By Berry Craig
[2-12-05]

PADUCAH, Ky. -- "Every bit as repugnant as I had expected, a vulgar orgy of triumphalism probably unmatched since Napoleon crowned himself emperor of the French in Notre Dame in 1804," Mike Carlton wrote of President George W. Bush's second inaugural in the Sydney, Australia, Morning Herald.

I'd bet Carlton won't be getting a Christmas card from George and Laura this year.

Anyway, I was reminded of Napoleon, too, the other day when I spied yet another clunker plastered with Republican bumper stickers. Okay, I'm a history teacher.

The ancient Escort was adorned with "Bush-Cheney," "Bunning for President," " My Son is in the U.S. Army" and "God Bless our Troops" adhesions. Like Napoleon, Bush is great at suckering working stiffs with phony appeals to patriotism and religion.

"What the French want is glory and the satisfaction of their vanity," Napoleon said. He meant that all his subjects really wanted was to live in a country that won wars.

Thus, when Napoleon set out to conquer Europe, even the humblest of French souls rallied ''round the flag. Peasants and workers gladly fought, bled and died for their emperor.

Never mind that he viewed his troops as cannon fodder. Forget that Napoleon's policies were coldly calculated to keep himself on top and France's not-so-well heeled citizenry -- the source of his soldiery -- on the bottom.

Religion was also part of Napoleon's con job. "When a man is dying of hunger alongside another who stuffs himself, it is impossible to make him accede to the differences unless there is an authority which says to him God wishes it thus," the emperor said.

During the 2004 presidential campaign, the GOP again hustled a big chunk of the working class with the old standbys, jingoism and piety. The Republicans wrapped their man in Old Glory and promised that a vote for Bush was a vote for America and for the Almighty.

The GOP's Christian soldiers did their bit for Bush, too. They preached that "Christian values" are Republican values, union-busting among them.

"Christians have a responsibility to submit to the authority of their employers since they are designated as part of God's plan for the exercise of authority on the earth by man," the Christian Coalition claims.

God is anti-labor, according to the Rev. Tim LaHaye, another Bush holy warrior and author of the apocalyptic Left Behind novels. "Unions are one of the organizations leading the world to wickedness," he said.

LaHaye can afford to drive a shiny new car. I imagine it had a "Bush-Cheney" sticker like the one I saw on Escort Guy's wheels.

I could almost hear Napoleon whispering to me from the mists of history: "Mon ami, I see my old fraud works in your country, too."

Napoleon gave poor French lads war. The president, Vice Dick Cheney and Kentucky Republican Sen. Jim Bunning have given the sons of Escort Guys a war, too.

Most parents of Napoleon's grunts toiled long hours at low pay in dead-end jobs. Based on what Escort Guy drives, I'd say he's doing the same.

At least Napoleon led his troops into battle. If Escort Guy's son is in Iraq, he was sent there by a president who in his youth actively avoided fighting in a war. Bush used his family pull and money to get in the Texas Air National Guard and get out of Vietnam.

All the while, Bush was gung-ho for the Vietnam conflict, which was mainly fought by the sons and daughters of families with old cars or no cars.

Like his boss, Cheney hated Ho and the commies. But Cheney said he had "other priorities" than battling Reds in the rice paddies of South Vietnam. He stayed safely stateside, ducking the draft with a college deferment.

I doubt that Escort Guy lives on Easy Street. He never will if Bush, Cheney and Bunning keep having their way. Even so, they got his vote.

Escort Guy probably goes to church, too. My guess is he listens to a preacher who sermonizes that the hereafter is all that matters.

According to the Republican Religious Right, Escort Guy just needs to worry about getting right with God (not the Jewish, Catholic or liberal Protestant version, of course). That accomplished, Escort Guy can sit back, relax and wait for the Kingdom Come -- and vote Republican in the meantime.

What's a short, miserable life on earth compared to eternal bliss in Heaven? Bush's well-heeled conservative, Protestant fundamentalist holy men want the Escort Guys of America to think. Wealthy Catholic clergy in Napoleon's France used the same poser to gull the Gallic poor.

