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t used to tick me off when the Muslim detractors in the Middle East, or the socialist detractors in Europe, Hollywood and others called our President a cowboy, but the more I think about it, the more glad I am that he is.
When I was a kid, cowboys were my heroes. Well, I mean the ones in the white hats, not the black hats, who were usually the bad guys.
There was Tex Ritter, Tom Mix, Buck Jones, Hopalong Cassidy, the Lone Ranger, there was Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers,
then later, there was Marshall Matt Dillon, Hoss & Li'l Joe Cartwright, Paladin, Maverick and others, Rawhide's Rowdy Yates.
What were common attributes of these legendary cowboys?
Here are a few:
1. They were never looking for trouble.
2. But when trouble came, they faced it with courage.
3. They were always on the side of right.
4. They defended good people against bad people.
5. They had high morals.
6. They had good manners.
7. They were honest.
8. They spoke their minds and they spoke the truth, regardless of what people thought or "political correctness," which no one had ever heard of back then.
9. They were a beacon of integrity in the wild, wild West.
10. They were respected. When they walked into a saloon (where they usually drank only sarsaparilla), the place became quiet, and the bad guys kept their distance.
11. If in a gunfight, they could outdraw anyone. If in a fist fight, they could beat up anyone.
12. They always won. They always got their man. In victory, they rode off into the sunset.
Those were the days when there was such a thing as right and wrong, something blurred in our modern world, and denied by many.
Now, as a senior citizen, I still like cowboys. They represent something good, something pure that America has been missing.
Ronald Reagan was a cowboy. I like Ronald Reagan, who was brave, positive, and who gave us hope. He wore a white hat. To the consternation of his liberal critics, he had the courage to call a spade a spade and call the former Soviet Union what it was the evil empire. Liberals hated Ronald Reagan. They also hate President Bush because he distinguishes between good and evil. He calls a spade a spade, and after 9-11 called evil "evil," without mincing any words, to the shock of the liberal establishment. That's what cowboys do, you know. He also told the French to "put their cards on the table" (old West talk), which they did, exposing their cowardice and greed.
The radical Muslims are wrong. In the old West, might did not make right. Right made might. Cowboys in white hats were always on the side of right, and that was their might. I am glad my President is a cowboy. He got his man! Cowboys do, you know.
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That was the email from my friend Pat (and I'm wondering if she'll want to be my friend after getting my response). Here's how I answered...
Pat, I dearly WISH we actually had a cowboy like the one described here. We need one desperately. Unfortunately, like the one described here, such cowboys can be found only in the movies. I'm sorry to respond like this, but as a friend, I feel a serious responsibility to address untruths, especially since, as a onetime reporter, my former profession is doing such a lousy job of it these days. Unless, of course, it involves illicit sex, and/or it's about Bill Clinton. It's also become my habit to do my best to debunk all the myths and untruths that appear in emails such as these.
1. They were never looking for trouble. "F--- Saddam, we're taking him out" - TIME magazine, March 2001, not to mention thumbing his nose at the Kyoto accords, the UN, and virtually everything else that supposedly makes us part of a world community. In fact, if you study the workings and writings of the Project for the New American Century, you'll find that most of bush's key advisors were pushing for an Iraqi invasion while Clinton was still president.
2. But when trouble came, they faced it with courage. Like when he went flying all over the Sunbelt on 9/11 looking for a place to hide, and America (and several of her network anchors) were wondering "WHERE is the president" after we'd all been attacked, and were left scrambling and leaderless - at least until Rudy Giuliani showed up...
3. They were always on the side of right. As long as it involved large campaign contributions from energy giants who'd sold out their stockholders and their employees' pension funds...
4. They defended good people against bad people. Well, they DID keep Saddam nicely propped up for a long time...
5. They had high morals. Like lying, cheating, insider trading, sweetheart deals, covering up, character assassination, reckless endangerment and covering up (Valerie Plame), keeping Americans in a state of fear and dread while they loot our treasury, whittle away at our privacy rights and civil liberties, and sending almost 500 Americans and untold numbers of innocent Iraqis to their deaths...
6. They had good manners. Like wiping their noses on their sleeves while taking questions in their golf carts, using one of David Letterman's assistant's shirts to wipe their glasses on, and making mean jokes about people being bald, or being able to speak French, humiliating them in public, in front of all their colleagues...
