America's Come-from-Behind Victories

Where’s the good story in an early or an easy victory? (Answer: it’s not a good story.) Better stories are reversals of fortune.

So American history is a good story, because good reversals of fortune rise at intervals. Maybe even today.

1. Reversal of Fortune: World War II.

I like the story of the Normandy Invasion in World War II. I like to read about the strong cooperation between FDR and Winston Churchill. I’m intrigued by the infighting about the timing and the location of the invasion of Europe. It’s thrilling to read about the role weather played - the invasion almost didn’t happen because of storms. I admire the courage and strength of those who launched this must-win battle, knowing that some of the men they sent across the channel would never again in this world greet their families. My head is bare before the sacrifice of these brave soldiers, sailors, and marines.

But what makes the story even more special is that it’s outcome wasn’t inevitable. Before the Normandy Invasion came the Battle of Dunkirk, near the beginning of World War II. At Dunkirk, the German forces crushed the Allies. The saving grace was the miracle in which the British evacuated their soldiers from the beachhead over four days, while the Germans planned the final obliteration.

The Normandy Invasion is a great story. It wouldn’t be as great without Dunkirk.

2. Reversal of Fortune: The Civil War.

Civil War: same thing. The Union Army under General George McClellan was wasted. Wily Confederate General Robert E. Lee would watch McClellan build his attack. McClellan built his attacks with the precision of the engineer that he was. Lee knew McClellan, and he knew that McClellan would not launch a battle until it was mathematically impossible for him to lose. Lee knew when that moment came as well as McClellan did. And just before that moment came, Lee’s army would slip away. Sometimes the Union soldiers would come to the former enemy lines and find "Quaker cannons" - logs painted to look like cannons, pointed at the Union positions.

Abraham Lincoln once stood in the midst of McClellan’s army and asked his companion if he knew what surrounded them. His companion answered that it was the Army of the Potomac. Lincoln answered that, no, it was "General McClellan’s bodyguard." The Union almost lost the Civil War by not fighting as the Union’s debt to pay for the war flowed into foreign banks.

And usually when the Union did fight, it got beaten.

Ulysses S. Grant took command of Union forces and won.His victories were all the more remarkable because the Union commanders before him had proved how easy it was to lose.

3. Reversal of Fortune: The War of Independence.

So with the War of Independence. America lost the Battle of Long Island. The British out-generaled us, and Washington blundered. The British took New York City.

After we were humiliated in New York, one thing that restored patriotic confidence in the revolution was a booklet written by Thomas Paine called The Crisis. The Crisis begins with these gleaming words:

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated.

These words strengthened the spirits of discouraged patriots. But also, there was Washington’s surprise Christmas victory over Hessian soldiers at Trenton, New Jersey, and there was Washington’s victory a few days later, after the New Year, at Princeton. These boosted patriot courage and resolve.

They were a needed reversal of fortune.

4. Today: Barack Obama.

Is this Barack Obama’s arc?

Make no mistake: Obama has had his victories. The passage of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare" to its detractors) and the repeal of "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" are the most high-flying examples of legislative triumphs for Obama’s administration. Then Obama sent special forces into Pakistan to pluck Osama bin Laden out of this world. These were great victories.

But many of Obama’s early supporters are downhearted. The Congressional mid-term elections were a rout. Special elections to fill Congressional vacancies have gone badly. People perceived Obama as caving to Congressional Repubicans in the budget-ceiling debacle. They saw House Speaker Boehner humiliate Obama by turning down Obama’s choice for the day to address a joint session of Congress. The New York Times started to speak of Obama as a "weak" president. Former Vice President Dick Cheney started a conversation about how much better it would be with Hillary Clinton as president.

Then something happened.

Today, September 19, 2011, Obama drew his sword and scratched a line before his adversaries. He announced a plan to trim three-billion dollars from the deficit with a combination of cuts and tax increases. The tax increases fall almost entirely on big corporations and on the very, very rich.

Obama is playing a strong hand. The very rich have not suffered in this recession like the middle-class and the poor have. I think people think that it’s fare that our present suffering be shared by all. I think that people, or most people, think that the very rich should pay their fair share. Deep down, we think it’s wrong for a billionaire to pay taxes at a lower rate than his secretary.

So Obama proposes to lay extra tax on The Big. And he has said that he won't cut the deficit only by cuts. He won't only alter Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and not also raise new revenue by higher taxes on big corporations and the very rich.

The Republicans have drawn their own line in the sand. They won’t raise revenue, even from the very, very rich. Tax loopholes on corporate jets are, to them, sacred promises of government to the wealthy. All savings must come from cuts - like cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

And Obama has sworn to use his veto pen.

Obama has launched his ships. The battle’s just begun. But I’m hopeful. I’m hopeful that Obama knows that he has a winning hand in the eyes of the only ones who count in this controversy - the American people. I expect him to keep his focus like Atticus Finch aiming his rifle at a rabid dog.

And like the Allies in World War II, like the Union in the Civil War, and like the patriots in the American War of Independence, I expect Barack Obama to fight back to win.