Republicans vs. Democrats?

It's hard to know where to begin on this one. Basically, there are two political parties in the USA. The Democratic party leans toward liberal ideas and reform while the Republican Party is conservative and tends to support the status quo. It used to be fairly cut and dry. The wealthier Americans supported the Republican party and the working classes were Democrats. However, the demographics have been changing since the days of John Kennedy when wealthy Democrats known as "limosine liberals" started to emerge. Also, religion has become a factor although the consititution of the US calls for the separation of church and state. People who do not approve of the current supreme court rulings allowing abortion and not permitting school prayer tend to be Republican regardless of social class. In general the American presidency tends to shift from one party to the other every four to sixteen years and you can get a pretty good idea of what the parties stand for by taking a look at the policies of the presidents. Bill Clinton was a Democrat and George Bush is a Republican. We are currently preparing for an election in which the Republican candidate will be John McCain and the Democratic candidate will be either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. I hope I clarified things a little bit. I know Annie gave a pretty difinitive answer above. I also hope it's not too late to get a discussion going here. I think we need to explain our process to people outside the states since so much of what this country does impacts on the rest of the world. Not to belittle it's importance, but electing an American president is kind of a fun thing and it would be nice to share the selection process with some of our Mylot friends from other countries.

I can't believe you posted this discussion a year ago and haven't gotten any responses! I'm going to try to answer your question as objectively as possible but I'll say first that when it comes to politics "objectivity" is difficult to find. In order to be as fair as I can be I'll give you the definitions from my view point, as a Democrat, then try to also give you the definitions from the perspective of the other side. Democrats are usually more for the "working class" people - blue collar workers, union members, etc. They're more likely to favor minimum wage increases and laws protecting workers. Republicans, on the other hand, tend to oppose any minimum wage laws saying the market will decide and they tend to be anti-union. Their take: When the minimum wage is increased it usually means higher unemployment and inflation. This usually has been proven to not be true. Democrats are usually against big tax-cuts for the rich and for big corporations and for loop-holes which allow the corporations to move operations out of the country in order to save money on workers' wages and taxes. Republicans are for low taxes and few government regulations for business. Their take: Democrats are "tax and spend" liberals. Giving tax cuts for the wealthy and for business results in a trickle down effect to lower income workers. Democrats support too many safety and environmental regulations on business which result in loss of jobs. Democrats have long supported Universal Health Care. There are different ideas as to how to reach that goal but they agree that health care insurance should be affordable and accessible to all. Republicans call it "Socialized Medicine" and claim everyone has access to health care and that many of those who are uninsured don't want insurance. Their take: See above; they feel government shouldn't be involved in our health care and that universal health care would result in higher taxes and less choice for consumers. Democrats are generally less likely to want war while Republicans are usually more "hawkish". This isn't always the case but it holds true pretty much concerning the Iraq War. Their take: The Democrats who call for a withdrawal of our troops want to "cut and run" and are against the "war on terror". Democrats tend to be more liberal on social issues such as a woman's right to choose and gay marriage. Republicans claim to be for smaller government but ( this is my own opinion) they support government intervention in the most personal matters. Their take: Abortion is murder and gay marriage would undermine marriage between a man and a woman. There are other differences that vary by individuals. Some Democrats are anti-choice and some Republicans are pro-choice. Many of those who are against a woman's right to choose call themselves "pro-life" but they're often the same people who are against universal health care or any kind of welfare services to help low income parents care for their babies once they're born. In my opinion they're mostly "pro-fetus" and once it's an actual BABY according to everyone's standards then it's no longer the responsibility of government. Some Democrats supported and continue to support the Iraq war and some Republicans are against it and have been since the beginning. Some from each party have changed their mind one way or the other. If anyone finally reads this discussion and chooses to respond you'll probably get some opinions and definitions different from what I posted here but that's good, maybe we'll make a real discussion out of this yet! Annie