So we remained mired in Iraq, where the American death toll is 1,400-plus and counting. Stateside, outsourcing and the shipping of good paying union jobs to cheap-labor countries overseas are making it hard for more and more families to keep the home fires burning.

I pray that Escort Guy's son isn't in Iraq, or, if he is, that he is out of harm's way. But wherever he is serving, Dad is back home driving a heap and backing a president whose policies are designed to make the rich richer and keep guys like him behind the wheels of ratty old cars.

The scam is enough to do an emperor proud.

The author:  Berry Craig is a professor of history of West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah and a member of the Kentucky Education Association-National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers Local 6083. He and his wife, Melinda, belong to the Witherspoon Society.

[2-17-05]

I am looking out on the parking lot at Grove City College. There's a dark blue, 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited parked next to my car. On its rear window there are two ribbon stickers. One in red, white and blue urges, "Support our Troops" the other in yellow bears the name of a son recently returned from a National Guard tour in Iraq. The owner, the Chair of the Political Science Department with a Ph.D. from Kent University, has authored several books on the presidency. While his newly purchased Grand Cherokee Limited doesn't have a "W in '04" sticker on it, he does have a photo of the President in his office. Incidentally, his "other car" is a 2004 Toyota pickup……similarly adorned with ribbon stickers……and, I think, a "W '04" one as well. Isn't it funny how certain stereotypes sometimes fail?

Berry Craig's intellectual arrogance, while apparent, is hardly deserved. Napoleon's arrogance was deserved because he was a master of his profession. His opponents emulated him (that's 'plagiarism" to professor types), finally learning enough about the Napoleonic style of war to beat the master. At the end, with the Grand Armee long devastated in the snows of Russia, Lord Wellington noted at Waterloo, "it was a close run thing." In fact, Wellington was losing the battle when Gebhardt von Blucher arrived with his Prussian cavalry to save the day. Ultimately Napoleon was betrayed by Marshal Grouchy who did not understand that uniquely Prussian concept of initiative. Carl von Clausewitz, who, after spending much of his professional life fighting the armies of the French Revolution and then those of "the thief of Europe," wrote the most insightful and comprehensive book yet on the art of war, Vom Krieg. He dubbed Napoleon, "the god of War" for good reason; he set the standard for warfare for a century and his campaigns still warrant careful study. George Bush is good, but he's no Napoleon. He may, however, rank among America's top wartime presidents.

From this military historian's perspective Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt are this nation's two greatest wartime presidents. Both were visionaries who focused on a desired strategic end state and were not deterred by what was politically popular. For Lincoln it was the preservation of the Union. Even when Federal armies were losing, the electorate wilted and one of his generals threatened to oppose him in the upcoming election, Lincoln never wavered: preserve the Union……with slavery or without……the Union. Likewise nearly four-score years later, with America mired in economic depression and popular sentiment wedded to isolationism, Franklin D. Roosevelt understood the inevitability of war with Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. His relationship with Winston Churchill paved the way for America's entry into the war and set the strategic framework for an alliance with the nation's traditional Nineteenth Century enemy Great Britain and soon-to-be ideological opponent, the Soviet Union. Both of these great presidents led despite the tide of public opinion, to do what was both necessary and objectively right. George W. Bush fits that mold by remaining focused on the strategic end state of creating a strategic paradigm in the Middle East where democracies and free market economies will militate against the conditions that breed support for fanaticism and terrorism.

Berry Craig's problem is he believes anyone who does not buy into liberalism is a loser……someone who drives a beat up old Escort because life has passed him by. The arrogance of that position is astounding. A majority of the American electorate voted for George Bush because they trust him on the war and because they found the old nostrums of American liberalism wanting……out of date……suited to the Industrial Age problems attendant to "big labor" and the unions appropriate to a bygone era. Craig's arrogance is not uncommon among academics; in fact it has become a hallmark……a derisive caricature.

Very Respectfully,

Earl H. Tilford, Jr., PhD
2003 Competition Yellow Monte Carlo Super Sport
Non-unionized Professor of History Guy