In professional wrestling, there’s a new villain in town. He’s no Undertaker or Triple H. No. This guy is a lot scarier. He’s 6′ 5″ and goes by the moniker “The Progressive Liberal.” He sports liberal paraphernalia like a t-shirt emblazoned with Hillary Clinton likenesses and spouts his best fake lefty bias to Trump Country crowds across the nation. What could be worse?
Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi recently caught up with the Progressive Liberal’s alter-ego, Daniel Richards, to discuss the president, among other subjects. RealClearLife has teased out some of the best quotes below.
-Richards says he has no trouble beefing up his persona in places like Appalachia, where “they say a lot of ignorant stuff my way. I don’t know that they know how ignorant it is, but it is nonetheless. So I can play off that.”
-The Progressive Liberal will next fight on Oct. 14 in Woodside, Queens. Get tickets here.
-Richards discusses what it means to have a good “heel” in the wrestling world: “A heel in wrestling vernacular is a term for the bad guy. But what makes a good bad guy or a good heel is, first of all, it’s someone who believes they’re justified in what they’re saying. But usually it’s a situation where the majority of the crowd thinks otherwise.” Hence, the reason why the Progressive Liberal character works so well in Trump Country.
-One of his latest barbs to Trump supporter audience members was “I’d like you all to get jobs in clean energy.”
-On President Trump: “He’s doing what I’m doing, except for he’s the President of the United States and has a much bigger platform that I do.” In this sense, Trump is just a good heel, argues Richards, who says things to try and rile up the other side.
-The Progressive Liberal is actually not all an act, says Richards. He’s a caricature of himself. Running counterpoint to that, Richards says, “I couldn’t pretend to be a Republican. It’s not in me. I could memorize all the talking points and everything, but ultimately it would not come off as authentic. And people catch on to that.”
Listen to the Progressive Liberal working on his heel below.
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