Terms such as “Political Cowboys” and “Cowboy diplomacy” are often used in news reports, and to a lesser extent academia to describe the antics of particular politicians or approaches to policy in the United States and sometimes even at an international level. The Cowboy image is inherently linked to American society. It permeates every aspect of it including politics and is propagated through multiple media platforms, including: Hollywood productions, the music industry, and various forms of literature and print media. But what is this cowboy image? How is it employed in the political arena? And what can the use of these cultural images tell us about American politics? The use of the cowboy image is championed by a populace that is immensely But, it also speaks to the wider systematic polarization within the American political system. Political polarization in the United States is a result of cultural and geographical polarization. South V. North, Republican V. Democrat and is firmly rooted in regional history. The cowboy persona which some of these Presidents and politicians choose to adopt, is inherently linked to the physical geographical place from which they hail and the role that place has played in the unfolding of American history. It shapes the character of, (as of yet at least) “the man”, his administration and ultimately the policy of the country for at least four years. The image and persona adopted by these men is nurtured by the regional culture and history of the place that they reside and represent. It can be seen in every president from Kennedy to Reagan and Bush to Obama. The image of the cowboy as Jennifer Moskowitz notes in her article “The Cultural Myth of the Cowboy, or, How the West was Won” is “uniquely The Bush family was, and is an oil family which resides largely in Texas. Despite being born in the northeast, Bush Sr. in Massachusetts, and Bush Jr. in Connecticut, the family has much stronger ties to the southwest and the frontier states. This again can be seen in the persona that they champion. In his paper “Presidential Address George W. Bush’s Cowboy Politics: An Inquiry” Stanley A. Renshon explore George W. Bush’s psychological state of mind and presents a man who is intimately tied to his home and his country. President Bush followed, and strove to uphold, a great moral and ethical code in the form of the constitution, just as Moskowitz states the mythical cowboy does. Renshon describes President George W. Bush as fiercely independent, and “his own man”, again characteristics associated by Moskowitz with the chivalric and romanticized mythical cowboy. But President George W. Bush does not only portray the traits of the mythical cowboy, but also of the Texas
The book Culture Wars? The Myth of a Polarized America by Morris P. Fiorina, Samuel J. Abrams, and Jeremy C. Pope is a persuasive text regarding America and its division on political topics.
The United States of America has engaged in the battle known as political polarization since before its foundation in 1776. From the uprising against the powerful British nation to the political issues of today, Americans continue to debate about proper ideology and attempt to choose a side that closely aligns with their personal beliefs. From decade to decade, Americans struggle to determine a proper course of action regarding the country as a whole and will often become divided on important issues. Conflicts between supporters of slavery and abolitionists, between agriculturalists and industrialists, and between industrial workers and capitalists have fueled the divide. At the Congressional level there tends to be a more prevalent display of polarization and is often the blame of Congress’ inefficiency. James Madison intentionally designed Congress to be inefficient by instating a bicameral legislation. Ambition would counter ambition and prevent majority tyranny. George Washington advised against political parties that would contribute to polarization and misrepresentation in his Farewell Address of 1796. Washington warns, “One of the expedients of party to acquire influence within particular districts is to misrepresent the opinions and aims of other districts.” Today, the struggle to increase power between political parties results in techniques to gain even the smallest marginal gains. To truly understand political polarization, we must examine data collected through a variety of means, the effects of rapidly changing technology, and observe what techniques are used to create such a polarized political system.
Plays were also popular in this era. “Through dime novels, themselves a modern artifact of mass production, and traveling Wild West shows such as “Buffalo Bill’s, the image impressed itself: The West as exotic romance.” “These popular fantasies appealed to a broad stratum Eastern readers for whom the West served.” Through such popular fictions, the West in its wildness retain older association with freedom, escape from social restraint, and closeness to nature.
Over the years, the idea of the western frontier of American history has been unjustly and falsely romanticized by the movie, novel, and television industries. People now believe the west to have been populated by gun-slinging cowboys wearing ten gallon hats who rode off on capricious, idealistic adventures. Not only is this perception of the west far from the truth, but no mention of the atrocities of Indian massacre, avarice, and ill-advised, often deceptive, government programs is even present in the average citizen’s understanding of the frontier. This misunderstanding of the west is epitomized by the statement, “Frederick Jackson Turner’s frontier thesis was as real as the myth of the west. The development of the west was, in fact, A Century of Dishonor.” The frontier thesis, which Turner proposed in 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exposition, viewed the frontier as the sole preserver of the American psyche of democracy and republicanism by compelling Americans to conquer and to settle new areas. This thesis gives a somewhat quixotic explanation of expansion, as opposed to Helen Hunt Jackson’s book, A Century of Dishonor, which truly portrays the settlement of the west as a pattern of cruelty and conceit. Thus, the frontier thesis, offered first in The Significance of the Frontier in American History, is, in fact, false, like the myth of the west. Many historians, however, have attempted to debunk the mythology of the west. Specifically, these historians have refuted the common beliefs that cattle ranging was accepted as legal by the government, that the said business was profitable, that cattle herders were completely independent from any outside influence, and that anyone could become a cattle herder.
What is a cowboy? Who are they? Elmer Kelton’s novel The Day the Cowboys Quit and The Old Chisholm Trail depict cowboys as workers who round-up cattle and relocate them from one place to another as needed. Like everyday workers, cowboys have their own unique personalities. Ranging from hot temper to calm and understanding. For the most part, cowboys have their own issues just as any workplace would. When this occurs there needs to be a leader to take charge in order to fix or control a situation. The way that cowboys respond in times of trouble is when they demonstrate how qualified they are to be a leader. According to Elmer Kelton’s novel The Day the Cowboys Quit and the film The Old Chisholm Trail, there are cowboys that set themselves apart by showing strong leadership skills such as dependability, loyalty, respect, and open-mindedness.
