The old-timers can’t see it yet, but runnin’ cattle on an open range can’t go on. It takes too much space for too little results.
Joe Starrett: Shane (1953)
I don’t think I agree, but this is an interesting concept from my favorite living historian Victor Davis Hanson:
It reminds me of Trump saying that people will get sick of winning. It seems like you are saying we have gotten sick of it, and that is the tragedy of Trump.
I think so. I tried to use as many examples as I could of the classic Western, whether it was “Shane” or “High Noon” or “The Magnificent Seven.” They all are the same—the community doesn’t have the skills or doesn’t have the willpower or doesn’t want to stoop to the corrective method to solve the existential problem, whether it is cattle barons or banditos. So they bring in an outsider, and immediately they start to be uneasy because he is uncouth—his skills, his attitude—and then he solves the problem, and they declare to him, whether it is Gary Cooper in “High Noon” or Alan Ladd in “Shane,” “I think it’s better you leave. We don’t need you anymore. We feel dirty that we ever had to call you in.” I think that is what is awaiting Trump…
Go here to read the rest. Trump actually is a sign that an old order is dying and a new one coming into being. The huge welfare states established in the twenties and the thirties of the last century are plainly in their waning days. Trump’s election could only happen in a time of crisis, one that establishment politicians, whatever they call themselves, steadfastly ignored. Trump wins no kudos from those who are deeply wedded to the status quo and who view him, rightly, as a mortal threat.
VDH needs to rewatch his westerns and then rework his analogy.
The man is guided by gut, tenacity and the ability to take a beating.
Reminds me of “Invincible”
true story of Vince Papale (Mark Wahlberg), who played for the Philadelphia Eagles from 1976 to 1978
Trump is the Man. The guy who does it all wrong but wins.
There was a football player in the 1940’s-50’s by the name of Robert James “Hunchy” Hoernschemeyer who had a weird way of running. One day his coach criticized him for the way he ran after he just scored a touchdown. He said, “How was it for distance coach”.
Correction:
There was a football player in the 1940’s-50’s by the name of Robert James “Hunchy” Hoernschemeyer who had a weird way of running. One day his coach criticized him for the way he ran after he just scored a 100 yard touchdown. He said, “How was it for distance coach?”.
The odious Bushes and the rest of the Rhinos who made President Trump necessary will never look in the mirror and blame themselves, but they are the reason for his rise within the Republican party. I don’t believe there is any going back. Conservative voters won’t likely be fooled by the likes of a Dole or Romney again.
Conservative voters won’t likely be fooled again:
Of course they will. Because, to use a western film analogy correctly, conservatives are like John Chisum, respecters of the law, and the Bushes, Doles and Romneys are like Lawrence Murphy, the law’s owners.
Which is to say, conservatives are team players, and establishmentarians are the owners of the team. Sadly, that team is the Cleveland Indians, the Establishment is Rachel Phelps, and the Media is sunny Miami.
“…and now it’s up to the American people to deliver justice…”
– Donald Trump, November 2016:
https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/06/politics/trump-now-its-up-to-the-american-people-to-deliver-justice/index.html