Phrase, Fable, and Allusion

in the US in the 19th century, a person from the northern states who went to the South after the Civil War to profit from Reconstruction, of whom it was said that their `property qualification' consisted merely of the contents of the carpet-bag they had brought with them. In extended usage, carpetbagger now denotes a political candidate who seeks election in an area where they have no local connections, and the term `carpetbagger from Arkansas' was applied to Hillary Clinton (then First Lady) when she announced her candidacy for a Senate seat in Washington.

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