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dealing with (and in some places still is dealing with).

The word evolved and became viewed as a descendant of the word "abolitionist". A Carpetbagger was seen by the News Media and many Southerners as the "son of an abolitionist"; a transient outsider who carried all their earthly belongings in a carpetbag'. Southerners believed these Northerners would exploit the local people, distressed businesses, farmers and plantation owners continuing the witness to the South's Defeat and humiliation.

"Carpetbagger" took on a meaning associated with Northerners who moved south to either exploit or morally respond to need of the defeated people.

"The name referred to the cloth bags many of them used for transporting their possessions.. Despite the negative connotation of the name, many carpetbaggers were sincerely interested in aiding the freedom and education of the former slaves." (wikipedia)

The word took another shift in usage and meaning (effecting origin) after the turn of the century. It became attached to politicians who moved from a home district to one that they had not lived in for any length of time, to run for political office. Bobby Kennedy and Hilary Clinton have both been called modern "carpetbaggers", who moved to New York State to run for senator when neither was a long-term resident of the state. So an outsider' usurps local power and authority (perhaps) to gain political advantage and power.

History has helped shape the various meanings, although tt was mainly thought of as a negative word with a negative origin connected with opportunistic greed and moral corruption. From the Civil War right up to the present Bush Administration Iraq fiasco the Media latched on to the word and helped give it meaning and viability in the common language.

The present generation now sees the word used by the News Media again, as they describe the Bush Administration's management of the Iraqi Reconstruction, through corrupt and abusive deals with corporate special interests (making big, big, big money) such as Halliburton and Bechtel, who are called modern era carpetbaggers.

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