In a nutshell, what's the difference between Republicans and Democrats?
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Republicans are conservative, or old fashioned. God Bless America, abortion is murder,  drugs should be illegal, etc. They are big believers in having a strong military. They wish to have lower taxes and the government is limited in its power.\n\nDemocrats are progressives. Abortion is okay, separation of church and state, let homosexuals get married. They want the military to be small, they want more funding for welfare programs, and they want the government to have more influence, mostly by the wealthy paying high taxes.\n\nKeep in mind this is a simple diagram. Not all people on each side agree 100%.
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A conservative usually tries to keep the system the same. A liberal tries to change things. Generally Republicans tend to be conservative and Democrats tend to be liberal.
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Here's a wikipedia article that can explain it better than I ever could. In summary, as far as I know, left is more liberal, right is more conservative.
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Democrats are the same?  Therefore Republicans and Democrats are both ugly cartels of raving jesus freaks?  And I am a moron?
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10-20 years ago it was simpler...the democrats were for blue collar and more environmental...the Repupl;icans were always for big business and a bigger military budget....classic bread and butter against guns...there was a balance, both got their way once in a while....now the issue is getting clouded because the Republicans have reversed their ideology (causing the Democrats to change as well) from nothing but the economy stupid to global intervention in the name of business.  but to be fair, there are traditionalists on both sides.
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Each party is defined by their platform or set of views.  Now not all Reps and Dems go along with the entire party platform, but they tend to agree with the majority.  Here are some of the parties views:\n\nReps: Anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage, lower taxes, smaller government, pro-big business, hawkish of defense.\n\nDems: Allow abortion, allow gay marriage, higher taxes on the upper-middle and upper class, more government programs, pro-environment, dovish on defense.\n\nThese are just a few of the stereotypical views...each Rep and Dem have their own views that may or may no fall in line with the party platform.  Basically, Reps are the "traditional family values, strong military, capitalistic" party and Dems are the "social equality, environmentally friendly" party.
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Republicans are more ideological.  Democrats are more touchy-feely.\n\nSo, if you see a lot of suffering... the touchy feely people want to throw money at the problem.  The ideological people want to look at the economics of what is causing the problem and fix the underlying causes and don't care about the people suffering right now or those that don't get helped by a market-based solution.\n\nThrough evolution, I think woman being more touchy-feely came about because of their unique role in raising children and responding to their needs.  So, my guess is that it's tougher for woman to see people suffering and not do anything about it, so they tend to be democrats.
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The way I've best heard it defined is that Republicans are producers, and Democrats are consumers. Republicans generally feel that people should be responsible for their own actions, and/or decisions. They feel people should pay the consequences, or reap the benefits of those action/decisions. Democrats believe that the government knows what's best for people, and that the government should make alot of the decisions for people. This way it allows people to dis-engage from the responsibility from of making decisions, thus dis-engaging from the consequences that come from making the wrong decisions.\nIn a nutshell, Republicans believe in small government, where it only is involved to a basic level in people lives, and business. They believe taxes should be minimal. Limited only to the specific areas that are required in order to run the part of the system that is required of government. \nDemocrats believe in big government, where it's involved in almost every aspect in peoples lives, and business. They believe high taxes are necessary in order for the people who have money, to take care of the people who don't have money.
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I realize facts aren't what you're looking for, but here ya go...according to "Party Politics in America" (M. Hershey, P. Beck; Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, 2003), "People with lower incomes and less education are more likely to call themselves Democrats than Republicans." (p. 129)
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well there is not much differance/ Dems are for welfare for the poor and starving and the middleclass working man. Repulicans are for welfare for the RIch and not paying taxes even if they have to put all the dept on to there childrens back. \nIt used to be republicans were for fiscal responsibility they just want to elimate the bill of rights establish a state relgion and bring back slavery. I say this because that is what they say they want to do listen to them.
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republican and democrat describes how one votes....or what party one alines themself with.\n\nliberal (like conservative) refers to a political ideology, or a philisophical approach towards running the government.
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Well let's see...\n\n+Democrats support peace, not war, like Bush.\n+They believe in the more middle class American, while Republicans only care about the rich\n+The economy is 10x better when a Democrat is in power\n+Dems usually support gay marriage, because gay people are people too, and so are black people. \n+They also care about the environment, while Republicans couldn't care less\n+Democrats are usually pro-choice as far as abortion goes, but they are not pro-abortion.
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Republicans: to conserve national traditions, limit government interference, promote big business, and support democracy causes.\n\nDemocrats: to reshape government, to acquire more government control, limit big businesses, and focus on domestic issues.
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This is actually close to the description I use to illustrate the basic difference between Republicans and Democrats:\n\nDemocrats will help feed the people fish.\nRepublicans will teach people to fish.\n\nThis philosophy is kind of a touchstone on how to think about the parties. Democrats are all about the individual, providing for one person at a time, reading to them. Republicans want to help the larger class of people, thus will provide teaching to help the people make their own way.
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Democratic party philosophy vs. Republican party philosophy.
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Republican = personal responsibility and meritocracy\n\nDemocrat = nanny-state, mediocrity, wealth redistribution (everyone is equally poor) and victim class
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Neither party has an "official" stance on abortion, but Democrats are typically more likely to be pro-choice, and Republicans are more likely to be pro-life.\n\nEDIT: \nBoth parties claim to support education, but they go about delivering that support in different ways.