What are the differences between Republicans and Democrats?

[Jordan]

I'd like some new perspectives on these.

Feel free to insult one another. I'm neutral so I don't really care.

[Arthur]

Republicans seem determined to bankrupt the countries by giving unfair advantages to various corporate interests.

Democrats seem determined to bankrupt the countries by giving unfair advantages to various union interests, and the lazy.

[Gertude]

republicans support big business.

democrats support working class Americans

[Alicia Murphy]

Thr republicans uphold the the law of the land , the constitution and the democrats dismantle it.

[spotty]

One is symbolized by an elephant, the other a donkey. One represents red states, the other blue, and I almost forgot, their names are spelled differently. Those are the major differences.

[Humongous]

Just read the answers, if there is some sort of violent racist rant it is a Republican.

[Emma]

one has a brain, one doesn't .

[ieatlunch]

100% of republicans are controlled by corporate special interests, and 98% of democrats are.

[Mr. Smartypants]

My dad used to say the Republican Party is all about dog eat dog, all about man's inhumanity to man. But for the Democrats it's just the other way around. 8^)

Originally the Democrats were more liberal and the Republicans were more conservative. Today those words hardly even mean anything. Republicans use the word 'liberal' for anything they don't like or anyone they disagree with, so Hitler and Stalin were 'liberal' and so is Obama. But conservatism has also changed--for instance conservatives used to believe in balancing the budget even if it included some tax increases, and it used to be conservatives who fought for personal liberties etc.

Basically the Republicans wanted to help businesses do better, and working people would benefit from more available jobs. While the Democrats wanted to help the people directly and let businesses profit from bigger markets. Trickle-down vs trickle-up, if you will.

But today the Democrats and Republicans are just two competing power structures. They both need tons of cash to run political campaigns and they both get the cash from the same sources, so you can't realistically expect their true agendas to be all that much different. They are both pro-corporate, both trickle-down, except the Republicans are out in the open about it while the Democrats still have to compromise by helping people with education, health care, social programs etc. (But you will notice that Obamacare, instead of the single-payer program we all wanted, basically can be seen as no more than a huge government subsidy to the health insurance corporations!)

Today both parties have moved sharply to the right. Presidents Clinton and Obama are further to the right, more conservative and pro-corporation, than any president of either party before Reagan. The conservatism of the Democratic Party has pushed the Republicans WAAAAYYY to the right. To listen to these guys you'd think they believed it was just impossible to go too far to the right!

[Dwight]

Republicans: Want small government, more freedoms. Were against slavery.
Democrats: Want big government, less freedoms. Were pro slavery.

Ultimately there's no real difference since they always do the opposite 50% of the time, but Democrats tend to be the most annoying of the two. It's best to be Libertarian.