An American Myth Rides Into the Sunset (Bush is not a real cowboy)

The New York Times ^ | 03/30/03 | SUSAN FALUDI

[Swiss]

That reminds me of a joke

Three strangers strike up a conversation in the passenger lounge in Bozeman, Montana, awaiting their flights. One is an American Indian passing through from Lame Deer. Another was a cowboy on his way to Billings, Montana for a stock show. The third passenger is a fundamentalist Arab student, newly arrived at Montana State University from the Middle East. Their discussion drifts to their diverse cultures. Soon the two Westerners learn that the Arab is a devout, radical Muslim. The conversation falls into an uneasy lull.

The cowboy leans back in his chair, crosses his boots on a magazine table, tips his big sweat-stained hat forward over his face. The wind outside blows tumbleweeds, and the old windsock flaps, but no plane comes.

Finally, the American Indian clears his throat and softly, he speaks: "Once, my people were many... now we are few." The Muslim student raises an eyebrow and leans forward, "Once my people were few", he sneers, "and now we are many. Why do you suppose that is?"

The Montana cowboy shifts his toothpick to one side of his mouth and from the darkness beneath his Stetson says in a drawl, "That's 'cause we ain't played Cowboys and Muslims yet..."

[FrdmLvr]

So, they tried to ridicule him by calling him a "cowboy," and that backfired because the American people kinda like cowboys. So, now the new line is he's not a cowboy.

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[sirchtruth]

May I suggest that this could be the most stupified collection of sentences ever assembled.

[x]

I think Falludi has too much 50s and 60s television on her mind. What's next? Bush as Gilligan, Cheney as Skipper and Rummy as the Professor?

Wister's cowboy was a creation or construction of his own mind. For every Virginian in a white hat there was at least one villain in a black hat. For every good cowboy, there was a heel, as Falludi herself notes. Wister's hero was a good man who tried to do right, but I'm not sure how representative he was of the "cowboy code," or how much Falludi is really talking about actual cowpunchers and how much she's talking about the myths postwar America used to domesticate baby boomers. It's Hollywood that told us that to be a cowboy meant to be decent, upright and foursquare.

I'm not sure how much the opposition between Boone and Crockett that Falludi presents really holds. History or legend has it that Boone brought his people west but left as soon as he could see the smoke from neighbor's cabin from his own and he could no longer live by hunting -- A peaceful, decent fellow, but one who wasn't crazy about society. Crockett was elected to Congress and might have played a role in an independent Texas had he survived the Alamo, so he doesn't quite qualify as an anarchic spirit.

Walter Mead has compared Bush's approach, and Reagan's, to that of Andrew Jackson, a frontiersman Falludi doesn't mention. That looks to be a more sensible place to begin than a specious contrast of Boone and Crockett.

[bluefish]

Classic. Heard it before, but was even better this time around.

[unspun]

Sounds like a real America hater. I hope the FBI is keeping track of her.

[PoisedWoman]

Faludi ought to sign up for quilting lessons. She's patched together quotes from here and there to create, in her mind, a pattern, but this thing just doesn't hang together. I can't imagine anyone staying comfy and warm under her frayed logic. Too full of holes.

I'll leave it to someone else to speculate on what sort of hole she is.

[Erasmus]

To paraphrase Mark Twain, Ms Faludi's powers were under a cloud on the morning she wrote this.

[Nick Danger]

Oh look, a sh*tty little mean-spirited hit piece on Bush in the New York Times. Hooda thunkit?

[fhayek]

Not gorgeous, but I'd give her a spanking. Her piece was still drivel, though.

[McGavin999]

Drivel. Too bad this woman doesn't have a clue what she's talking about.

[TXBlair]

Ok, I have to admit that I skipped over most of the article because the premise was so stupid. That said, I don't know how much time the author has spent here in Texas, but she has obviously bought into the old cowboy stereotype. You see, cowboys are only reserved and humble when the cows are armed with nothing more than never-ending supplies of manure. Granted, this is fairly rare, but when the cattle use weapons that they aren't even supposed to possess, and when they commit homicide bombings against other cattle, the cowboys suddenly become very aggressive and determined. They know that these evil cattle must be removed at virtually all costs. Perhaps these are the cowboys after whom President Bush has modeled himself.

[homeagain balkansvet]

Susan Faludi deserves to be forcibly married to a minor Saudi Arabian bureaucrat. As his fourth wife. I'm sure her father could get at least a camel in trade. Maybe even two.

[CyberAnt]

I think this poor woman has waaaaaay to much time on her hands.

[GOP_Raider]

And Condaleeza Rice as Mary Ann??? I might actually watch that show's reruns on TV Land now!

[NYCVirago]

The media, including Faludi's pals at the Times, have done more to foster the "Bush is a cowboy" slogan than anyone else.

[HHFi]

She's best known for writing a much ballyhooed book called "Backlash," a huge load of drivel about how Hollywood keeps women down. The major criticism of it was that she would only cite examples and statistics that supported her tenuous conclusions and ignored the many that contradicted her. Nice to see she's still using that same tried and true method of argument.

One sidelight: as a native Texan, I'd like to ask the New York Times, "Just once, when you run an op-ed analyzing Texas or Texans, could you please, please, PLEASE find someone to write it who has actually BEEN here at least once in his or her life, or has actually MET someone who lives west of the Hudson River?" God, that would be such a refreshing change! Why not get Woody Allen to tell us all about Texas and cowboys next time?

[Kath]

Age 11???? Where are you getting your information. George W Bush's parents moved him to Texas when he was 2 years old.

[Luis Gonzalez]

"Stiffed"?

Susan?

Not in years I bet.

[sunshine state]

I tried to read this. God, my head hurts.