Defending Tradition: The Cultural Battleground in Sheridan’s America
The past presidential election results hardly surprised anyone paying attention to Taylor Sheridan’s hit shows on Paramount+. Through Yellowstone and Landman, Sheridan portrays a traditional America under siege — one where rugged Montana ranchers and hardworking Texas oil workers fight to preserve their way of life.
These shows resonate because they capture the mounting pressures facing rural and working-class communities:
California’s new rich descend on cattle country, eager to replace working ranches with golf courses and ski resorts. Down in Texas, oil workers face a pincer movement of climate activists and criminal cartels making their work nearly impossible.
Meanwhile, Wall Street poses its own threats. Banks and financiers reduce generations of tradition to spreadsheet calculations. Corporations and foreign investors circle family operations like vultures, viewing American resources as mere commodities to be traded. Bureaucrats who’ve never worked a day on the land pile on regulations that strangle honest labor.
With law enforcement stretched thin across vast territories and borders left vulnerable, these communities find themselves alone in their struggle. The government offers no help. In Sheridan’s America, taking the law into one’s own hands — through legal means or otherwise — becomes not just justified but necessary.
Enter John Dutton and Tommy Norris, reluctant warriors who step up to fight the good fight. These men stand as the last defense of traditional America, protecting multi-generational ranchers and oilmen who truly understand the land against foreigners, immigrants, cartels, and coastal elites. Bring in the marines, the wrestlers and the clowns.
Sheridan has done more than create entertaining television — he’s tapped directly into the zeitgeist of rural and blue-collar America. His shows don’t just reflect the cultural divide; they may have helped shape the 2024 election results.