You Can Learn Much About Red State Americans at Fort Cody

 

Earlier in my U.S. trip, I visited my son in North Platte, Nebraska.  It's the reddest, Trumpiest part of a very red state.  And during my visit I stopped at Fort Cody, a fake U.S. Army fort built in the 1960s to lure tourists off the newly-built superhighways as they traveled to vacation destinations out in the Western U.S. like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park.

That's why you display the two headed calf that was born on a farm in Nebraska in the 1940s, then stuffed after it died having lived only three days. This kind of oddity would be advertised as something to draw curious tourists off the highway to buy the souvenirs in your tourist attraction.  As I visited Fort Cody, the fake Army fort, I realized that this "tourist trap" was exclusively designed for Red-State, MAGA Trumpists and totally reflects their values and mental picture of what America is and should be.  Luckily, you don't have to visit Fort Cody, but I can interpret it for you and show you how it represents Red State America.

The fort itself is adorned with American flags and mannequins dressed as 19th Century Army Calvary soldiers.  It is an attempt to replicate our mental picture of the Old West that we've created for ourselves based on tv shows and movies.  

The fort is named after Buffalo Bill Cody a famous old Westerner who lived in North Platte for many decades.  Why is Buffalo Bill Cody famous?  He slaughtered thousands of buffaloes to feed all the railway workers who were building the transcontinental railway nearby.  To Red State Americans he's a hero and a 15-meter statue of Bill has been erected in the Fort Cody parking lot.  In the opinion of us non-MAGA types he almost destroyed an entire species of mammal and really doesn't deserve such lofty accolades.  After the railroad was completed and the buffalo were almost gone, he started a famous Wild West entertainment show that toured the world.  He slaughtered animals, often just for the fun of it, and started a sort of circus.  Sounds like a hero to me.  /s 

As I mentioned before, the main purpose of Fort Cody is to sell products that will attract a certain type of person.  Here's some wonderful underwear with cartoons and clever sayings.  Again, it's not the lover of classical music, the professor of poetry, or the eater of sushi who is wearing green "Lazy Ass" underwear under their pants.

John Wayne was a famous actor from the 1930s through the 60s who almost always played macho, tough cowboys.  He killed Native Americans in the movies (who had the audacity to try to protect their land) and used his gun to solve his problems.  His characters mocked those who promoted negotiating with Native Americans and who advocated peaceful means of resolving conflict.  So, it's no wonder Fort Cody sells all of these John Wayne products.  MAGA/Trumpists think there is a bit of John Wayne in Donald Trump--as both operate as tough guys using their own code of justice and having no problem abandoning the law.  But both John Wayne and Donald Trump in reality, were/are soft, urban cosmopolitans who were nothing like the images they sold of themselves.  But Red State Americans don't care, they are true believers and eagerly purchase the illusion of the tough warrior who works outside the system.  Hey, look, there's some John Wayne toilet paper.  I don't think the Red State folks quite grasp the irony of this.

Native Americans fare badly in the John Wayne, Fort Cody universe.  Look at this cartoonish, gigantic Native depiction in the "museum" outside.  Nothing of the historical reality is presented in the Red-State fantasy world.  Native Americans are depicted as garish savages, and as "others."  Real history of the native peoples?  Not in this Red State fantasy world.

Tons of guns and weapons are sold in Fort Cody.  For Red-State Americans the gun is the sacred item that "conquered" the West.  So, guns are glorified and worshipped here.

Not only guns, but tons of ammunition is sold here.  

Again irony is something that seems to escape Red-State people.  Piles of ammunition are sold under the Christmas tree, where there are ornaments proclaiming the birth of the "Prince of Peace."  I think I am the only one in Fort Cody that found this perplexing, but many Red-State Americans see Christianity and violence and weaponry as being intertwined.  That's why the U.S. is so warped and distorted. 

And if guns aren't lethal enough for you, then you can find knives and swords and any kind of bladed weapon you might want.   

So, two-headed calves and guns and grotesquely fake Indians, and Bill Cody, responsible for the mass slaughter of buffalo, and the phony hero John Wayne, and tacky underwear--this is Red State MAGA heaven.  And now you might understand better when I say there are two Americas:  this rural one and a more-urban, cosmopolitan one that values and treasures diversity and other items, heroes, and cultural identities.