A person, especially a politician, who moves to a new place seeking personal profit or power without genuine concern for the community.
From the literal carpetbag carried by Northern speculators after the Civil War, combined with '-er' to mean a person who engages in this practice. Born directly from American Reconstruction history.
The term is so specific to 1860s history that it's one of the few political insults that comes with built-in luggage—the metaphor is literally about what they carried!
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