I've been thinking about something for a while now, and I just feel the need to call things out the way I see them. Namely, the near constant use of the "cowboy" persona in American politics. I find myself compelled to say something about it now, because I think that John McCain is the latest (maybe the last) but likely one of the worst performers of this hackneyed role. I'll get to him in a bit, but let me tell you how I got to this conclusion.
(Cross-posted at my new blog, The National Gadfly)
I like cowboys because they remind me of my grandfather sitting in his living room, watching westerns on TV. Bonanza, High Chapparal, Gunsmoke and John Wayne movies. He fought in Patton's army and came home to live out his life on his farm with his dogs and his wife. He died when I was 8, but he lives on for me whenever I sit down to watch one of those old shows.
The cowboy myth is a uniquely American stereotype, which has changed over the years as we Americans have changed. Books, radio, movies & TV have created generations of fantastic images for the world to consume and enjoy. Singing cowboys, bad ones, good ones, weird ones, young ones and old, dying cowboys have come and gone. The cowboy is often served up as a capsule of what we are told is good about America. A sense of duty, decency and justice exists the ideal cowboy in a way that sets him apart from the people around him. Framed in the majestic drama of open spaces, mountain ranges and the harsh elements - the cowboy rides alone, propped up by a set of ideas and beliefs that will ultimately help him to survive or perish.
According to this idealized myth, a cowboy hero is so chock full o' goodness that a single one can ride into town on his horse and single-handedly rescue a town from evil by drinking, punching and shooting. It is an image that we Americans like to think represents each of us in some way.
So, we read, listen, watch and dream the cowboy myth. It's a mask, a costume, a hope or a dream that we can have about ourselves that as individuals in our own lives, we might possess the grit and strength of our convictions to create our own glory.
Of course, the real cowboys were not like the modern fairy-tale version. The cowboy myth has a dirty secret, a dark side that we don't like to think about. The Old West was not a vacant lot when the cowboys went out there. Many of those southern accents came from displaced men that fought for the right to enslave Blacks. Many Native American, Blacks, Chinese and Spanish speaking peoples were run off their land, starved, killed, and raped. Buffalo were almost eliminated. Not content to kill only non-whites, they killed each other in numbers small and large, in range wars and blood feuds. We hear about this side of the cowboy a little bit, and more lately.
But, the idealized cowboy, the good guy on a strong horse, armed with bullets and wearing a silver star - that's the stereotype we have seen the most of. It is the persona that politicians put on at election time, to fool us into believing that they are "riding into town" on our behalf, to set things right.
This southern styled hero is a mask that has been worn by Dixie-crat, but it became the "good ol' boy", a stereotype more focused on the south and the highly charged racial battles of the 40's, 50's and 60's. Their problem was that the racism of the southern whites was too overt. The country and the world knew how things were and they had to change because their br. But power is not easily pried from the hands of a majority or an abusive ruling class. Civil rights became a reality and the racism had to take a new form. The racist whites, pro-America, isolationist and militaristic were two things: a) no longer Democrats and b) perfect tools for the ascension of the Republican party.
There were four major economic groups that sought access to government influence and all of them wanted taxpayer money - The Defense & Oil industries, Christian fundamentalists and disillusioned white racists from the south. The cowboy was the perfect veneer for any politician wanting to represent this group and attract voters to trust them.
Reagan saw this and he played it to the hilt. It seemed like every time he took vacation time, he was photographed on his ranch, wearing blue jeans, clearing brush and shouldering a firearm. He acted the part with his "aw shucks" demeanor and his own southern (Illinois) accent. He played the part of the good ol' cowboy president that talked tough and fought with his bare hands for the good of America. But the truth was different. The spigot opened up and taxpayer money began filling the trough for defense contractors. Oil companies and mining companies got reductions in pollution regulations. Unions were weakened and jobs started leaving the country. The ranks of the poor and homeless swelled to previously unseen numbers. Crime went up and so did drug use. Iran-Contra happened on Reagan's watch. Ironically, behind the pretense, this cowboy hero that was both the representative of our highest American ideals and the protector of them - he was betraying them and betraying us.
George H W Bush gets elected on Reagan's coattails, but the country thinks that he's not "one of them". Bill Clinton came along and decided that he could appeal to us as a "good ol' boy" v 2.0. He had personally stood on the side of Civil Rights, so it was something that he could use safely. He never really went to the cowboy persona because it wasn't who he is and because he didn't need to. He was white, he was southern and that would get him votes.
