How "Caddyshack" explains the presidential race

Pretty much everyone in America would like to have more money, obviously. What they don’t want is to think that wealth would fundamentally change who they are. This is a basic democratic credo. Most Americans don’t want to be rich so that they can develop a taste for fancy French cuisine to be enjoyed over polite repartee with their fellow snobs at the country club. They want to be rich so they can do whatever they want and never have to take crap from anyone. They don’t want to be Judge Smails, in other words; they want to be Rodney Dangerfield. (Yes, technically Al Czervik, though the character is essentially an extension of Dangerfield’s longstanding persona.)

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That’s where Trump comes in. Leave aside the ugly nativism, and he’s basically a real-life Czervik: rich, yes, but an aggressive anti-snob who says whatever the hell he pleases and misses no opportunity to stick it to the establishment. The GOP is Bushwood Country Club and Trump the obnoxious interloper who, owing to his wealth, can’t be tastefully ignored. (Jeb Bush is the closest obvious parallel for Judge Smails, given how resolutely Trump has set out to harass him; readers can decide for themselves who fit best as Ty Webb, Carl Spackler, and the gopher.)

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