It goes back to Star Wars. The "villains" were the English. It was a pretty naked analogy for the US rebellion. But, then that morphed into erudite-sounding villains being scarier because they're smart and cunning like Bond movies. Hans Gruber, the South Africans in Lethal Weapon, etc. Note, the hero is always the scruffy, plain-spoken gunslinger who never follows the rules, but he just "gets the job done." That meme goes back to Dirty Harry in the 70s. That shyt was controversial when it hit the theaters. We were in an era were the rules were getting people equal rights, but you-know-who was threatened by that idea. It's also a part of the anti-intellectual trend in the US.
Everyone would rather elect Bush because he'd be more fun to have a beer with than some stuffy old bookworm like Al Gore. This was legit a talking point during the 2000 election