Roseanne Barr is determined for the forthcoming revamp of her popular eponymous television show to provide insight into why an oft-misunderstood group of struggling middle-class Americans supports President Trump. That’s a worthy cause, but not an easy one to undertake in Hollywood.
Respected TVLine writer Michael Ausiello provided something of a case-in-point in his review of the “Roseanne” revival this week. Ausiello praised the show as “pretty fantastic,” before adding one caveat: Roseanne Connor’s support for Trump creates a continuity problem. That’s a perfectly fair assessment, but Ausiello’s justification is predicated on the very misconceptions Barr is rightfully fighting.
“Roseanne — a character who over the course of the show’s original run fought for the underdog, railed against racism, embraced the LGBT community (heck, she went to first base with Mariel Hemingway!) and supported women’s rights — aligning herself with a man who referred to Mexicans as rapists just doesn’t ring true,” he wrote. “And her defense to liberal sister Jackie that she voted for him because he’d ‘promised jobs’ might’ve worked, had she expressed some inner conflict about his poor track record on social issues.”
I totally understand that argument. But it’s built on the notion that a person who fights for the underdog, rails against racism, embraces the LGBT community, and supports women’s rights cannot believably support Trump. That may be unbelievable in the entertainment industry, but elsewhere it’s certainly possible to find Trump supporters who defy stereotypes. Indeed, almost 63 million Americans voted for Trump. Real Clear Politics’ polling average currently puts his approval rating at 40 percent, implying that well over 100 million Americans would say they approve of him if you could ask everyone.
Among those millions, you’ll find people committed to the cause of the underdog who happily support racial and sexual equality — even people who would have no real problem with the “Roseanne” reboot’s gender-fluid character. To many, that seems impossible. But to them, it seems entirely reasonable.
The idea that anybody sees Trump as pro-underdog, pro-woman, pro-LGBT, pro-racial equality is unthinkable to a lot of people. Yet the reality is that others really see him that way — or at least don’t believe him to be any enemy of those communities, and prioritize his promises to the working class over social questions.
Hashing out those differences, helping one group understand the other, appears to be Barr’s current project.
That Roseanne’s support for Trump seems inconsistent with the politics of her past (the character, not actress) is actually the whole point, illustrating how the struggles of the misunderstood middle class, largely overlooked by elites, endeared the president to more people than anyone ever predicted. A failure to see the believability in working-class people — some of whom actually share Roseanne’s zeal for social and economic justice — supporting Trump validates Barr’s apparent goal for the show.
