How the American cowboy ignited the Republican movement

The cowboy — a symbol of the true American man who is anti-government, works independently and protects his family. Historian Heather Cox Richardson calls this rhetoric “cowboy individualism”, and says this myth is the basis for 40-year-old Republican ideology. In this public lecture, Cox Richardson argues that the current Trump administration has taken cowboy individualism to an extreme by gutting the government and centring power.