Is it because … lefties aren’t very nice generally?
I mean, who are they nice to? Besides Bernie, of course.
This isn’t the first time lately that she’s complained about their meanness, for what it’s worth.
.@marwilliamson: “What does it say that the conservatives are nicer to me? I’m a serious lefty but they are so — I understand why people on the right called them godless — I mean, it’s like, I didn’t think the left was as mean as the right, they are.” pic.twitter.com/0iXkWPRdAW
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 12, 2019
She knows one of the reasons for the disparate treatment, as she explained to Eric Bolling in a subsequent interview (which you can watch in full here): “The Republicans don’t have to be attacking me now, I’m in a Democratic primary, so Republicans are like, ‘Hi, Marianne!’ And some people on the left are working for other candidates, you know how that goes.” She’s an agent of chaos in the Democratic race, a wild card offering progressive policies packaged with New Age warnings about “dark psychic forces” in the White House. Righties naturally crave Democratic electoral chaos, Democrats naturally abhor it. Ergo, righties are warmer to her than lefties are.
But there’s a point to be made here too about righties being more open to religion — or “spirituality,” in Williamson’s case — than lefties are, with some caveats. The numbers from Pew:
More Republicans signal religious/spiritual interest than Democrats do no matter how you phrase the questions, although the gap often isn’t as wide as you’d think. In the table above, for instance, the Republican advantage over Dems among those who say religion is very or somewhat important to their lives is 12 points — noteworthy, but not overwhelming. When asked if they’re absolutely or fairly certain that God exists, 90 percent of Republicans say yes but so do 76 percent of Democrats. Steer the questions away from God/religion and towards vaguer “spiritual” signposts and the gap narrows. Among those who say they “feel a sense of spiritual peace and wellbeing” at least once or twice a month, Republicans lead just 77/72.
There are some notable divergences, though.
Asked where they’re most likely to seek guidance on right and wrong, 44 percent of Republicans say religion. Just 25 percent of Democrats do. Go figure righties might take appeals about “dark psychic forces” more seriously than lefties.
But wait, there’s another important distinction here. Although it’s true that most Democrats are generally religious, it is not true that religious belief is distributed uniformly across demographic lines within the Democratic Party. An eye-popping result from another Pew survey:
Just one-third of white Democrats believe in God as described in the Bible. Nearly as many, 21 percent, don’t believe in God at all. And it’s Very Online white Democrats, of course, who are writing most of the liberal commentary on the presidential race and who are heavily invested in Sanders and Warren as instruments of a social-justice revolution that can overtake America if only the rest of the field, which includes Williamson, will get out of their g-ddamned way already. (If Williamson thinks they’ve been mean to her, she should ask Beto O’Rourke how it felt to be targeted by Berniebros early in the race as a potential obstacle to socialism’s final victory.) Of course the left’s atheist-agnostic progressive pundit niche would have special contempt for someone like Williamson. They’re the ones who are “being mean” to her, not Democrats generally.
And in fairness to them, sometimes they’re right to be. Not for religious reasons but for crankery like this.
Anyway, she missed the cut for tonight’s debate and has never polled much better than an asterisk despite her splashy performances at the first two debates, so she’s effectively out of the race even though she technically remains in. From now on we’ll have to get our fix of religion, progressive-style, from Pete Buttigieg, who seems to view Christianity chiefly as a political cudgel. Although given his polling lately, he might be headed for oblivion with Marianne soon enough.
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