Pistol-Packin' Sarah Shoots Up the Screen

John Ford couldn't have staged it better. There was Cowboy George disappearing into the sunset, draggling a few twigs of Crawford brush behind him, while Old Man McCain, patriarch of Sedona Ranch -- or one of those dang houses, never could remember which -- was waving him off with relief. And suddenly there she was -- out of the Alaskan blue -- Cowgirl Sarah, twirling her guns and cocking her jaw like Clint Eastwood in full attack mode, a loner out for justice.

Despite all the chants for change in both camps, those Repubs know that nothing speaks louder than that old reliable cowboy image honed by generations of Hollywood directors like Ford, beloved by generations of city-bred Winchester and Marlboro men like Cheney, and adopted by every president since cowboy actor Ronald Reagan put on boots and spurs.

But Cowboy George nearly wrecked the genre. It was just bad casting. Despite the learned strut and the put-on twang, he never could get the hang of looking real. He was always Preppie Cowboy. Seemed like he'd ruined the getup for good, until McCain's gut told him to just shift the whole cowboy thing onto his sidekick. Like the Lone Ranger saying, "Here Tonto, you be the Maverick." How many times on the convention platform did Palin's fellow Repubs describe her as a gun-totin', rootin-tootin' pistol- packin' mama of five-- a maverick, rebel, outsider? "We've now got two crack-shots leading our ticket," shouted one delegate. But actually, she's riding point as the gunshooter, letting patriarch John run the ranch.

The Repubs have been mining Hollywood images to beat the band, and they've now got the bases covered. There's Mama McCain, typecast at age ninety-six to play that tough pioneer mother who crossed the plains in covered wagon while her husband fought off Injuns. There's Cindy McCain, looking like an older sister of those gals in "Sex and the City," wearing their million-dollar fantasy fashions on their backs, feet and ears. And there's Cowgirl Sarah riding tall in the saddle, amblin' in from a small town in the remotest stretches of the West, to set the country straight at last after eight years of gov'ment bad guys.

But wait a minute -- weren't the Republicans in charge?

We got an image problem here, or worse, a script problem. From the beginning, cowgirls were strictly from showbiz, not reality. No woman, not even Calamity Jane, was ever actually allowed to herd cows on the Chisholm or any other trail. While Buffalo Bill Cody could make a star in 1885 of little Annie Oakley (real name Phoebe Ann Moses), it was because she was a sharpshooter, not a rider or roper. As rodeos burgeoned in the next century, a number of showbiz gals like Prairie Rose Henderson got fame as "cowgirls" when they wore fancy costumes while riding a bucking horse. But they were kicked out in 1936, when rodeo cowboys under Gene Autry organized their first professional guild. From then on, girls were relegated to the roles of rodeo queens or half-time showgirls or, most ignominious of all, barrel racers.

So the Repubs are at it again, fabricating their own reality under the power of image making. So what if Cowboy George didn't accomplish his mission? Trust us, this time we've got a real authentic Cowgirl Sarah riding to the rescue to save us from the bad guys. Let's see... which ones did you say were the bad guys again?

Comments

[vivramos]

This is HI-LARIOUS- - if it weren't terrifying, too!!
We Americans love our movie heroes as archetypes,
even- or maybe especially, when they're arch-villains.
Thanks for the thoughtful and entertaining post.
We need more of them.

[pfc1369]

Bravo, Betty.

I once did a stint in Hollywood as a TV writer, and no matter how low I aimed, it was never low enough for the producers.

Think comic book! was their best advice.

Many of these guys (and gals) can now be found writing political speeches.

[gage]

"From the beginning, cowgirls were strictly from showbiz, not reality. "

As someone who comes from an old Texas ranch family. I can tell you that's absolutely and categorically false. I've known many women who worked cattle on their own ranches, or for hire on other ranches.

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

Women worked hard and continue to work hard on ranches and farms, but working with cattle doesn't make them "cowgirls." Just as "Cowboys" are images that have been fixed in popular culture to symbolize a wagon-load of myths about the West, "Cowgirls" are variants on that image. The word "cowgirl" wasn't used until 1905 when Lucille Mulhall, prodigy roper at age 10, performed her roping tricks in Madison Square Garden. And yes, she grew upon a real ranch in Oklahoma.

[PhilTListener]

This script evolves like a sorry plot from 50's TV shows:
John McCain as the footloose frontier gambler "Bret" Maverick, and Sarah Pal(ad)in, black-garbed hero-for-hire from "Have Gun, Will Travel".

The cult of personality is now what this race is all about.
Forget issues, forget truth, the story is what they want it to be.

Hopefully the words of wisdom will win out:
Know the truth, and it will set you free.

[barkanomics]

It's worked forever: "Never underestimate the stupidity of the American people." To me, what the United States has done in Iraq compares to South Africa, Nazi Germany and Russia. It is a stain on our history. It has stained us all. McCain said, "We're all Georgians." Given what has happened in Iraq and given the racist tone of these attacks on Obama from Republicans and from some Democrats, with special thanks to Ferraro and Bill Clinton, I think we can say, "We're all South Africans."

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

We're doing a bad thing alright, but bad things and stupidities know no national boundaries nor any temporal ones.

[PumaAnn]

I hate to be contrary........well, not really.

