Given the political leanings of Linda McMahon, on the surface there’s something ironic about the WWE dragging Dutch Mantel out of seclusion to play the part of Jack Swagger’s anti-immigration mentor, “Uncle” Zeb Colter. Then again, given the tens of millions Vince flushed down the toilet during Linda’s failed senatorial bids, perhaps this is the chairman’s subtle revenge against the Tea Party for not embracing his wife’s candidacy with nearly enough zeal to get the job done.
More likely, Mantel’s politicized brand of promo-cutting is an effective backstory for the microphone-challenged Swagger, not to mention a great way to reposition Alberto Del Rio. Alas, for the freeze-dried food hoarders at Alex Jones’ InfoWars (and scribe Paul Joseph Watson in particular) Mantel’s schtick is tantamount to “the divide and conquer tactic of cultural subversion to manufacture racial division and to characterize the Tea Party, conservatives, libertarians, opponents of uncontrolled illegal immigration and constitutionalists as racist, extremist radicals who should be pushed to the fringes of the political discourse.” Yeah, because we’ve never heard anyone with a megaphone on the street corner who sounds nearly as crazy.
During Swagger’s match, commentators Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler joked that Swagger and Colter had received “fan mail” from conservative radio talk show hosts Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones.
Twitter users reacted with outrage, slamming the WWE for “crapping all over the Tea Party” by “promoting a Racist, immigrant hating Tea Party character vs a Mexican wrestler.”
Now the demonization runs so deep that it’s even being bolstered by WWE wrestling.The fact that WWE is owned by Vince and Linda McMahon, who are part of the Republican establishment, also tells us a lot about how grass roots conservatives and libertarians are viewed by those near the top of the power structure.