Posted on 03/20/2006 8:23:09 AM PST by Democracy In Iraq
History has attributed to the War of 1812 the label of "The Second War for American Independence". It is regarded as an American victory not because of any military achievement, but because it etched American independence from Britain in stone.
In contemporary terms, the war was a disaster, with the British easily occupying Detroit, chasing a fleeing President Madison from the capital, and setting many public landmarks ablaze.
It was during this conflict that great anti-war opposition in the North East led to the Hartford Convention. Small-minded men of the waning Federalist Party, who never got over the ascendancy of Jefferson and Madison to the office of President over their own more deserving candidates, gathered to denounce the American cause against the British, and some even spoke of secession from the South.
The Federalist Party, once the home of George Washington, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton, had become the party of defeatism and was increasingly associated with unhinged hot-heads.
Of course, the resemblance is notable to today's Democratic party. The party of FDR, Truman, and Kennedy has been reduced to the party of defeatism headed by an individual who is most readily identifiable by a shriek during a moment of euphoric insanity.
Some conservative pundits have compared today's Democratic Party to the extinct Whig Party of the early 1800's. Perhaps the Federalist Party is a more precise analogy in that the Democratic Party has produced some of America's most revered leaders, but has descended into a mere shadow of itself. Neither comparison, however, bodes well for the Democratic Party and indicates that it must return to the heart of America or go the way of the Federalists and Whigs.
Although the Democratic Party did not coalesce until the presidency of Andrew Jackson, its roots lie in the Democratic-Republican party of Jefferson and Madison. These originators of the Democratic Party, who themselves had to battle elite North Easterners while conducting a real war with a dangerous enemy, have little in common with Howard Dean and John Kerry.
Keyword..... Elitist.... too smart to listen .......
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