In a feature on the women of 2020, Vogue magazine highlighted Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren. Noticeably absent was Marianne Williamson.
The self-help author and spiritualist hippie guru is running a long shot campaign for the White House, but that doesn’t mean she should be excluded from Vogue spreads, she argued in an Instagram post Tuesday.
“You might have noticed who’s not in this picture,” she wrote. “And let’s be clear why it matters: the issue is ethical responsibility on the part of the media. The framers of the Constitution did not make Vogue magazine the gate keepers of America’s political process, here to determine who and who is not to be considered a serious political candidate.”
Since the Democratic primary debates last week, Williamson has become something of a meme. From her peculiar tweets (“Each of us is pregnant with a better version of ourselves”) to her proclamation onstage that she “will harness love for political purposes,” she stands out among the candidates as a nonestablishment contender who is unfazed by how people characterize her. Sound like anyone else?
Comparisons to President Trump aside, Marianne Williamson is worth our attention. Vogue and most other news outlets and pundits don’t treat her as a serious candidate, but that doesn’t mean her candidacy can’t make waves. Republicans have even reportedly been donating to Williamson to keep her in the debates.
The Vogue spread was careful to characterize its subjects as “the female lawmakers running for president.” Sure, Williamson lost her bid for the House of Representatives in 2014, but she still made it to the debate stage. Most people hadn’t heard of Tulsi Gabbard before this election cycle, either.
In a world where Donald Trump became president and Ukranians literally elected a TV president to be their real one, it wouldn’t take a Williamson-level “divine alignment” for her to stick around much longer than people would suspect.
