CNN Democratic Debate: Mystic Marianne Conjures a Win, Mayor Pete Channels Kevin Spacey

By Al Perrotta Published on July 31, 2019

How do you know the Democrats on the stage last night are in trouble? The evening began with them getting trolled by a fellow candidate. And it ended with the night being owned by a New Age guru.

In between, they were getting mocked by Hollywood.

Bernie Shouts

The night began with each contestant being introduced like it was an episode of American Gladiators. This was followed by the presentation of the colors. Yes. The American flag. Spotting an American flag at a Democratic event is usually as rare as spotting a salad on Jerry Nadler’s dinner table.

Tim Ryan did not put his hand over his heart for the National Anthem. More curiously, Pete Buttigieg put his hand inside his jacket. The complex little fellow apparently channeling his inner Napoleon. Amazingly, Beto did not take a knee.

For more on the mayor, see Rob Schwarzwalder on Buttigieg’s misuse of the Bible; Peter Hasson on his horrible views of third-semester abortions; and Joshua Gill on the way he equates radical Islam and Christianity.

CNN’s sports-like atmosphere — and presumably the line-up of players — led Democratic candidate Andrew Yang to tweet: “I’m sitting in a hotel room with my team. It feels like we are about to watch the most boring football game in history.”

Surprisingly, the debate was not boring. Especially with Bernie Sanders at his loudest and angriest. “You don’t have to yell,” said Tim Ryan. (Sure. That’s like telling Joe Biden “You don’t have to be touchy-feely with women.”) When Ryan said Sanders didn’t really know whether his proposed Medicare-for-All legislation would provide better coverage, Sanders snapped. “I do know. I wrote the damn bill.” Instant slogan. Even before the debate was over, the Sanders campaign was selling bumper stickers.

At one point John Hickenlooper mocked Sanders by throwing his hands up in the air. Sanders threw his hands in the air. The less radical candidates must be ready to throw their hands in the air. Repeatedly, they tried to make the point that the “fairy tale” proposals and “wish list” economics of Warren and Sanders spelled disaster. That calling for opening the borders and giving health care to illegal immigrants, while taking away the posh private insurance union workers have negotiated for, is guaranteed to get Trump re-elected in 2020.

Of course the point was lost. Just like when you point out to socialists that every place it’s been tried it’s failed. Instead, Warren scored a large round of applause with her response: “I don’t get why anyone goes through all the trouble of running for president to talk about what we can’t do.”

On Wednesday, Delaney called her response “dishonest, kind of lazy.” We’re counting the minutes until Delaney is called a racist, accused of using a slanderous ethnic stereotype against a Native American.

Hey, Marianne!

Who won the night? Marianne the Mystic. Marianne Williamson. CNN gave her only half the time as the big names, but the New Age author’s “radical truth telling” seemed to score with audiences. According to Google Trends, her name was the most searched of all the candidates during and after the debate.

Her most memorable moment: “This wonkiness” of her opponents failed to combat “this dark psychic force of the collectivized hatred that this president is bringing up in this country.”

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If anyone would know about “dark psychic forces,” it’d be a New Age self-help guru. Does her health care plan includes free chakra cleansings for illegal immigrants?

I kid, but the other candidates had better take Williamson seriously. The far more impressive GOP field in 2016 learned the hard way about underestimating an outsider who can communicate and connect emotionally. The primaries are a game of attrition, and Marianne the Mystic has the means to stick around. If the calculation is made a traditional politician can’t take Trump down, and the MSM decides she’s a ratings-grabber, Williamson could cause a heap of trouble for the top tier candidates. Even if she had spirit guides instead of campaign advisers. And has witches launching an “occult task force” to help her campaign. (That last item is true.)

Giving Mayor Pete a Seven

Not to channel Mystic Marianne, but Mayor Pete Buttigieg is giving off an increasingly bad energy. Behind the altar boy act lies something sinister. Last night, Buttigieg said this: “So-called conservative Christian senators, right now in the Senate are blocking a bill to raise the minimum wage, when Scripture says that ‘Whoever oppresses the poor taunts their maker.'”

Yes, you are a bad Christian — you are taunting the Lord God Almighty — if you do not believe in forcing businesses to pay a crippling government-determined wage. An increase that has already proven will cost people their jobs or force a cut-back on hours. (In other words, create more poor people.) The problem isn’t so much the naked, nauseating politics of such a statement. Or the blatant and cheap abuse of Scripture. I don’t even want to get sidetracked by irony of a man married to another man accusing someone else of taunting their maker.

It’s the calculated warping of God’s words to destructive ends. Buttigieg reminds me of Kevin Spacey’s character in the dark, twisted thriller Seven. Spacey’s John Doe is a serial killer whose victims are chosen based on the Seven Deadly Sins. What made Doe so chilling is his ability to make his rampage sound so rational. The serial killer spoke like his actions made perfect sense. That he was the moral one, the righteous one, amid the sin and decrepitness and decay.

So it is with Buttigieg. He is the one who is righteous and true, in line with God. You? You are taunting God. You are only pretending to be a Christian if you don’t follow his prescription for society.

Exposing our borders. Embracing the socialist policies that have turned Venezuela and Baltimore into deathtraps of despair … because Republicans are going to call you “crazy socialists” anyway. Killing our way of life, otherwise humanity is doomed in a dozen years. Bowing at the bloody altar of abortion.

The Cunning Buttigieg

All said in a calm, unassuming, even polite manner. Antifa commits its violence in the streets. The insane, destructive ranting from Warren and Sanders and AOC can be spotted from miles away. Buttigieg is much more cunning. He’s Kevin Spacey talking to Brad Pitt, drawing America into a political desert.

What’s in the box? The head of Uncle Sam.

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream and co-author, with @JZmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl. And if you aren’t already, please follow The Stream at @Streamdotorg.

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