She said WHAT?!
I’m old enough to remember that Our Failed Political Press ™ has a hard-on for pushing the stories of women candidates being bitches, from at least Hillary Clinton onward. So imagine my surprise to learn that they are coming after Marianne Williamson with the framing that she is not the Doctor of Love her public persona implies.
Why, yes, it is from Tiger Beat on the Potomac.
The best-selling author Marianne Williamson has built a career preaching love and forgiveness. It is the cornerstone of her second Democratic campaign for president which she launched on March 4.
But those who have worked with Williamson as she has moved into the political realm say her public persona is at odds with her private behavior.
And now let’s get into TBotP’s sock-in-trade, juicy gossip!
Interviews with 12 people who worked for Williamson during her 2020 presidential campaign paint a picture of a boss who can be verbally and emotionally abusive.
(This would be described as being determined and maybe demanding if she was a he. But I digest.)
Those interviewed say the best-selling author and spiritual adviser subjected her employees to unpredictable, explosive episodes of anger. They said Williamson could be cruel and demeaning to her staff and that her behavior went far beyond the typical stress of a grueling presidential cycle.
“It would be foaming, spitting, uncontrollable rage,” said a former staffer, who, like most people that spoke with POLITICO, was granted anonymity because of their concern about being sued for breaking non-disclosure agreements. “It was traumatic. And the experience, in the end, was terrifying.”
Williamson would throw her phone at staffers, according to three of those former staffers. Her outbursts could be so loud that two former aides recounted at least four occasions when hotel staff knocked on her door to check on the situation. In one instance, Williamson got so angry about the logistics of a campaign trip to South Carolina that she felt was poorly planned that she pounded a car door until her hand started to swell, according to four former staffers. Ultimately, she had to go to an urgent care facility, they said. All 12 former staffers interviewed recalled instances where Williamson would scream at people until they started to cry.
And we’ll stop there, though the article goes on and on.
We note that throughout the history of political campaigns we have endless examples of men losing it, famously Chimpy McStagger’s (alleged) brain Karl Rove screaming, “We will fuck him. Do you hear me? We will fuck him. We will ruin him. Like no one has ever fucked him!” —and that was about a fellow Republican.
You can insert your own favorite Trumpertantrum stories here, too. There are stories of Bill Clinton and others throwing phones, it goes on and on.
Anyway, my point is that OFPP ™ loves cat fight and bitches stories, and I’m sure we’ll see more breathless reporting (especially from Politico) if more women enter the race.
Mock Paper Scissors 
Yes, but can she/does she throw ketchup against the wall? If not, she isn’t presidential material.
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I don’t get it. If they want to throw mud, can’t the just attack her work?
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Did they lift that from 1999 … ?
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Are we sure we aren’t just being protective of Williamson because she’s is female AND (a) Democrat?
What I mean is, though we know the press is inherently misogynistic, Williamson’s hyprocrisy & emotiona instability seems to be/is very much important and noteworthy to potential voters.
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Claude –
It’s a good question, but the real tell (to me) is that for once they did not try to Both Sides this. They never do when they can punch down.
It’s a character flaw for her, and a significant one, but she’s not alone. And that’s the tell.
Rgds,
TG
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What Tengrain said – if they’re reporting on Willaimson’s instability, they should be reporting on all of them regarding their stability levels.
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I REALLY hate TBotP for making me feel sympathetic to that freaking lunatic Williamson
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It could be any woman, BDR, that’s how I read it. This time it was her turn.
Rgds,
TG
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True, the entrenched and pervasive misogyny in, pretty much the entire US society is the real problem.
I had an argument with a friend (who herself had struggled with working in a male-centric industry; she was a carpenter) who said she didn’t trust Hillary because “she seemed too ambitious”
Right, because all the MEN running for the Presidency were all unambitious lazabouts….“Ho Hum, bored today, guess I’ll run for President.”
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This is why Phyllis Schlafly was as successful as she was.
It’s why there is a group known as “Log Cabin Republicans”.
It’s why black cops also attack black civilians.
Your carpenter friend grew up in the same stew of bias, prejudice, and hostility as the rest of us. She may have been exposed to so much of it, because of her career, that she came to accept it more than if she had been, say, a gardener or a librarian.
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My unsolicited advice:
Don’t go with the sympathy, go for demands for equal treatment for the, erm, trousers(?). Why should the skirts get all this attention, after all?
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The Patriarchy has been honing its shit skills and behavior towards women for thousands of years. It is still going to be a long, long time before real changes start to seep in. When I was around 11-14 my father said to me “women aren’t mechanically inclined, they can’t drive, use a screw driver…” and on it went for a few minutes. Both my parents were narcissists so I didn’t have too many conversations with them about anything. But I did watch and listen and I have also watched my fathers misogynist behavior being played out through the course of my life by men and boys of all types.
There have been some changes but they have been few. Most women have had to pay a heavy price to be the ‘first’ and/or to try and change the patriarchal ways things are and have been.
Maybe there is hope in the idea that there is always hope for a better
tomorrow. But some days…
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