What John Wayne Can Teach Dems

NY Daily News ^ | 1/26/06 | Richard Cohen

[areafiftyone]

The latest poll is not good for the Democrats. I am not talking here of the one showing George Bush's approval rating inching up. I'm talking about the recently released Harris Poll showing John Wayne, one of the most popular movie stars of 2005. The one thing he and the Democratic Party have in common is that they are both dead.

Wayne was the quintessential anti-Democrat. Everything he stood for - from support for the Vietnam War to antipathy to the '60s and '70s counterculture - was in consonance with GOP positions. More important, though, his iconic man-on-horseback image has been adopted by virtually the entire Republican Party.

The Harris people tell us that Wayne, tied for third with Harrison Ford, is a particular favorite of men. Tom Hanks (No. 1 two years in a row) is beloved by women, and both Wayne and Hanks are the choice of conservatives. (Liberals chose Johnny Depp).

Wayne personifies the gender gap, the virtually habitual way white men vote Republican. There are many reasons for this - Democratic feminism, affirmative action, etc. - but one of them surely is that the John Wayne-style of the GOP appeals to the cowboy in most men. Even I, Eastern dude that I be, would rather follow the Duke than, say, Johnny Depp. Sorry, my man, but that's the way it is.

Back when I met Wayne, he was a dated, pro-war caricature. It was 1977 and the Duke had somehow been invited to Jimmy Carter's preinaugural gala at the Kennedy Center. When he was through addressing the crowd, he walked right at me, looming as huge and formidable as he seemed on the screen. John Wayne did not play in Westerns. John Wayne was a Western. (Actually, he hated horses and never rode if he could possibly avoid it.)

Since that night, Ronald Reagan has come and gone. Now we have another Wayne in the White House, another rancher who doesn't ranch, a cowboy who doesn't ride.

No matter. George Bush shed his family's Eastern ways just as surely as Wayne did his prosaic Iowa upbringing as Marion Morrison, son of Clyde the pharmacist.

You can scan the length and breadth of the Democratic Party and not find any breadth, and no Wayne figure either. None of the Democratic leaders seems to have what it takes to appeal to white male voters. But if you should happen to be in room 241 of the Russell Senate Office Building, you'll find Wayne galore: pictures of John McCain in various Arizona settings. He's a twofer - a military hero and a Westerner. Democrats, beware.

Okay, Bill Clinton won twice and he ain't no cowboy. So it can be done. But in the Harris Poll, Wayne's ahead of Julia Roberts, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Sean Connery and Sandra Bullock. Democrats take note. The Duke is still king.

Originally published on January 25, 2006

[bcsco]

Thanks! Didn't I tell you this was an interesting post?

I'll have to check it out come Saturday. I'll put it on my schedule so I don't forget. Jazz is my other passion besides Westerns. And, I'm always up before 6 so no big deal.

[longtermmemmory]

No wonder Hollyweird is trying to upset the image of "cowboy" (I know sheep hearding)

The Democrat Party offers nothing for men, nothing for fathers, and nothing for raising boys to become good men.

[OrioleFan]

I believe it was Katherine Hepburn that said of John Wayne that he wa the biggest chauvanist she ever met, but she loved him anyway.

[Paulus Invictus]

I had the great pleasure of talking with Wayne twice in Mexico when he was filming there. He was as pleasant and natural as he seemed in his films. He looked like and was a truly nice guy, a man's man for sure.

[aligncare]

I'm glad you directed me here. You're right - people sharing a great admiration for John Wayne - my mood is improving!

Jazz?...I'm listening to Thelonius Monk tickling the ivories on 'Round Midnight', right now. West Montgomery up next with his version of the song...Yes, my mood is definitely improved!

[Paulus Invictus]

So according to you, his ranch in a desolate part of TX is a sham? He goes to his ranch to ride his horses (oh yes!) and do the "yard" work around the ranch. Is that all an act? I think not and you are wrong about him! Having lived in the TX desert for a year, I can't imagine going there for R&R, but he does.

