Repulican and Democrat... Can someone simply explain what they are, the differnces?

[Miranda]

Im not sure what each one is... Or how to decied what I am....

Thank You

[InsaneDreamer479]

Democrats tend to be full of modern liberals and progressives etc..

while Republicans tend to be more for american conservatism etc..

[Ken W]

Ask yourself this:

Do I think the world OWES me and I am entitled cause I was born? = Democrat

Do I know I can be productive in society and I am not looking for hand outs ? = Republican

[Meg]

They are two branches of a single entity that is taking control of the government.

[BytemyAss]

Both are traitors...the difference is how they want to destroy America.

[Peace be upon you]

Two groups of people that can stll be fooled by politicians. Libertarians think for themselves and allow other Americans to use their voices too. Libertarians believe in freedom and equality for all. Democrats will chime in and puppett what their masters have told them to think on this one. Make up your own mind, I beg you. This doesn't mean be Libertarian because I said so, it means see what a Libertarian thinks instead of what Democrats and Republicans tell you they think.

[Mr. Smartypants]

Traditionally the parties were more true opposites. The basic difference was that Republican wanted to help businesses do better, which would provide more jobs, better paying jobs, so everyone would do better. Democrats wanted to help people do better, so the consumer market would improve, so businesses would do better because people would be spending more. You might call it trickle-down vs trickle-up.

But in recent decades this has all changed. Today we have TWO pro-business anti-worker parties. We have allowed money to rule our politics. In an 'open' election, i.e. one where no incumbent is running for re-election, the candidate who spends the most money is the one that wins about 95% of the time, about 19 out of 20 times. Both parties desperately need wheelbarrows full of cash to run campaigns, and they both get this money from the same sources. So you can't really expect their true agendas to be all that much different. They both work ultimately for the same interests. Like any two nearly identical products in a marketplace, they concentrate on differentiating themselves from one another.

In the last few years, the Republicans have developed a new strategy to change our two-party system to a one-party system. They realize that achieving their goals is all about being in control, so they've focussed on that, rather than actually running the country. The architect of this plan is Karl Rove, and in years past he spoke about it openly. This is why Republicans refuse to cooperate with a Democratic president, even to get what they want. They have come to see compromise as capitulation. They see that if anything positive is achieved through bipartisan cooperation, the president gets most of the credit. So they have simply refused to cooperate in anything.

The Democrats, OTOH, have totally sold out their principles. They've sold out the American people to corporate interests. They just don't talk as openly about it as the Republicans, because they're not as proud of it as the Republicans are. Obama is actually further to the right than any Republican president before Reagan! Eisenhower and Nixon were pro-union, believed health care was a right, saw public education as the driver of social mobility, protected Social Security, etc. etc.

Both parties tend to tie together a whole raft of issues, some of which you or I would agree with but some we wouldn't. Under the circumstance as they are today, it doesn't make sense (IMHO) to belong to either party, because the party leadership takes your voter registration as a member of their party as an endorsement of ALL their issues. In each election you should look at the candidates' positions on the issues that are most important to you. Partisanship is the biggest roadblock to progress.

[Socrates]

Republican usually refers to someone is a member of or supports the ideals of a political party called the Republican Party. The same goes for Democrats and the Democratic Party. For any political party, they exist as so to be an organized effort to put into political office those that subscribe to it’s general political philosophy. The Republican Party generally will support those who believe in Conservative political philosophy although they also support Libertarians too (a close relative of Conservative thought). The Democratic Party does the same for Liberals.

What you are really asking is to define what Conservatism and Liberalism mean. Conservatism goes with tried and proven methods of governance before trying unproven ones. Liberalism is more idealistic. It looks to promise (or utopia) of new types of systems of government, fulfilling some perceived desire of the people. These are broad definitions because what they mean in specific principles and policy depend on the culture of the country or region. This is reflected in, for instance, how American Conservatism is completely different than any Middle East Conservatism, and is even at odds with those beliefs.

What is considered Conservative and Liberal can even swap over time. The American Revolution was driven by radical Liberal Activists, driven by the new, untried idea of man governing himself, and with the British being the Conservative force, a type of governance that has worked for over a thousand years. Now, modern Conservatism is the custodian of those then Colonial Liberal beliefs. That's because the new form of government the Colonies developed have been a success and in place for a long period of time. American Liberalism has since gone off looking for something better, putting it's gaze on more Socialistic forms of government. Foreign Liberalism, on Socialism in various forms and Communism by extremists.

American Conservatism believes in equal opportunity, equal justice, individualism and charity. It holds in great reverence the Constitution and it's ideals of limited federal government and natural (individual) rights. Individual rights are those inherent in the people and do not need an outside enabler (like government) to make them work. It also believes in the power and ability of free market principles to make everyones life better. Although these are principles on Conservatism, it is also pragmatic to bend to a certain extent to non-Conservative principles that may already be in place. For instance, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid may be over-steps of limited Federal government, but they are willing to live with them and just reform them from the bloated, bureaucratic, wasteful mess they are. Neither would it want to go back to the pure market-driven, exploitative days of the Industrial Revolution. Conservatism has no problem with natural inequity in life, just as long as individuals are not blocked or impeded in their rising above those inequities. The implied Constitutional mandate of the proper role of government, being the protection of rights and liberties of it's citizens is the mechanism that support this. This does not guarantee happiness, but it protects their pursuit of it. The individual's abilities are what determines how far they can go. For those who have difficulty, there is charity, even a hand-up from government to a certain extent, but not a handout. Compassion is not measured by how many people can be taken care of by government, but by how many DON'T have to be taken care of by government, trapped by welfare.

Liberalism believes in equal outcome, social justice, collectivism and government welfare. It believes that government should be as active as possible in helping it's citizens as much as possible with cradle-to-grave programs. It believes government must take an active role in removing as many inequities of life as possible. Society must change to support this system of "help". Liberalism believes in human (collective) rights. These kind of rights requires government to supply them and people are entitled to these type of rights. Liberals want redistribution of wealth and envision the role of big-business to serve more directly as more employee support centers and less profit centers, working in “partnership” with government as outlets for government social policies.

[Marine One]

Republicans - GOOD !!!

Democrats - BaaaaaD !!!

[John J. S]

Reoublicans v Democrats = Guns v Butter.

Republicans, no government controls on big business, absolute government control over the citizens, Military spending preferred over social spending (medicare, social security, public schools, roads bridges) Military force is the stick of diplomacy. Emphasis on foreigh trade and foreign policy, domestically, let the states do for themselves.

Democrats, Business needs rules as much as people do. More control on business excesses, less government control on citizens. They actually believe the 14th Amendment means something. prefer spending on social safety net and infrastructure, and using military force as failure of foreign policy