The Progressive Liberal wrestler draws boos and anger as he body- slams his way through Trump Country
HAZARD, Ky. - The music stopped and Daniel Harnsberger - all 6-foot-5, 237 pounds of him - burst through the black curtain and jumped into the ring. Kids booed. Mothers shouted "snowflake." A girl shot him thumbs down, and a logger threatened to take a swipe at him.
Taunting his hecklers as hillbillies and saying coal was a "dirty lie," Harnsberger - eyeing his nemesis and local favorite Pretty Boy Stan Lee - ranted and prowled, the perfect villain on a rainy night in an abandoned school in one of the poorest regions of the nation.
"We don't like you," yelled a boy.
"You stink," screamed another.
Harnsberger lifted his arms and puffed his chest in full, agitating bloom: "You stupid, ignorant people."
Harnsberger is the Progressive Liberal, a professional wrestler whose renewable energy politics and preening arrogance have riled supporters of President Donald Trump across the Appalachian Mountains. He praises Hillary Clinton and invokes the Affordable Care Act. Worst of all he's an outsider, a real estate agent from Richmond, Va., who drives south on weekends and slips on "blue wave" tights and a conceit that he's better than out-of-work coal miners and Baptists with rifle racks in their pickups.
"Dan, well, that's a little
