Those of you that know me personally know that I have a bumber sticker on my Chevy Silverado that says my heroes have always been cowboys and has a picture of President Reagan and President Bush. The makers of the bumper sticker forgot to add John Wayne.Anyways Richard Cohen, a big time liberal columnist, has a column out titled What John Wayne Can Teach Democrats.
Cohen writes:
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.
It is a quite interesting column but he is right about John Wayne being a Republican. Check out the Duke's 1966 Campaign Commercial: Reagan for Governor
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