[BuglerTex]

Sounds like a challenge, Red. How about you and me, with just our K&E slide rules and transits, go out and run a plane survey horseback of say, 40 acres in the Hill Country. You ride west and I'll ride south, and the first to shoot a back azimuth from the far corner to the other wins.

MIT x 2, and I cannot remember not having a horse, or a gun.

[aligncare]

The Democrat Party offers nothing for men, nothing for fathers, and nothing for raising boys to become good men.

Excellent point. It's the 'Feminization of America' party. I think that's a fair characterization. It used to be blue collar union. Now it's Communist, whiners, appeasers, feminists...Ladies, rethink your party affiliation.

[BuglerTex]

That part of Central Texas is no desert, at least until last year's drought anyway. Maybe he has or hasn't worked cattle, but growing up in West Texas it would be hard not to be a cowboy, and I'll agree with you, Bush is no Rexall Ranger.

[Gritty]

You can scan the length and breadth of the Democratic Party and ... None of the Democratic leaders seems to have what it takes to appeal to white male voters.

Or real white women voters, - or any voters with a nanogram of discrimination and smarts for that matter!

What's John Wayne's Donk competition, anyhow?... Ole Bitty Reid? Schmucky Scummer? Chappaquidick Teddy? Fussy Feingold? Depends Leahy? Coots Lautenberg? Sheets Byrd?

And the wymyn Donks are just as bed,... Shrillery, Box O' Rocks, Feinswine, Pattycake Murray, Mikuglyski, Stabusallnow, ... and the agonizing List Of Losers goes on and on and on.

Really. Just who in their right mind would invite any of these over to dinner, much less let them handle trillions of dollars of their tax money and their national security in the world filled with hundreds of millions of lunatics and murderous criminals who can't wait to steal everything you have and make you and your children slaves and begging prostitutes?

[Bender2]

Re: Bush's ...ranch in a desolate part of TX... and Having lived in the TX desert for a year...

Where to begin? The Bush ranch is near Waco, Texas, about 100 miles south of Dallas. You have never been there as it is lovely countryside, not desolate at all, nor desert...

Where did you live in Texas? Lubbock? Big Spring? Odessa? Pecos? El Paso? Those are desert parts of the Lone Star State and some 300 to 500 miles from Waco...

And even being deserts, they are not desolate either.

I suggest you understand even though we are all conservatives here...

Don't Mess With Texas!

Remember... Texas still has a battleship navy!

[Redbob]

"You ride west and I'll ride south, and the first to shoot a back azimuth from the far corner to the other wins."

Sounds great to me!

I humbly submit however that anyone who rides in the Hill Country "wins!"
Now way to lose that 'un!

[YankeeGirl]

So according to you, his ranch in a desolate part of TX is a sham?

I DON"T believe it's a sham. I said I'm sure he enjoys the outdoors and puttering around the ranch. I'll take your word that he rides, though I've not seen it (like Reagan did).

I DID say he does not fit my image of a cowboy. Born in Connecticut, educated at Yale & Harvard. I know he spent much of his youth in Texas, but I don't think his family were ranchers. In fact I believe his dad was in the oil business before entering the public service.

Not many cowboy types with grandpa as a Ct. Senator, dad as ambassador to UN, envoy to China, Director of CIA, Vice President and then President.

The image is nice, but I just don't think that's the reality. Of course the whole "cowboy" thing is an image. I understand my cowboy hero John Wayne didn't even like horses and hated riding. Not to put W down, but he is not in the same "cowboy" class as the Duke and Reagan.

[Redbob]

Uh... "Now"="NO"

(Hanging head in shame...)

[weegee]

Girly-men Dems...

[longtermmemmory]

feminists do not vote for men. (straight men anyways)

Which explains the quality of the character of men in the modern democrat party.