THE CULTURAL DIVIDE ON PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING.

THE CULTURAL DIVIDE ON PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING. It turns out that there have been a lot of analyses of the “heel” role that Donald Trump played in the campaign, as a Google search shows. Many of these analyses seem to be on wrestling sites. Until after the election, I had not encountered the theory that Trump was playing a well-established role (much as there are stock characters in commedia dell’ arte). The lack of media awareness of the role playing is a mark of the cultural divisions in the country. Many people “get” the ironies of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, but did not “get” Trump’s references to a form of popular entertainment that has a large national audience.