A common plotline in the Western movie genre involves a lone, hard-bitten, rough-around-the-edges gunslinger, scarcely better than an outlaw himself, who rides into a small town plagued by genuine, hard-core outlaws.

The townspeople, even if they don’t like the gunman much -- even if they find him uncouth or unfit for polite society-- quickly turn to him as their savior and beseech his help in ridding them of the baddies. And he grudgingly agrees, for reasons that aren’t entirely clear but usually come down to this: He doesn’t care for the bad guys, either. Despite the rough edges, he is driven by a fundamental desire for fairness and justice. He really just wants to be left alone, and he believes others should enjoy that same privilege.

In short, he is the quintessential American hero: tough, courageous, competent, iconoclastic. He neither seeks to dominate nor will he allow himself to be dominated. He bows to no one.

Oh, and he wins. He does rid the town of the bad guys. And then he rides off into the sunset.

As you may have recognized, this is the basic plot of numerous iconic westerns, including Shane, The Magnificent Seven, and Clint Eastwood films like High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider -- although those last two have darker endings. The story line is even parodied in comedies like Blazing Saddles and Three Amigos, which suggests that it is iconic indeed.

My contention is that, in modern-day America, Donald Trump is our hard-bitten gunslinger. With a personality forged in the dog-eat-dog world of New York real estate, he can certainly be a rough character. He says harsh things, and he doesn’t sugarcoat them. He is notorious, in his business dealings, for staying just inside the lines (the bogus charges brought against him by his enemies notwithstanding). Many probably wouldn’t care to invite him over for dinner or bring him as a guest to a friend’s party.

And yet….

There can be little doubt that our country is currently besieged by bad guys. Real, honest-to-goodness outlaws whose corruption knows no bounds. Who are determined to push their destructive agenda on America -- DEI, CRT, abortion up to birth, the “trans” agenda, unfettered immigration, currency manipulation, profiteering from foreign wars -- by any means necessary. Who don’t hesitate to take the law into their own hands in order to punish their perceived political enemies. Who clearly will not be satisfied until the rest of us are forced into submission.

In the wake of Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance, people all over America -- even Democrats -- are now waking up to this reality. They can see that they’ve been lied to. They’ve been had. Our government and media are full of bad actors so intent on consolidating their own power, they’ve allowed this husk of a man to masquerade as president for three-and-a-half years, while they pull his strings from behind the curtain.

It is also clear that, if this corruption continues unchecked, the United States will devolve in short order into something that is no longer a representative democracy. Something much more like an oligarchy or even a semi-fascist state, where the powerful elites control everything. Such, indeed, is their goal. Can any rational person now doubt that?

What can be done? Who can save us from this fate? At this point in history, there is just one man who fills that bill: Donald J. Trump.

Perhaps there could have been others, like Florida governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a good man and a fine leader. I have no doubt he would make a terrific president. On a personal note, I would have voted for him in the Georgia Republican primary if he had gotten that far.

But there is an argument to be made, I think, that DeSantis, for all his admirable qualities, is not what we need right now. To return to our Western analogy, he’s more like the good-guy sheriff, the pure-in-heart, Dudley-Do-Right-type who bravely faces down the outlaws even though he might not be quite up to the task -- unwilling to fight dirty in what is sure to be an epically dirty fight.

Maybe, for that kind of fight, we need a guy who’s a little rough around the edges himself. Who’s not afraid to get down in the dirt. Who can throw a mean roundhouse as well as take one. (Note that, in their desperation, the townspeople don’t turn to a “good man.” They turn to one who knows how to fight fire with fire.)

Maybe, for that kind of fight, against the lawless, self-styled “elites” who seek to strip us of our God-given rights and make us into serfs who will “own nothing and be happy,” we need our own Shane, our own Pale Rider, someone to put the fear of God in these assholes and run them out of our town -- because, never forget, it is our town.

As one of the townspeople says to the Clint Eastwood character in High Plains Drifter, “You’re a man that makes people afraid, and that’s a dangerous thing.”

Is there anyone on our side right now -- on the side of America, of the Founding -- who strikes more fear into the hearts of our enemies than Donald Trump? No. Obviously not. They hate all conservatives, that’s for sure; but they fear him so much that he has lived rent-free in their heads for nigh onto nine years now. (If you don’t believe that, just watch CNN or MSNBC for ten minutes, if you can stomach it.) They fear him so much, they’ve literally tried to jail him on a series of trumped-up charges—to the point where future generations will probably think “trumped-up” refers to the attempted railroading of the 45th president.

To put it succinctly, right now, Donald Trump is all we’ve got. He’s the only one who can go up against these outlaws and stand any chance of taking them out. If he can’t do it, I don’t know if anyone can. May God be with him.

Image: AT via Magic Studio