7. They were honest. Uh... how 'bout those Weapons of Mass Destruction, 'eh? How 'bout that "we didn't choose this war with Iraq?" How 'bout the Harken Energy scandal and insider trading shenanigans that he said were "fully vetted" when they weren't? How 'bout that stint in the Texas Air National Guard from which he took a nice, long, personal time-out for about a year without permission? How 'bout the vendetta against Joseph Wilson for telling the truth about those "16 words" in last year's State of the Union Speech - by outing his wife, the undercover CIA operative WHOSE JOB FOR 20 YEARS WAS TRACKING THE MOVEMENT, SALES, AND DEVELOPMENT OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION? How 'bout sitting around reading a book to some kids when America was under attack and some 3,000 people were being killed, AND NORAD WAS GIVEN ORDERS TO STAND DOWN, and WHILE US airspace was closed for almost a week, a bunch of Saudis were allowed to fly out of the US WITHOUT BEING QUESTIONED BY THE FBI? And on the domestic front, what about all those children supposedly not left behind (every time he announces a neat new program with lots of funding, he gets some nice publicity. Then after the cameras and mikes are turned off and everybody goes home, he turns around behind their backs and cuts back all the funding he'd just promised. Ask the AIDS people in Africa about that one). And how 'bout that magic cure-all tax cut? Only the wealthiest of my friends derived any benefit. I don't know of anybody else who did - especially among those who really need it. They, on the other hand, were dependent on the programs that bush and friends are cutting back. That's just for starters.
8. They spoke their minds and they spoke the truth,
regardless of what people thought or "political correctness," which no one had ever heard of back then. Uh... spoke the truth. RIGHT. See #7. And let's all remember how he painted himself as the "compassionate conservative" who didn't want to get into nation building, and felt it was important to wield our power with the utmost of humility. Even conservatives find themselves shocked at how utterly radical he's turned out to be. Hardly compassionate. He probably doesn't even know how to spell it, no less act like it.
9. They were a beacon of integrity in the wild, wild West. Uh... see #7. And let's say something here about "supporting our troops." How is it supporting our troops when you wrap yourself in the flag and then turn around and cut VA benefits, close VA hospitals, cut soldiers combat pay and family separation differentials WHILE THEY'RE OFF ON THE BATTLEFIELD, PUTTING THEIR LIVES ON THE LINE, equipping them with NO flak jackets and defective haz-mat suits for one out of every three of them, not enough drinking water and other supplies, AND providing them with rotten meat and produce, prepared in filthy kitchens with blood on the floor? Or that they keep being lied to about when their tour of duty is finished and they can go home? Or when they go home for a couple of weeks' R&R, the military only gets them as far as an American air base in Europe, and they're left to fend for themselves, trying to arrange AND PAY FOR the rest of the way home? And at the same time, he'd tell ME that I'M the one who isn't patriotic because I dare to object to all this!!!
10. They were respected. When they walked into a saloon (where they usually drank only sarsaparilla),
the place became quiet, and the bad guys kept their distance. Uh... drinking. Right. His "youthful indiscretions" (until about age 40) that he still refuses to talk about and come clean about (no wonder his daughters are such a drunken, disorderly, embarrassing mess. Apples don't fall far from the tree, I guess). How 'bout the respect America can count on, in the eyes of the rest of the world, while we make no-bid deals with war profiteer price-gougers like Halliburton. How 'bout all that good will towards our country from all over the world (Hell, even Yassir Arafat sent his condolences, and the FIRST WORLD LEADER to come here to offer sympathy and friendship and support was - drum roll, please - FRENCH PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC) that has since been completely squandered by his ham-handed jones for war?
11. If in a gunfight, they could outdraw anyone. If in a fist fight, they could beat up anyone. Well, he can certainly dress the part. He's not a fighter jock, but he plays one on TV.
12. They always won. They always got their man. In victory, they rode off into the sunset. If you call it a victory that Saddam's capture is NOT delivering the goods (in fact, the latest findings only underscore the LIES that the bush administration has told Americans about the war and Saddam's NONEXISTANT links to Al Qaeda - just ANOTHER lie), no WMDS (in fact, David Kay's much-vaunted Iraq Survey Group looking for WMDs for the past 6 months or so is slowly being dismantled - 400 of the weapons inspectors/searchers in the ISG were quietly sent home a couple of weeks ago), NO Osama, NO democracy in Iraq (it's complete wreckage and disarray over there and our soldiers are so despondent that they've begun committing suicide), and now they're starting their sabre-rattling against Syria... Oh yes, and WHERE'S KENNY-BOY LAY?
Again, Pat, I'm sorry if this seems somewhat shrill. But I just can't stand it anymore. In all my 50 years (including some 30 years of political awareness), I have NEVER seen this country so messed up, or so poorly "led." I have never seen such a political climate where people were attacked, smeared, and so openly sneered at and shouted down, and/or had their patriotism questioned, if they had an opposing point of view. I was alive during the McCarthy era, but I was a little kid and completely out of it. And I was just coming of age in the era of Nixon's "Enemies List," which pales before the bush/ashcroft machine now squeezing every bit of power and checks and balances out of the hands of the people.
And I have NEVER seen so much fiction strewn everywhere, trying to put so much lipstick on a pig. It's a disgrace. HE is a disgrace. And he's no cowboy. A real cowboy isn't afraid of horses, or has to buy himself a pig farm at the last minute in order to make good on the claim that he has a nice big ranch in Texas.
It is the most American thing you can possibly do - to dissent, to question authority, and to speak truth to power. If guys like Sam Addams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, and a few other rogues a couple of hundred years back had not done so, we'd all be bowing to the Queen, not a wanna-be dictator...
SORRY ABOUT THE LENGTH, GUYS. I'm just feelin' me oats today!
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