The latest poll is not good for the Democrats. I am not talking here of the one showing President Bush's approval rating inching up..... I'm talking about the recent Harris Poll showing that John Wayne is one of the most popular movie stars of 2005. The one thing he and the Democratic Party have in common is that they are both dead.
Wayne was the quintessential anti-Democrat. Never mind if he was a Republican, which he was. What matters most is that everything he stood for -- from support for the Vietnam War to antipathy to the 1960s' and '70s' counterculture -- was in consonance with GOP positions. More important, though, his iconic man-on-horseback image has been adopted by virtually the entire Republican Party. As a boy, Newt Gingrich tried to walk like Wayne. Now the entire GOP does.
The Harris people tell us that Wayne, tied for third with Harrison Ford, is a particular favorite of men. Tom Hanks (No. 1 two years in a row) is beloved by women and both Wayne and Hanks are the choice of conservatives. (Liberals chose Johnny Depp and Southerners picked Brad Pitt, but he still finished out of the running at No. 11. On the other hand, he got Angelina Jolie which is, as they say, tres jolie.....
But it is Wayne who both fascinates and, as usual, commands. He personifies the gender gap, the virtually habitual way white men vote Republican. There are many reasons for this -- Democratic feminism, affirmative action, etc. -- but one of them surely is that the John Wayne-style of the GOP appeals to the cowboy in most men. Even I, Eastern dude that I be, dispatch some awfully mean hombres in the occasional daydream, and if I'm going to seize a beachhead, I'd rather follow the Duke than, say, Johnny Depp. Sorry, my man, but that's the way it is.
You can scan the length and breadth of the Democratic Party and not find any breadth, and no Wayne figure either. It is certainly not Hillary Clinton or Al Gore or John Kerry or Mark Warner. None of them seem to have what it takes to appeal to white, male voters. But if you should happen to be in room 241 of the Russell Senate Office Building, you'll find Wayne galore: pictures of John McCain in various Arizona settings. He's a two-fer -- a military hero and a Westerner. Democrats, beware.....
Wayne still reigns because he evoked qualities that Americans -- especially American men -- like. In that blur of movies and life, he was strong on defense, strong on strength, violent with enemies, gentle with women, always fair, articulate with a shrug of the shoulder, and he knew just how to walk. He played cowboys and soldiers, almost always the hero. In the Harris Poll, he's ahead of Julia Roberts, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, George Clooney, Sean Connery and Sandra Bullock. Democrats take note. The Duke is still king.
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