(Somebody really needs to tell sometime, me why this country has such a hard time electing a President from the north.)
Next, "W" comes riding in on a marketing machine bought and paid for by big oil and the defense industry. These folks are convinced in the 20th Century delusion that America is at its finest during a world war. They believe that our economy and their pockets will swell with untold riches, if we can just start killing people. They can't ask for it outright, of course so the bring in the PR genius Karl Rove. He looks every bit of a Grand Marshall of the Klu Klux Klan and he packages a recovering frat boy into the rubber stamp that will get votes and make them all rich. He is from Texas, so he must be a cowboy..right? For two elections in a row, this country rewarded insinuations about character from the Republicans as somehow an indication that they were looking out for us. We were told that the Republican party is defending us from foreign attack, assault upon our moral values from gays and feminists, and that this party will personally protect the god-fearing (assumed Christian) population from all those people that are out to take our God from us. For six years, they got what they wanted. A Christian fundamentalist, war-monger, anti-feminist oil man to rubber-stamp any and every assault on the Constitution of the United States of America along with the taxpayers' money.
John McCain (I told you that I'd come back to him) comes along and tries to put on the cowboy costume, but he is not successful. I mean that he's horrible at it. Maybe he's come along a time when the charade has been used too many times. The jig is up (or at least some of them are). Defense spending is killing our economy. The defense industry has received every wet dream of taxpayer money that they have asked for over the last 50 years. Our government has used smoke and mirrors to hide the damage done to our economy and it's all falling down. We have used "bubble economies" to prop us up as replacements for the disappearance of real manufacturing jobs. By this, I mean the real estate / S&L boom that promised something that it couldn't deliver (it crashed); the tech boom of promising thousands of things that it couldn't deliver (it crashed); and now the mortgage crisis brought on by creating an economy of people purchasing their own house over and over again with no regulation or oversight (and....it crashed).
So people no longer believe that the cowboy will rescue them, since the last one sure as hell didn't. McCain just can't act, either. His repeated attempts at humility and self deprecating humor have failed. Maybe his ego is in the way. He could simply figure that at his age and after his service to the country, people in this country should be lining up to kiss his papal ring (or something). Maybe he figures that it is an insult for him to need to change his ways or suck up to the public. Maybe he's nothing more than a civil servant who put in his time in his pay grade and feels that he's due his promotion. Whatever the reason, John McCain is either a lousy cowboy or is stuck in a cowboy picture when people don't want to watch cowboy movies.
These politicians that parade around as if they are playing the part of the cowboy from those movie ideals are actually the brutal cattle barons in disguise. Running the country with an iron fist, reaping obscene profits and wealth from the abuse of the land and the people - they are not the good guys. They turn us against each other to weaken and distract us from holding them accountable. They are in reality, the problem that the cowboy of myth is supposed to ride into town to clean up.
Just because someone has a southern accent, wears blue jeans and is quick to shoot people - does not make him a good guy. Just because someone waves a flag or a cross or says "aw shucks" does not make him a good guy. Standing up in a campaign paid for by defense, oil and intolerant, power-hungry religious zealots does not make John McCain a cowboy.
Watching the Republicans & NeoCons since Reagan, I have been reminded not of cowboys but of the bad guys from all those movies that my Grandfather and I would watch. The fat, white plantation owner that spews hatred, intolerance and cruelty while brandishing a Bible for justification and a pistol for enforcement. The "hired guns" of Oliver North, Jack Abramoff, Rick Davis and thousands of others who willingly enforce the bloody rule and eliminate opression. During the debate, John McCain played the part of the contemtuous villain, unable to look Obama in the eye.
According to the cowboy myth, when a cowboy rides into town, it is the downtrodden people that are rescued from oppression, brutality and injustice. There is little doubt that the NeoCon Gang has been in the service of the "cattle ranchers" and "robber land baron" played by the defense, oil, insurance, banking and healthcare industries. They have been the hired guns that cowboy is supposed to save us from.
It may be time (and I hope that it is) for us to put away the cowboy hero. The world is not white. Women are not silent, breeding cows who exist to serve men. The ideals that we like about America don't come from the cowboy - we put them there into those stories to remind us of what we stand for as Americans. The cowboy myth is exactly that - a myth. A powerful idea of a common, cherished value contained in a story that entertains and reinforces this value.
We do not need a cowboy to ride into town to rescue us. The ideals that we like about America - about ourselves come from these words: "All men and women are created equal". We don't need a cattle baron dressing up like a cowboy in an election year to defend that.
- gadfly