The Sun Sets on the American Cowboy

More than a myth, the American Cowboy acts as a reluctant warrior, answering urgent calls to action, then cursed by the very people who reap the benefits of justice. But for how long?

The story of the west is the story of humanity: the drama of good versus evil, villains and heroes, chaos and civility. It is a push toward a better life for the following generations. It is to carve out a piece of land and forge a meaningful life. The American West of the late 19th Century was a cruel, harsh, lawless frontier; and out of the mercilessness of the land was born this new hero who never looked for a score to settle, but nevertheless found himself defending the defenseless and standing between the tyrant and the just. The cowboy never makes easy decisions, but sees that the line between right and wrong is always bright.

Now we see a move in our schools to emphasize a shameful American history. There is a widespread acceptance by the intellectual class of cultural gatekeepers to rewrite history as one of brutal conquest, oppression, and segregation without any redeeming qualities. Progressive history is always sterilizing and neutralizing our history, rendering it useless in forging a path to the idealism for which we should all strive. Erasing our legends erases part of the soul of that makes this a nation of opportunity and optimism; of second chances and new beginnings. The West is an important part of that flawed history, and the cowboy is inextricably tied to it and is symbolic of the American ethos to the world.

America doesn’t set out to conquer. We don’t look for a fight. Our struggle is that of one which has been with us since the beginning: balancing the rugged individualism and absolute freedom with the shackles of safety and order. There exists a fight between passion and reason, hard decision and easy indecision. Just like the cowboy, Americans have acted as reluctant warriors, answering urgent calls to action, then cursed by the very people who reap the benefits of justice. On the world stage, the American Cowboy is often used as a pejorative. Theodore Roosevelt was the tough-minded original Rough Rider and frontiersman. Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush were reviled for their Cowboy Diplomacy and inelegance. General George S. Patton was rebuked for his frank style and harsh tone, but his tough-as-nails attitude brought Allied victories in Europe. Even in American cities, the police unhesitatingly answer the call for help from the same people who publicly insult, harass, and abuse them. Our military men and women, our first responders, and our emergency workers do the hard things that make the streets safe for us, often thanklessly, then return to their post asking nothing in return.

But in the reflection of the Afghanistan withdrawal America is now on the other side of that moral code. Instead of being the rampart that so often stands solitary between good and evil, this last indefensible catastrophe of plans, execution, and retreat this administration created an America more closely resembling the town in Clint Eastwood’s High Plains Drifter – an outpost of cowards who trade their dignity for compliance with corruption and lawlessness. It was created by leaders who value their power and rule with fear over order and liberty. They damn the cowboy because he has a moral code. They refuse objective truths and accountability because it reveals their incompetence.

To tame the West, there must have been a primal fight between good and evil at the most basic, human level. The use of primal violence, fear, and intimidation drive the unraveling of society. But for the cowboy – as for the United States – the virtuous use of the gun in defense of the good clears the path. It’s the gun that allows the cowards to hide in the protection of the herd; it’s the gun that the sanctimonious can claim their pure morality. We must not be afraid of our own national strength and virtue. To do so is to betray our responsibility to that myth that built our national identity and led the world as a land of freedom. We fight with those who want to fight for themselves. And it is hard, but it is necessary.

The author, former European minister for Portugal, and Hudson Institute senior fellow Bruno Maçães is correct when discussing America’s place on the global stage. He told City Journal’s 10 Blocks podcast on November 20th, 2020. America cannot survive as a superpower, “can rise to the top of the ranking of world power and still remain unable to develop its own way of looking at the world.”

America must hold strong to that ideal of being the good, the true, and the virtuous. It is the soul of the West, the heart of the Cowboy, the commitment of a nation not looking for a fight, but willing to fight for those who fight against evil. America will fight against her enemies with as much steadfast will as Gary Cooper’s Marshal Will Kane in High Noon. We saw it this past week in the picture of 23-year-old Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee captioning an August 20th picture of her cradling an infant, “I love my job.” She was killed in Afghanistan 6 days later. Ours are the warriors volunteering for the hard, grueling, necessary duty, while those that send them there and shun their patriotism turn their eyes at the consequences of those fateful orders. But still they go. And they fight. And they sacrifice.

Cooper’s Marshal image was iconic as the symbol of the American vision of freedom that in 1989 the Polish Solidarity Movement used the image as an election poster in the first semi-free election in Poland since 1945. The poster depicted Gary Cooper holding a folded ballot printed with “Wybory” (election) in his right hand instead of a gun. The Solidarity logo displayed above the sheriff badge, and a sign reads “W samo poludnie: 4 czerwca 1989” (High Noon: June 4th 1989). The strong appeal of American democracy and the strength behind the quiet determination was universally recognized in the Western states of the former Soviet bloc. The Communists misunderstood the message, trying to ridicule the freedom movement as an invention of the “Wild West.” But the Communists were wrong and Polish Solidarity won handily as they rallied around that powerful American image. It symbolized justice, defense of freedom, and unfailing strength in the fight between good and evil.

Just as Reagan fought the Evil Empire and George W. Bush struck back after the September 11 terror attacks, the hero is quickly forgotten. After years of relentless determination and suffering mental and physical anguish, John Wayne’s character Ethan Edwards in The Searchers finally returns his kidnapped niece back home. But instead of enjoying the rest and comfort of a reunited homestead, he turns and heads back out to the solitary distance. But just because we cannot enjoy the applause and the public praise willfully due, does not make the task any less important or the man less of a hero. In fact it is usually the thankless missions that are the most crucial. It is out of these events that legends are born and that form the fabric of America’s soul. The American Cowboy transcends age, sex, race, and religion. From Nat Love and Bill Cody come today’s Compton Cowboys and NYC Federation of Black Cowboys, City Slickers and Lonesome Doves. America is the Cowboy, the legend a figure to which we aspire, easy to spot, hard to define. The Cowboy as our legend is an inseparable part of our moral imaginations.

America has the unique opportunity to forge its own national identity. The nation was born of a vision of men who understood freedom comes with responsibility; liberty with tempered strength, and unity with unbound opportunity. That was the soul of the American Cowboy. A young and idealistic America shunned the entrenched aristocracy and the stifling religious theocracies. The royal plutocracies of the Europe from which we freed ourselves were skeptical of this new experiment and the people who forged a new path into the unknown wilds of the New World.

Our leadership – the elected and unelected officials who seek to betray America’s heritage and mythology – is insisting on the United States as the malevolent villain. Don’t allow it. The American people still have the heart and soul of the cowboy. Fighting for the good and true, then retreating to the shadows of a duty fulfilled. The myth is meaningless without the reality behind it. There is a famous line in John Ford’s classic The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”