At the beginning of The Shootist, a rough looking guy tries to rob John Wayne.
Bad idea.
The Duke shoots the man with a Derringer, delivers a brief lecture – “Friend, you better get another line of work; this one sure don’t fit your pistol” – then rides away, leaving the guy bleeding on to the trail. [ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075213/quotes ]
When President Donald Trump claims he’d run into a school, unarmed, after a shooter he’s channeling that mythic American persona, the lone hero who settles matters their own way, without need for law enforcement or any government. If people bleed to death by the side of the trail, well, they had it coming. As Wayne says later in The Shootist:
“I won’t be wronged, I won’t be insulted, and I won’t be laid a hand on. I don’t do these things to other people, and I require the same from them.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8054344-i-won-t-be-wronged-i-won-t-be-insulted-and-i
Perhaps another of Wayne’s films better serves Trump’s view of the world. In 1952’s Big Jim McLain, The Duke plays an investigator for the House Un-American Activities Committee, who travels to Hawaii to investigate a commie threat. That movie’s tag line: “He’s a Go-Get-Um Guy for the U.S.A. on a Treason Trail That Leads Half-a-World-Away.” [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Jim_McLain ]
The bad guys all have foreign sounding names, of course, so Wayne and wingman James Arness feel no guilt ignoring most of the Bill Of Rights. Protecting America always takes precedence over rules and paperwork. The body count by the end of the film (including that wingman) comes with the territory. People get killed, people die. Look at the result, not the process, to find justice.
Trump gets that. Immigrants aren’t Americans. To get things done, stand out of his way. He’s the President, so, if he says his Communications Director Hope Hicks doesn’t need to tell those pipsqueak Congressmen anything about her job, damn it, that’s the way it is Pilgrim. Ignore protests from Fake News.
Yes, we now live in John Wayne’s America.
That’s why tax reform was so important to Trump. As Wayne said:
“Government has no wealth, and when a politician promises to give you something for nothing, he must first confiscate that wealth from you — either by direct taxes, or by the cruelly indirect tax of inflation.” (Good Read quotes cited above)
Letting the wealthy gain more wealth is the ultimate good. When rich folk – like Trump – get richer, everyone benefits (even if they don’t realize it).
Of course, John Wayne didn’t always live up to the John Wayne myth…multiple wives and affairs, avoiding military service in war time, “interesting” investment strategies and all. Who does all that sound like?
Submitted by Glenn Koenen, WCD Member