Democrats Fight to Take John Wayne’s Name off Orange County Airport

Endlessly obsessed with targeting things that don’t amount to a hill of beans in terms of improving racial relations in 2020, Democrats have found themselves a new historical figure worthy of dismantling: None other than classic Hollywood star, John Wayne. Orange County’s Democratic Party officials passed an emergency (!) resolution this week condemning The Duke for remarks he made decades ago in an interview with Playboy Magazine. They’re hoping to turn this resolution into action by removing Wayne’s name from the local airport.

In condemning Wayne’s “racist and bigoted statements” from 1971, the party’s emergency (!!) resolution calls on the Orange County Board of Supervisors to take down Wayne’s name, statue, and images from the airport.

“There have been past efforts to get this done and now we’re putting our name and our backing into this to make sure there is a name change,” said local Democratic Party chair Ada Briceño.

The Democrats explained that the resolution is meant to be of a piece with a “national movement to remove white supremacist symbols and names [that are] reshaping American institutions, monuments, businesses, nonprofits, sports leagues and teams.”

“It is widely recognized that racist symbols produce lasting physical and psychological stress and trauma particularly to Black communities, people of color and other oppressed groups,” the Democrats added, without evidence.

Wayne’s offensive remarks from the old Playboy interview include his musings on the topic of black people and Native Americans.

“I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people,” he said.

He also said, “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.”

On Native Americans, he said, “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them. … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”

Granted, these aren’t the kinds of sentiments you can sneak by the Twitter censors in 2020, but we’re talking about an interview conducted 40 years ago. Was anyone under the mistaken impression that John Wayne was “woke”? What about taking the man by his entire life and not trying to distill his legacy down to a single quote from a single interview?

Alas, there’s no time to pause for reflection and study. The angry mob is at the door and we have to keep them fed. You have to wonder, though, what’s going to happen when we run out of meaningless crap to throw at them. Then we might really have an emergency (!!!).