Coleen's Blog - Archived Entry

My father and George W’s dad have something in common: they were both born in the same Boston suburb. Think W was born in a manger and raised roping broncos? Think again. He was born in New Haven, CT while his dad attended Yale. He spent a few pre-teen years in Midland, TX before returning to New England to go to prep school.

In a rare instance of truth-telling, Bush Jr. admitted: “I am a media creation.” Bush Jr., who poses for photo ops with fake turkeys, flight suits and ten-gallon hats, is just the latest incarnation of the new right’s efforts to appeal to a broad voter base while evangelically serving the interests of very small population of robber barons. George Herbert Walker Bush fashioned his family history and, I believe, the image of the new right, to fit with a masculine heroism embodied in the cowboy. In order to galvanize a generation who had been inoculated on Wild West propaganda and witnessed social upheaval on both the European and North American continents, Bush Sr. adopted the perfect mascot for a conservative revival. Perhaps John Wayne had his dance card full, but Ronald Reagan’s governorship of California combined with his cowboy image invented by Hollywood made him the perfect leading man for the new right’s vision of American politics and its global imperialist intent.

Imperialist leaders must fund their agendas with working folks’ money, ie. taxes, which means they need popular buy-in. Not only do they demonize the enemy and rely on religious propaganda to gain consensus, they placate the middle and working classes with secular images celebrating the glory of American expansionism. The rhetoric of 19th century imperialism mirrors the 2003 propaganda promoting the invasion of Iraq. The natives of North America and the citizens of Iraq at once posed an imminent threat to America’s well-being and were in need of our “civilized” ways. Our government was generous enough to remove the yoke of their “primitive” traditions and bring them freedom. This freedom was implemented similarly. The Indian Wars and Operation Iraqi Freedom do not follow the Cain and Abel model where two brothers vie for resources but rather the imperialist model whereby a judeo-christian nation brutalizes a non-judeo-christian nation, utilizing occupation and assimilation as methods for acquiring the latter’s’ resources.

I went to school with conservative Irish kids whose families were working class one generation earlier and illegal aliens just two generations ago. I’ve witnessed the reshaping of family history to fit upward mobility goals and the New England Bush clan is no exception. Bush Sr. knows every working class man longs to believe he still has a frontier to conquer. Though he and his son were born rich and attended blue blood Ivy League schools, he positions his family and his party to cater to this “I-wanna-be-a-cowboy” fantasy. One example of this is Bush Jr. buying Crawford Ranch two months before the 2001 inauguration to bolster his image as a cowboy. Time and Newsweek bid farewell to Reagan this month, featuring him on their covers in, yes, a cowboy hat. Cowboys, the heroes of the “Wild West” were frontline colonists, settlers who encroached upon and invaded Native people’s land and communities. No wonder the neo-conboys are so intent on occupying land that belongs to other nations. They are continuing a history idealized by our country’s media and history books.