A carpetbagger is a derogatory term for a Northerner who went to the South after the Civil War and became active in Republican politics, especially to profiteer from the unsettled social and political conditions of the area during Reconstruction. The term was applied to Northern politicians and financial adventurers whom Southerners accused of coming to the South to use the newly enfranchised freedmen as a means of obtaining office or profit. The term carpetbagger originated from the carpet bags (a form of cheap luggage made from carpet fabric) that many of these newcomers carried. The term came to be associated with opportunism and exploitation by outsiders.
I have long believed that Alaska’s U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is a carpetbagger, but I think a better term is a GOP bot. He seems to have no real beliefs about anything that stands the test of a person with actual character. The Trump personality cult tells him what they want and, bot-like, he complies.
— Charles D. Hayes
Wasilla
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