South University Online. (2013). POL2076: American Government: Week 4: People and Politics—Interest Groups. Retrieved from http://myeclassonline.com
Grace Abbott, Ph.M. (Political Science) 1909 [SSA Centennial Celebration Profiles of Distinction Series]. (n.d.). In Chicago/SSA/Centenial. Retrieved March 6, 2011, from The University of Chicago website: http://ssacentennial.uchicago.edu/features/features-abbott-grace.shtml
The Wild West is the quintessence of American national identity. The ideal of a brave and strong, independent and free man best fits the idea of Americanism. These feelings of common Americans are readily exploited in politics and business. Thus, for example, quite a few Presidents of the United States turned to the image of a cowboy when their aim was to win popularity among the American people. The examples are not hard to find: the outgoing President of the Unites States George Bush Jr. has often been pictured disguised as a cowboy â" with a Stetson hat and cowboy shoes on. The images of the Wild West and a cowboy have been infrequently exploited in advertising, for example, in the popular advertising campaign of the Marlboro brand of cigarettes.
The cowboys of the frontier have long captured the imagination of the American public. Americans, faced with the reality of an increasingly industrialized society, love the image of a man living out in the wilderness fending for himself against the dangers of the unknown. By the end of the 19th century there were few renegade Indians left in the country and the vast expanse of open land to the west of the Mississippi was rapidly filling with settlers.
Rick Perlstein argues over whether "Nixonland", a country at war with itself, still resides in the heart of America. The book took a in depth look at Nixon’s political career from the beginning up to the outcome of the 1972 election, as well as how America’s political scene went from perceived consensus in the LBJ era to the bitterly divided right versus left, also known as the red state/blue state split. Perlstein’s argument is that we are still living in Nixonland. “Nixonland” is a study of the consensus, it isn’t just about Nixon, he isn’t the protagonist of Nixonland although it does include his rise and fall; instead, the protagonist of Nixonland is the American voter who found themselves voting Democrat in 1964 and then Republican in 1972 for the same reasons. This book covers the American political and cultural terrain from LBJ’s liberal landslide in 1964, through Nixon’s comeback in 1968, and land...
In this book, Robert M. Utley depicts the life of Sitting Bull a Hunkpapa Indian, from when he was born to his death in 1890. Utley shows both the personal life and political life that Sitting Bull endured throughout the years. Utley looks at Sitting Bull's life from both “...the white as well as the Indian perspective. From both, he emerges as an enduring legend and a historical icon, but above all as a truly great human being.” (xvi). To his tribe Sitting Bull was an extraordinary man who was brave and respected, but to many in the US government believed him to be a troublemaker and a coward. Utley works to prove how Sitting Bull was a man who became an American patriot.
Throughout George W. Bush's political career he has implored the use of Aristotle's tripod, which we like to call it. This tripod is a rhetoric which implies that persuasion relies on three things, which are ethos, pathos, and logos. Logos is devoted solely to logic and reason. While on the other hand, pathos deals with attitudes and beliefs. Perhaps the most important one which pertains to George W. Bush is something called ethos, that is to say the branch of the tripod which deals with the personal strengths of the speaker and most importantly his character. Throughout his political journey he has showed the use of pathos, logos, and ethos time and time again, but the one of which he is commonly known for is ethos. The instances in which he has demonstrated them are countless, but I will recall but three. The first event took place on the day of September 14, 2001 at 'Ground Zero', three days after the attack of the World Trade Centers. The third instance was on September 20, 2001 during his Address to a Joint Session of Congress. Lastly, was the State of the Union Address in Washington D.C. Which was held on January 29, 2002.
John Ford’s classic American Western film, Stagecoach (1939) shows many examples of political life and social behavior during it’s time. The plot is about nine travelers onboard a stagecoach from Tonto, Arizona to Lordsburg, New Mexico Territory. In the beginning, the passengers of the Stagecoach are unfamiliar with each other. However, their relationships grow as they get to know each other during their journey. Each character claims a different social position.
When one thinks of the United States of America, they probably consider our history, our culture, our media, our impressive cities and the extremely wide variety of beautiful wildernesses that we are lucky enough to still enjoy. We are lucky enough to have a melting pot of cultures in this country, and many different kinds of people. However, when thinking of an original, all-American figure, cowboys come to mind for many people. Our history and the settlement of the U.S. was unlike any other country, and the development of the country in the more western states came with the unique and fascinating time period referred to now as “The Old West”. The Old West was a crucial time in American history, and though it was a simpler time it also came with its share of excitement. Some of the most memorable details about the Old West were the characters that came with it, and some extremely interesting ones were the least conforming- the outlaws. Jesse Woodson James was one of the most notorious outlaws in American history. His name would go down in history as one belonging to a tough as nails and fearless bank robber who led a group of outlaws across the mid-west robbing banks and trains, and even murdering people. When we look at the big picture of what the U.S. has become today, The Old West certainly has had a large impact on our culture, and Jesse James certainly had a large impact on the Old West. Though most would argue that he was not a decent or moral person, one cannot argue that he was still a very interesting and unique icon of the west. So how did Jesse Woodson James change and leave his mark on the United St...
Have you ever wondered who the cowboys were; how they lived; or what they did? The American Cowboy's way of life was interesting and unique, and they contributed more to society than one might think. Besides looking after stock and driving cattle, they had to round up huge numbers of cattle for ranchers. This paper will examine the American cowboy's character, what they wore, the everyday things they did like driving cattle and branding calves and the lawlessness of the old west.