A little over two hundred years ago this season, Napoleon became famous. He grabbed a French flag, strode onto a bridge over the Adige River in northern Italy, and led his men in an attack on the Austrian army on the other side. As the French advanced, enemy guns took out soldiers on either side. With the luck of greatness, Napoleon went on without a scratch. Finally, he fell off the bridge into safety – and a muddy ditch. Napoleon’s daredevil charge accomplished little, and it took two more days of heavy fighting before the French finally drove the Austrians from the other side of the river.
But it wasn’t the mud or the delay that men remembered: it was the sight of General Bonaparte waving the flag in the perilous fight. An iconic painting by the French artist Antoine-Jean Gros, the Shepard Fairey of his day, made sure of that. Bonaparte on the Bridge at Arcole (1801) depicts Napoleon as a young hero, alone and commanding, with a sword in one hand and a flag in the other. Next to that image, what did reality matter?
Or maybe courage under fire was reality enough. Napoleon went on to dominate Europe for the next twenty years. During that time, his ability to project the commanding strength shown in the painting proved far more important than the details of a November day.
American politics these days reminds me of Napoleon on the Bridge at Arcole. Wave the colors, march forward boldly, and you might win the presidency. Barack Obama proved this in 2008. Now, Sarah Palin is taking her turn.
Palin’s book, Going Rogue, is the political equivalent of raising the battle flag and striding onto the bridge. The title suggests insurgency, which was not Napoleon’s style, but he understood the need to adapt to changed conditions. In an age of talk radio and tea parties, it’s rebels and not four-star generals who the public wants to hear from.
The cover photo shows the former Alaska governor looking confidently into the distance. Like Napoleon in Gros’s painting, she stands out boldly against a background of clouds. Palin’s red jacket is as striking as Bonaparte’s black uniform. And she too, has a flag – in a lapel pin.
We can judge the power of Palin’s image by her political enemies’ counter-attacks.
Newsweek moved quickly by putting a cheesecake photo of Palin on its cover. This is as dismissive as the sight of Napoleon in the mud would have been.
Palin has shown an ability to weld myths deftly. It will be fascinating to see if her re-emergence onto the public stage marks a rendezvous with destiny or a bridge to nowhere.
#1 by Mike Green on February 18th, 2010 - 9:57 pm
Dr. Strauss you are correct.
The problem is that there is no switch to shut off the sound machine without getting cries of “freedom of Speech”. While I do not believe in censorship in any way, you cannot shut off this Fox News generated candidate because the will shout louder. Its a 21st century remake of the movie State of the Union. Except, Palin is not the one in the driver’s seat. I am fearful of a candidacy like hers and for my country. The only thing I would say is that Napoleon has better training and education than Palin. He never claimed to like the republic, and yet became the embodiment of those values of the Enlightenment. Palin is the worst kind of politician. She can make great promises and she can criticize. However, when it comes down to a plan, she does not have one. This is like many other leaders who obtained power on platitudes of generality. The leaders that the right are now using to compare Obama to other dead European leaders. In essence, they should know, the right have been very good at appearances but when it comes to delivering, they have not performed any better. I have come to the conclusion that there needs to be some major reforms in Congress or Congress will be no more; and that is a frighting thought