Why Marianne Williamson's Brand Of Spirituality Isn't Working

[brooklynite]

FiveThirtyEight

Andrew Yang and Tom Steyer, two of the three nontraditional contenders in the 2020 race, have managed to secure covered spots in the next Democratic debate, beating out sitting senators, a governor, the mayor of the U.S.’s largest city and a clutch of current and former members of Congress. But the Democratic primary’s other unorthodox candidate — motivational speaker and self-help author Marianne Williamson — may be sitting on the sidelines.

Something about Williamson’s unconventional candidacy, though, has certainly sparked voters’ curiosity. After all, a candidate who flits between the worlds of traditional, institutional religion and New Age spirituality is a rarity in presidential politics. And she was the most-searched candidate after the first night of the July debate, when she accused President Trump of harnessing the “dark psychic force of collectivized hatred” and declared that she wants “a politics that speaks to the heart.”

But the more voters learned more about her, the less they seemed to like her. According to an analysis by my colleague Nathaniel Rakich, Williamson’s name recognition is up, but her net favorability ratings are down. She now actually has negative net favorability, a dubious honor she shares only with mayor of New York Bill de Blasio and former Rep. Joe Sestak. And her failure to resonate with an audience that might have been receptive to her message — “spiritual but not religious” Americans — also reflects the difficulty of reaching a group that’s defined largely by what it’s not.

According to the Pew Research Center, about one-third of Democrats identify as “spiritual but not religious” — an amorphous identity that has a lot in common with Williamson’s nondenominational spiritual practice. She identifies as Jewish and still attends High Holiday services, but she also practices transcendental meditation. She rose to prominence as a commentator and teacher of “A Course In Miracles,” a mystical book published in 1976 whose author claimed to be dictating revelations from Jesus.