People everywhere are sick of the liberalism.
And there’s no place where the leftist agenda seeps in more than the sports world. ESPN is notorious for that.
Now there’s a progressive annoying liberal athlete who mocked this coal mining town in Kentucky and was met with resounding boos.
It was the main event of a touring wrestling circuit in Wolfe County, Kentucky.
The “Progressive Liberal” wrestler is taking the country by storm as a villain, which is simultaneously infuriating and hilarious.
Dan Richards, the “Progressive Liberal,” wears Hillary Clinton shirts, praises Bernie Sanders and bashes Fox News every chance he gets.
And Richards does it all with a condescending tone.
But in this area, his know-it-all and dismissive attitude of the coalfield bloodline of the town was a twist of the knife in the sides of Kentuckians in attendance.
Deadspin reports:
Eastern Kentucky has long relied on the coal industry for gainful employment, but over the years, coal jobs have vanished, leaving behind persistent poverty, obesity, and illiteracy.
According to the Q1 2017 Kentucky Quarterly Coal Report, zero mines are currently operating in Wolfe County, and ‘eastern Kentucky coal mines decreased total employment by 178 jobs, a 4.6 percent drop from the fourth quarter of 2016.’
Wolfe County is not the poorest county in the state (that distinction belongs to Owsley County, two counties away) but possesses a per capita income of $13,901.
“Coal is the primary issue, not healthcare,” a wrestling fan in attendance named Shirley told me. “Because without the coal, people can’t support their families.Without the coal, they can’t pay their Medicaid bill. It’s hard times.”
“It’s what we live by, is coal,” said Raymond, another spectator taking in the night’s matches because he was “just looking for something to do.”
Ring announcer Nathan Lyttle said eastern Kentuckians have an inveterate optimism in two core facets of their lives. “Family and coal; that’s all it is,” he said.
[Dan] Richards, who uses these issues as fodder to draw heat (a positive or negative reaction from the crowd, though just take a guess which he gets), and Appalachian Mountain Wrestling booker Beau James knows exactly how important it is to just about everyone at AMW shows.
“Coal is not a job; it’s a way of life,” James said. “It’s a tradition. It’s a heritage. It’s an Appalachian institution.”
When Dan says something about coal, people take it as, ‘He’s talking about my grandad. He’s talking about my dad. He’s talking about me.’
“I think [the issue of] healthcare is a little too specific for people in eastern Kentucky,” Richards added.
So when a Progressive Liberal chides the Appalachian crowds for ‘continually voting against your own interests’ and stating matter-of-factly that ‘[politicians] aren’t going to bring your jobs back,’ the people reflect for a moment about their unemployed spouse, their past-due medical bills, or whether there will be food on the table next week, and boo him. Loudly.
News outlets from all over showed up to this high school gym in eastern Kentucky, which included CNN, BBC, Vice and local NBC affiliates.
Richards is rapidly becoming a star, and he’s selling out venues everywhere he goes.
And he truly is the Democrat character he plays, but he’s obviously exaggerating to the point of annoying irritability and villainy.
But at the end of the day, Richards was humiliated and the fans got what they came for.
Deadspin concluded:
The match pushed the turnbuckles and ropes to their maximum capacity, or so it sounded. Richards seized control after another wrestler, Misty James, distracted the referee and interfered, and amidst the crescendo of boos, the Progressive Liberal unleashed his finisher, a cross-arm neckbreaker he calls the Liberal Agenda, and pinned Maggard.
The match was over. A liberal had won in coal country, and the conservative had to suck on a bottle of room-temperature milk and put on a diaper.
In wrestling and in politics, there is no real high road; the lasting victories tend to belong to whoever can go lower. The crowd wanted to see the Progressive Liberal humiliated, and they got what they came for.
Maggard called himself ‘a man of my word,’ briefly griped to the official about his opponent’s dirty tactics (which was technically true), took a tiny sip of the bottle, and spit it out. As the oblivious Richards gloated and taunted the crowd, Maggard forced the bottle to his mouth and knocked him to the mat.
The wrestler Richards pejoratively called ‘Fox News Maggot’ made his foe put on the diaper, even if it was just for a brief moment before Richards’ allies stormed in to beat the stuffing out of the defeated deplorable.
After a brawl that resulted in the official getting knocked out, a bunch of sullen wrestlers uninvolved in the original contest stalking around, and a group of children chanting ‘Rematch!’ mixed in with incomprehensible yelling and boos, Richards exited the ring as he tried to convince a hostile crowd that he was the real winner of the night. Read as deeply into that scene as you’d like.
At least for a moment, these Kentuckians could vent their frustrations at a caricature of the liberal agenda. And it was probably cathartic for them.