What is a republican vs a democrat?

Question

In Canada we call the Conservatives Conservatives and somtimes Tories and the liberals are liberals somtimes called Grits. We have a multi party syestem but it just goes back and forth between the Tories and Grits.

I am always confused by US politics. It seems that your President is like an elected King and the two other houses are just as big a mystery.

I forgot - King Queen is an odd concept to you. For a while in Canada Parliment made a law and the Govenor general signed it as the Queen's representive in Canada -the equivialnt of the Queen signing it. The Queen and her representives can't start any motion or bill just refuse to sign it and by so doing it dies it's not a law. This still happens here in Canada but it's far more ceremonial that say 100 yrs ago. When I said elected King I was thinking of a constitutional monarchy and the powers of a King/Queen

Answer 1

By tradition it is what they stand for. While democrats are more for the working class people the republicans are more about big bussiness.

Answer 2

There certainly isn't enough space to explain the Executive and Legislative branches of Government but I'll say this. Conservative is a label applied more to people that are more pro-military and national defense, against taxation, usually favor business and a strong economic system led by business and usually anti abortion and pro freedom to bear arms. Liberals are more centered around looking after those that are trapped by the system and more economically depressed. They feel that Government needs more controls as big business can't be trusted. They also believe in extreme civil liberties in that no one should be allowed to tell you what to do with your body or anything else. There are people who fall all points in between also. In our country there are two primary parties, Democrat and Republican but there are also independents who hold to neither of the parties. With the money they spend and the way things are usually one of the two parties will be elected but it's not impossible for a third party person or independent to be elected. Not all Republicans are Conservative and not all Democrats are Liberal.

The Legislative branch (House of Representatives and the Senate) make the laws of the country through committees and sponsoring of bills. The Senate consist of two members from each state no matter how many people that state has and does a lot of the investigations that happen out of the Legislative branch. The House is made up of more members and each state has a number of members based upon that states population, the more people the state has the more Representatives that it has in the House.

The Executive Branch is the President and Vice President. The President is sent the laws that are approved out of the Legislative branch and he can approve them or veto (reject) them and some bills are grouped together to make it easier to pass the President's approval. The President is also the commander in Chief of the Military but has to have the approval of Congress to wage war, he is not a King. Both the Legislative and Executive branches are also kept in check by the Judicial branch which checks everything each of those bodies do by the Constitution of the United States along with it's amendments.

Long post but hopefully a little light is shed on the topic.

Answer 3

the House and senate have to pass a bill for it to be considered for law. These two large bodies prevent any one from abusing power. The president's job is to sign the bills if he approves them or send them back for further work. The president is also the person who presides over the action of military and foreign relations rather than leaving it up to a group of people.
The House and senate with enough votes can push a bill through without the presidents aproval.
The Courts are supposed to interpret the laws on the books and when there is need for clarification ask the congress(the house and senate) to write a new bill clarifying the issue. They also make sure that the laws passed do not specifically violate rights of the people as expressed in the constitution.
These three branches of government ballance each other so that there is a level of stability to our country. Things cannot just change tomorrow, because the dictator has changed.
Many people now debate whether different branches are going beyond their bounds. You may have read that Bush has overstepped his bounds as president. Just always keep in mind there's bits of history the media is not telling such as this level of restriction and out right slander of a president is unpresidented.
The court is now interpretting international law and not the us contitution laws and treaties as written.
This is the reason there are Democrats and Republicans.
The people who support the Democrats want to see minority opinions legislated on the masses through court edicts. They believe americans are too stupid to allow what's best to be done through the propper channels. They want to make Americans more dependant on social programs and allow the "political class" to rule and take care of the proletariot.
The people who support the republicans for the most part are for more limited government. They want the government to be less restrictive so that the system can work itself out. They want decissions to be made at a local level where possible. They want to encourage education and force people to learn to help themselves by letting them fail. Some would even think that hunger is a good motivation to find a job. They want the courts to simply interpret the law not try to read new intent not stated. They want states to be able to individually decide on issues such as gay marriage or abortion.

