Americans: would you care to enlighten us foreigners about Republicans and Democrats, who and what are they?

Answer 1

Republicans.....Pro big business, ultra rich tax breaks, want to control your personal life..

Democrats....Pro middle class and unions, tax breaks for middle and poor class, what to give you as much freedom as the Constitution allows...

Answer 2

Of course not all republicans share the same beliefs and not all democrats share the same beliefs. But, in general terms Republicans favor free-market capitolism and traditional values. Democrats on the other hand favor Socialization and permissive morality. There are Fiscal Republicans who support the free market system, but disagree with the interferance of the state in peoples moral choices. And there are Fiscal Democrats who support Socialization, but also want to enforce traditional values. So sometimes people don't know which side to be on. That is the problem with a two party system. It forces people to take sides they may not agree with.

Answer 3

Republicans and Democrats are one in the same. They use to be different but now they both they are whores to corporations and private contracts for their campaign suppliers.
They just have different bases who think that voting for them will change spiraling down policies but it wont. Why is that? Because to run for Senate you need at least 25 million dollars and to run for President you need at least 50 million dollars. All that money that these candidates get doesnt come without any attachments. They all talk a good game but its always more of the same. Even Clinton a democrat got a rid of welfare which was a republican idea.
In the end its about picking the lesser of two evils or knowing which concern is more important to you and which candidate will at least try to do something about it.

That being said, dont judge a person by their party. Judge them by their words and history. I find many republicans that I like and many democrats that i like but overall their majority of the people in both parties are one in the same

Answer 4

They are two parties that do not agree with each other. Historically, Republicans are conservative, while Democrats are liberal. Republicans are against gays and abortion issues. They seem to cater to religious agendas, which is in conflict with our separation of church and state.
Democrats seem to understand the rights of all (gays included) and the right of a woman to choose abortion, which is protected under our superior court ruling. The Republicans in the most part are against this law that is in place.

Currently, there is a third party known as Independents. 43% of Americans have changed their party affiliation to independent because they do not subscribe to either of the majority parties. The problem with Americans in changing their party to Independent is that they are not allowed to vote in the primaries for the president. This prevents them from voting for the primary candidate. However, once a presidential candidate is chosen, Independents are allowed to vote in the general election.

If you go back to when president Bush was elected, former vice president Al Gore had the popular vote, which means he got most of the votes of the American public. However, the Supreme Court ordered that George Bush would be president because the State of Florida's voting system was inaccurate and could not be solved.

Just as when Queen Elizabeth obtained her crown by default, our president also gained his position by mistake. In the United Kingdom's example, Edward relinquished his crown which changed the succession of Monarchy. In the case of the United States, Al Gore did win the presidency, but it was an act of the supreme court that decided that fate to give the presidency to George Bush. What a mistake.

Answer 5

Republicans are the more conservative (right wing, hypocritical) party. They claim to fight for 'small government', but at the same time want governmental regulations on morality, religion, sexuality, and numerous other social issues.

Democrats are the more liberal (left wing, do-nothing) party. They fight for the 'working man' and claim to represent economic fairness. However they have a tendency of getting little-nothing done when actually getting elected, and spend more time trying to debunk and upset republicans than they do sticking to their own platforms.

In short, neither party is currently any good. But unfortunately, people are stupid enough to fall for the same ol' tricks over and over again..

Oh and not everyone's definition of neutrality here is "agree with me and my party or you're wrong", as some posters have previously demonstrated.

Answer 6

Republicans are the conservative party. They advocate a smaller government and limited taxation. They have a lot of support from the evangelical Christians in the U.S. and as such promote turning Christian values into law: such as banning abortions and civil unions for gays.
Democrats are the liberal party. They advocate government programs to take care of less fortunate citizens, such as welfare and universal health coverage. Consequently, they favor more taxation and a bloated federal bureaucracy.

I generalize the two as Republicans love free market capitalism and a semi-theocratic government while Democrats love the socialist republics that a lot of European nations have.

Answer 7

Disclaimer: I will admit to my bias, I don't respect democrats.

Republicans generally want a smaller government and lower taxes. They are more capitalists. They want to keep their own money and handle their own problems. They don't think government is competent enough to do any job except maintain an army.

Republicans value law, order, morality, and traditional societal institutions. The nuclear family & religion have worked for centuries, they go with what works. Their outlook on laws: They want to tell people how to act. Democrats will try to tell you what to think.

Democrats in contrast want to try out new things, they want to experiment and see if anything works better. Over the years, this has led their leadership into madness & depravity. They are given to moral ambiguity, they will not say anything is immoral or evil. Except for any political opponent who disagrees with them.