But you need to read more about women in the West.

Trust me. They rode the herds.

Often the drunks were the cooks. male drunks, btw......

And the women rode the herds.

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

Well, you show me your books and I'll show you mine. I'm talking about the origin of the "cowboy image" in 19th-century trail herding, which the movies picked up and made permanent. In the actual cowhand culture of the trail, racism was rife and sexism a given. Women tended cattle back at the ranch but they weren't out riding herd with the guys,all the way from Texas to Montana.

[okjoel]

McCain and his cynical handlers are counting on the gullibility of a vast swath of the electorate.
I'm more than little impatient with the so-called independent/undecided vote. Is it that hard to make up your collective minds?

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

In my experience, people don't vote with their minds, which they use to rationalize what they've responded to by gut. They vote for narratives that appeal to them emotionally.

[burndtdan]

I think that is true so long as no one really appealed to their mind. Most politicians don't.

[OleGing]

Re: to Betty's question "But wait a minute--weren't the Republicans in charge?"..............thanks for settin' me straight............I thought the Dems had majority control (ie. "in charge") for the last 4 yrs.

[jferguson]

One of the real problems with hiring a Cowboy: if they actually are like you see in the movies, and especially the faux cowboys we've been seeing lately, Reagan, and George, the W, is that they tend to call in the cavalry when things get a little tight.

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

the only cowboy you'll ever see is in the movies, so let's count the movie cowboys as "real" and the politico ones as Hollywood faux, but you're right---both kinds rely on a deus-ex-machina to save the hero---or the ranch.

[gage]

"the only cowboy you'll ever see is in the movies,"

False. You live in NYC, so what do you know?

[gage]

"the only cowboy you'll ever see is in the movies,"

False.

[demfriend]

It's the picture of Palin wearing the bikini and holding a shotgun which the GOP should put on it's website next to McCain. That tells the whole tale without a word needed to explain it. Mccain picked her in a snit as he wanted Lieberman as we did to destroy his hopes to win. He got someone who could and did knock Obama off frontpage America. But she came with baggage far worse than he was told and he has since played at poopooing all the issue that would have red flagged the old McCain and not the new version of "Tell to do it and I will do everything to win?" and has. He has lobbyists abounding in his camp and oil money pouring into do the "drill here, drill now" chant. But I digress. Palin was also chosen for the "beauty queen mama with a gun" image. She looks good. She can read and memorize the scripts. She will lie and say damn near anything to get the job just like the new version of McCain. She also is willing to sell wahtever parts of her that will get her elected. Rove lite or the real thing is at work here to redirect all they can away from the John Bush or Macinbush meesages.

[clevelandchick]

Rent the movie Idiocracy, upon reflection it's not as funny as I originally thought when I first saw it.

The Reality is that Palin is no 'breath of fresh air' or the 'New Face' of anything. She's anti-choice, anti-sex education, anti-science, slashed funding for pregnant teens and special needs kids, pork barrell glutton, for the Bridge to Nowhere before she was against it, uses her office to enact retribution on anyone who doesn't follow blindly.....she's a far right wing religious radical and typical Republican bully. That's nothing new for the Republican Party, that's actually the status quo. She's more Tom Delay than Annie Oakley.

[freddynono]

fyi...Dick Cheny is not a "city-bred Winchester and Marlboro man". He is from Casper, Wyoming. The entire population of the state is 500,000.

[megacephalus]

weeellll... u can't tell dat frum da way he [mis]handles a gun!

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

maybe that's why he works so hard at being city-slicker slick.

[helloworld2008]

Too bad the MSM lapdogs eat this crap up.

Who cares if it is a bunch of lies, horribly destructibe, corrupt and vitriolic.

It's great theater!

For shame.

[dagnew]

Exactly!

[lechatnoir]

Well said. It is quite fascinating to watch this attempt at reality hacking going on right before our eyes, almost too clumsily to be taken seriously yet eerily creepy stomach-churning, like a traffic accident in slow-motion.
I am reminded of the books Test Card F, about TV and Trust Us We're Experts, which deals with propaganda. Infinitely more useful than Chomsky's self-titled 'Propaganda Model' BTW.

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

propaganda is always with us and, unfortunately, sometimes the clumsier it is the more effective. Depends how fearful, angry, arrogant, anxious the voters are.

[RI]

(This is about the republicans. See my previous post about the democrats.)

The republicans always win on fear. Their story is that the world is a fearful place and our John Wayne cowboy (Bush) or Maverick fighter pilot warrior (McCain) will keep you safe. Now add sharp-shoot"n Sarah and you have a powerful image to run on.

The democrat"s story about McCain is also based on fear and has a chance of sticking. Their new add says it best " "Same" " showing clips of McCain and Bush and has McCain himself saying he voted with Bush over 90% of the time. This reminds people of the trauma of the last 8 years and the fear that it will continue under McCain. Perhaps this time more people will be afraid of the "Same" than of "Change."

[Betty Fussell - Huffpost Blogger]

Fear is a powerful motivator, all right, which is why we make heros of warriors with guns. The gun image underscores Republican "Same"---war will keep you safe. The Democrats need to come up with a specific visual image of "Change" as powerful as the gun, whether it plays on fear or hope, maybe both. .