get on TikTok. I’ve been somewhat invisibilized and erased, not even just partially, but almost shockingly — certainly disturbingly so for democracy — by the corporate media, and by a lot of the independent press, to be honest, for whatever reason, and so I hope that younger people will recognize the need to help me compensate for that.
What I’m saying is what aligns with the expressed will of not only young people and not only people on the left, you know, but of the right as well. We’re getting close to the tipping point where a majority of Americans on both left and right feel that institutionalized corporate greed is taking precedence over their safety, their health, their well-being, and the lives of their children. That’s the truth that will win for the Democrats in 2024. And most importantly, it is not only best for the Democrats but to start to turn this country around. That’s the answer.
HPR: What are the first three things that you would do to raise America’s confidence once you’re in office?
MW: I would cancel the Willow project. It’s an $8 billion oil extraction program on the north slopes of Alaska. We are already within a circle of climate catastrophe. The president has given more oil drilling permits than even Trump did. And this has got to stop. We are ramping up fossil fuel extraction at the same time that we should be ramping it down. I would be willing to declare a climate emergency to begin a mass mobilization immediately for a just transition from a dirty economy to a clean economy. I would also start the Department of Peace and the Department of Children and Youth.
HPR: Can you expand on your idea for a Department of Peace?
MW: Well, just as we have a military academy, I want a peace academy. Just as we have an advanced and trained army, we need people trained in de-escalation. I see war as a surgeon considers surgery. I only want to use war as a last resort. Our first response should be attempting peace. There have been four main characteristics that signify where violence is on the horizon, and that is violence toward children and women, fewer opportunities for women, lack of access to adequate education, and unnecessary despair. The Department of Peace would work not only nationally in the U.S. but also internationally to help prevent and limit wars and conflicts, and we can see this is needed today in Ukraine and the war between Hamas and Israel.
HPR: What would your Department of Children and Youth entail?
MW: You know, most of these institutions or governmental institutions were set up before women even had a voice in the public sphere, and taking care of children was just seen as a woman’s work, right? Children are not old enough to vote, so they’re not a constituency. They’re not old enough to work, so they have no financial leverage. So, I see the rights of children as really the most considerable collateral damage under capitalism.
Some people would say the most prominent victim here is the Earth itself. I think it’s children. I believe, in a way, that we practice collective child abuse. There is no way in the world that it makes sense that in the wealthiest country in the world, there are millions of hungry children. That just makes no sense. And it’s intolerable to me.
Now, one of the things we know now that we didn’t even know 10 years ago was how much goes on in the brain of a child in early childhood — neuroplasticity, and so forth. We now know, for instance, that 90% of brain development occurs in the first five years. So people talk about education. It’s almost a quaint conversation at this point. Some of these kids are traumatized by the time they reach preschool. I have heard elementary school teachers telling me that they had students on suicide watch.
In schools all around this country, we have trauma rooms. And as everyone knows, I’m sure millions of American children go to schools where they don’t even have the resources to teach their children to read by the age of eight. If a child can’t learn to read by the age of eight, the chances of high school graduation are drastically decreased, and the chances of incarceration are radically increased. So, to have a thriving economy 10 years from now, we need to take much better care of our 10-year-olds today. So, I want a massive, massive shift of resources into the lives of children 10 years and younger.
And I would like to do this immediately. I would like to gather the best minds in America beginning in early childhood. And that would include, by the way, insisting on unpaid family leave because other countries have come to realize that you pay a heavy price later, decidedly, for not allowing for proper pay for family leave. And I think also we pay a heavy price in terms of the mental health of our mothers.
Women’s bodies are programmed, hormonally, by millions of years of evolution. And so, when a woman is depressed because she’s having to go back to work too soon, she can feel that the baby needs her and that she needs the baby. These are hormonal truths. We have a lack of respect for evolution and a lack of respect for nature, and then we call it a mental health issue. And no, it’s a lack of economic and social justice issues. And I see so many things that way.
The underlying cancer here is the systemic economic injustice created by trickle-down economics. Helping a child have better nutrition doesn’t produce short-term profits for any multinational corporation. And that’s why we’ve got to challenge these things at the root. This is what an evil, soulless, sociopathic economic system does.
I’m challenging their corporate bottom line. We are living at a time where our governing principle is not the safety, health, and well-being of the American people. It’s not democratic values. It’s not humanitarian values. It’s short-term economic gain for corporations whose institutionalized greed, at this point, forms a matrix of financial tyranny. We’re not a government of the people, by the people, and for the people right now. We’re a government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations. That’s a bad economic idea left over from the 20th century. And that goes back to why young people hear me because the young people I talked to don’t see why you should have to live your lives at the effect of bad economic ideas leftover from the 20th century. And I agree with that.
HPR: Many of the issues you want to address are baked into the foundations of the U.S. and its institutions. How will you avoid falling victim to perpetuating them yourself?
MW: The president does not have a magic wand. We don’t want the president to have a magic wand. And someone running for president says, “This is what I want.” The person is saying
“This is what I will stand for.” These are the things I will propose. I will appoint people to effectuate that I will use executive orders when necessary. And I will use the bully pulpit. But obviously, the president is one of three equal branches of government. That’s no different whether it’s Biden or me or anyone else at this point.