Where a Republican would want a murderer executed by the state & would want an unwed mother to give birth....a Democrat would want to spare the murderer and abort the fetal infant, killing the innocent and letting the guilty live.

Where Republicans would use cold logic and heartless math to solve problems, Democrats rely on "compassion" for their fellow man. They don't want anyone to suffer or go without. So they try to take from the rich and give to the poor through taxes. Which is socialism or communism.

Democrats generally hold the common man in contempt. They arrogantly believe they know whats best for everybody. So they will tell people what to do, whether you want their help or not. You can't smoke. You can't eat meat. You can't have fatty foods. You must use 1 square of toilet paper when you go to the bathroom. You can't use underarm spray. You can't drive an oil-burning car.

The Democrats in the upper levels of government are really bad at being hypocrites. If they were so concerned with re-distributing wealth, they wouldn't ask the middle class to pay more taxes....they would give the IRS money out of their own pockets. Google "Lippo group".

Republicans may be greedy, violent cowboys. I'd rather have a cowboy in charge than a communist who wants to tell me what to think.

Answer 8

By reading most of the posts here, I think you'd be better off looking it up on Wikipedia, and get the cut & dried version. Most of what you'll get here will be more confusing, 'cause many people are pretty ticked off by their government right now. Pretty much, you'll find that everyone has an opinion, and much of it isn't pretty. I tend to shy away from politics. It's a thankless job because one person CANNOT please everyone. I've lived through 8 presidents, and every one of them had something that many people were upset about. My position? I support and respect the office, even though I might not agree with the person in it. <*)))><

Answer 9

They are the two major political parties in the United States. Like in other countries, both parties are a composite of several different factions. The Republican party tends to attract the conservative factions and the Democratic Party tends to attract the liberal/progressive factions.

The main groups in the Republican Party are:

a) Social Conservatives/Religious Conservatives -- They tend to be literalists when it comes to the Bible and believe that government has an obligation to enforce certain Biblical Principles. The main issues pursued by this group in recent years are more restrictive abortion laws, resistance to gay rights, prayer in school, and opposition to the teaching of evolution. A segment of this group also believes that we are nearing the end times and that the U.S. should be pursuing a foreign policy based on the Book of Revelations.

b) Economic Conservatives -- This group believes in reducing government spending (especially on assistance to the poor and elderly) and reducing taxes (especially on investments, estates, and the marginal rates on the higher income levels).

c) Economic Libertarians -- This group believes in reducing regulations on businesses (e.g. repeal of Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, etc.).

d) Neoconservatives -- This group believes in strong military spending and an agressive interventionist foreign policy (unilateral if necessary).

e) Main Street/Wall Street business interests -- A more moderate version of economic conservatives and economic libertarians. They are willing to accept some regulations on business and some government spending to improve the overall business environment.

The main groups in the Democratic Party are:

a) Secularists -- Basically the exact opposite of Religious Conservatives. They are scared about the role of religion in public life. (This group is actually a small part of the Democratic Party).

b) Civil Rights -- This group supports more rights for traditional minority groups including Hispanics, African-Americans, gays, and women. Included in this support is opposition to more restrictive abortion laws, support for programs to create more economic opportunities for these groups, and support for laws making it easier for them to recover if the victim of discrimination.

c) Labor -- This faction supports more protection for workers including requiring additional benefit and such things as the minimum wage.

d) Economic Progressives -- This faction believes in more government programs to aid the working class and the unemployed. A major issue for this group currently is providing health care (either through some sort of government funded insurance or directly by the government) to the uninsured. This group also believes in a greater share of the tax burden being allocated to the wealthy (and would basically oppose the agenda of the economic conservatives).

e) Environmentalists

f) Protectionists -- This group believes that unrestricted trade is currently harming the U.S. A major concern of this group is that other countries have an economic advantage due to inadequate labor, health, and environmental standards.

g) New Democrats/Centrists -- Sort of like New Labor in Britain. The Progressive version of the Main Street/Wall Street grouping on the right. This group thinks that government and business do not always have to be hostile and that by government and business working together under reasonable regulations on business, that everyone can benefit.

h) Multilateralists -- This group believes the U.S. needs to work better with its friends and allies abroad. When intervention is needed, this group has a strong preference for economic sanctions rather than military force.

Answer 10

We have a 2 party system here in the US, one republican the other democrat. Republican "believe" in smaller government, less taxes, and are usually more conservative. Democrats "believe" in more taxes, greater entitlements, bigger government, and are usually more liberal.

Answer 11

Wolves in wolf's clothing. People tend to associate certain integrities to either party but all the guys in Washington are liars.