War of 1812

As the Iraqi war continues to deteriorate, many folks on the left simply expect that this will come to hurt the Republicans. This might not be true, and might well not occur simply by virtue of the problems in Iraq. There is precedence for launching a war without proper preparation, and then having the war go very badly for this country and the result being the complete victory of the war party and the demise of their opponents. That would be the war of 1812. The Republicans (Jeffersonian) shrank the army and navy to a minimal size and then we (yes we) declared war on Great Britain. The national finances were almost ruined and our only success were that we did not loose two of our most important cities. (We did, however, get our capital burned down.) This outcome can hardly be thought of as a success. Yet, the Federalists who had been in opposition, and almost completely right about the issues involved in the war were destroyed by it, and the Jeffersonians went on to 12 more years of running the government. The reasons for this odd outcome were several. The fact that the fledgling US stood up against the Queen of the Seas and survived was quite impressive to many. The Federalists had other problems that had been marginalizing them for years prior to the war, much more so than anything the Democrats are experiencing. Nonetheless, part of the problem the Federalists had was their opposition to the war.

I will address how we need to handle this issue at a later date.