By the 1960s Wayne’s retrograde masculinity had become a political identity marker

Evidence

Onscreen and off, Wayne epitomized an old-fashioned, retrograde masculinity, and one increasingly understood in politicized terms. A staunch proponent of “law and order,” Wayne had no time for “cowards who spit in the faces of the police,” for “judicial sob sisters,” for people who advocated for criminals without thought for the innocent victim. He was similarly dismissive of student protestors. “There doesn’t seem to be respect for authority anymore,” he opined. As the Human Events chronicler put it, “As a man he is loathed and demeaned by sanctimonious ‘liberals’ and a whole mess of bugout-on-America hypocrites,” but the Duke was “top shelf with freedom fans, who thrill to the big guy’s charge.” — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 137

Categorization

• XREF: ‘Loath the man, thrill to the charge’ is the same logic later applied to Trump — the personal failings are the point, not the obstacle. Worth noting this framing appears in 1960s conservative media decades early.