The parties though are politicians they often have their own plans. The job of the supporters is to vote people into office that hold their ideals and let them know how they feel with threat of voting for someone else if there is not appropriate action.
Rocco

Answer 4

Normally throughout the history of the US we've had a two-party system for the executive and legislative branches of the government. We've been stuck on Republican and Democrat for over half our nation's history. Other parties rise and take a shot (e.g. Libertarian), but the modern rules of funding and media coverage make it difficult for independent candidates and third parties to run. An (over)generalization, just for the purposes of introducing you to the two parties, would be that the Democrats are liberal and Republicans are conservative.

Theoretically all three branches of the US federal government are equal in power. This has generally remained true throughout our history, but there are definite shifts. Right now, in my amateur opinion, I'd guess that the judicial branch current holds the most authority, then the executive, then the legislative. My guess is that you hear more from our media about our president's foreign policy than you do about the judicial decisions that usurp authority from the other two branches.

As far as being a "mystery"...it is to us too. Even our politically-oriented complaints seem to be based on our ignorance of how the three branches work together.

Answer 5

The Republicans and Democrats form the backbone of the United States' 2-party system. The Republicans tend to be somewhat conservative, and the Democrats tend to be somewhat liberal, although there are of course, exceptions. Although it might be nice if we could just have our parties directly reflect their objectives, that would be rather difficult to do as the political landscape is far more diverse than liberal/centrist/conservative. (Think statists, libertarians, communists, anarchists, etc.)

As for President Bush being like an elected king...well that's arguable, and I'm sure a lot of people would agree with you. :)

The Congress is our federal bicameral legislative body. The Senate consists of 100 senators--2 from each state, and is therefore not a truly democratic body. The House consists of 435 representatives which more accurately represent the populace. Each state is guarranteed at least 1 representative, though, so again, it's not a truly democratic (not accurately reflective of the distribution of the population) body.

Answer 6

Republican Party: Conservative
Democratic Party: Liberal
Many 3rd Parties: None of which have yet to gain a foothold.

In many ways, the lines between these seem to blur on certain issues.

Three branches are created in the Constitution. The Legislative, composed of the House and Senate, is set up in Article 1. The Executive, composed of the President, Vice-President, and the Departments, is set up in Article 2. The Judicial, composed of the federal courts and the Supreme Court, is set up in Article 3.
Each of these branches has certain powers, and each of these powers is limited, or checked, by another branch.

President: Must "take care that the laws be faithfully executed." To carry out this responsibility, he has many powers, most of which are subject to or checked by Congressional power.

Senate: Each state is equally represented by two members; as a result, the total membership of the body is currently 100. The Vice President of the United States is the President of the Senate

House of Representatives: Each state is represented in the House proportionally to its population, but each state is entitled to at least one Representative. The total number of Representatives is currently fixed at 435. The presiding officer of the House is known as the Speaker.

Supreme Court: The highest judicial body in the United States and the only court established by the United States Constitution (in Article III) The court consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate.

Of course when so many seem to call the US president, the most powerful man in the world or "the leader of the free world," the idea that he is more powerful than congress does seem valid. However the President is not more powerful than Congress, nor are those titles accurate.

Americans need to keep the mindset that our Constitution demands that US Citizens not only be free to criticize our leaders, but also that we are responsible for removing them if they abuse their powers.

Sometimes, we Americans may be following along a little too much like blind sheep.

Answer 7

Sometimes they can be two people who care deeply for the country yet disagree about how to help their country too much to actually make a difference, it used to be that we had some sort of dialogue in this country but nowadays too many people are too tied up into political game to do any good, it's sad because we have a lot of work to do in this country, and just for the record, no president in this country is ever like a king een though certain people like to think so, the two other houses work to balance each others power probably similar to your Canadian system.

Answer 8

The US and Canadian systems are very different. The President is not like your Prime Minister. He is not elected out of the legislative body, but is elected by other representatives of the people through the people. The president is an executive officer similar to a king, but with much less power and much more checks on his power through the legislative and judicial branches.

Answer 9

I one time heard the opposing parties described as two thieves who have their hands so deep in each other's pockets that they cannot separately rob a third. Politicians are all a bunch of blowhards who have to pretend that there's a difference between them, so we'll elect them instead opponents and they won't have to get real jobs.

Answer 10

what are you asking? rep vs. dem or legislative vs. executive?

my first recommendation is to move out of canada into a real country. then it will all start making sense to you.