By Scott St. Clair | The Save Jersey Blog
You Save Jerseyans out there who don’t pay attention to the calendar – one day in the least respected state in the nation is pretty much like the next – should know that today, July 14, is Bastille Day. As Gen. John J. “Black Jack” Pershing said on July 4, 1917, “Lafayette, we are here!”
Actually, he didn’t say it, one of his aides did, which is typical of many cool quotes misattributed to famous people, but apocryphally appropriate for these purposes.
Bastille Day is like our Independence Day, only instead of fireworks the French guillotine aristocrats and invade Russia, or something – whatever.
The United States and France have a long and convoluted historical relationship. The French helped us win our Independence, to be sure, but then turned around and engaged in a quasi-war against us over something called the “XYZ Affair” from 1798-1800 after they overthrew King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and lopped off their heads – that guillotining of aristocrats thing – because Marie told people to eat cake. Or was it because Louis wasn’t that great in the sack?
Then there was this guy, Citizen Genet, who was a diplomat from France who wrecked havoc in U.S. presidential politics for a time, causing the government to set some ground rules about that kind of thing.
Of course, we all have heard of Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican usurper – he wasn’t even French! – who was emperor of France until 1815 when he met his Waterloo at, of all places and coincidentally, Waterloo. It was all so very…French.
Most of the 19th Century was spent with the French fighting the Germans, which is a real stuck record leading into the 20th Century where the United States had to pull France’s chestnuts out of the fire in two world wars, aptly and cleverly named World War I and World War II, after they played surrender monkey as if on demand.
In gratitude for all our help, post-World War II France under Charles de Gaulle, a guy whose ego and insistence that he could do no wrong even when he was doing horrible wrong, was outsized only by his nose, kicked is in our national shins whenever possible. He was a pain in the American presidential ass over the course of several administrations just because he could be and in order to not be relegated to the kids’ table during superpower holiday meals.
And don’t forget, France showed the U.S. how it was done when it lost horribly in Vietnam, once its colony, in 1954.
For the past 50 years or so, France has been an on-again-off-again-off-again friend/foe whenever it suited France’s pride and interests. True, there have been moments, such as the Charlie Hebdo massacre, when it stood tall – Je suis, Charlie! – even though in an act of anti-Semitism they did try to keep Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from attending the big march. Whether it was French efforts to screw up NATO or playing both sides against the middle in the Middle East, France has been the kind of pal you wish was on the other side and sometimes wondered if, in fact, she wasn’t.
And it’s the French who think that Jerry Lewis is some sort of artistic genius, so there’s that, too.
Current French President Francois Hollande is but the latest Franco-thorn in America’s side. A dyed-in-the-wool socialist who tried taxing France’s dwindling number of upper-income earners at 75 percent – it went over just as badly as you’d expect – thus becoming the most unpopular French president ever.
It went from bad to worse when Monsieur le Président Hollande’s shack-up First Lady dumped him to write a salacious tell-all book exposing him as a hates-the-poor hypocrite. Mon Dieu je suis vraiment en difficulté en ce moment!
But, the wine is good, ditto the cheese, and Paris is for lovers, especially in April if you’re Gene Kelly, so Joyeux Anniversaire, France!
In your honor, but in keeping with your socialist president, here’s a rendition of what I have to say is the most stirring national anthem around, “La Marseillaise.” Only instead of the usual and inspirational rendering seen in Casablanca, this time it’s a 1965 version performed by the Soviet Union’s Red Army Chorus followed by the Hymn of the USSR (Beats me how an atheist country had a hymn). Tovarich, mon ami!
Get an English translation of the lyrics here, but be warned, they’re both R-rated for violent imagery and a hoot because when was the last time the French were like that?
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We don’t forget about the French here in Louisiana.
Ho hum