Ok, what's the difference between Republican and Democrat?
960143
the difference is that the republicans are far to the right of the majority of Americans on most significant issues and the democrats are far to the right of the majority of American on most significant  issues. that is the difference. no seriously there wasn't a big difference until the neocons started their caveman shtick.\n\nthose issues like immigration and gay marriage are distractions. elections are run by the PR industry... the same people that sell toothpaste. the point is to divert you away from issues like health care reform. polls show most people would support something resembling a single payer health care system... like they have in most european countries and Canada. where are the dems and reps on that? up each others butt. the insurance lobby pays a ton of money to candidates in both parties to keep health care reform off the agenda. that's why you see so many controversial bills pass with no debate. because they know the population would be opposed.\n\ndoes anyone remember the big debate about NAFTA? or the Telecommunications act? both of these were done under the Clinton administration.
795268
Sure the democrats are smarter than the republicans, but I would like to suggest anyone be an independent thinker instead of a party member. Each party has its pros and cons.
254148
Conservative and Liberal are terms only describing your tendency towards one side or another on certain issues.  It really has nothing to do with party affiliation.  There are a number of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans, but the majority of Republicans tend to be more conservative and the majority of Democrats tend to be more liberal, which is how the words have come to be used as pseudo-insults from one party to the other.
837761
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.
796893
Democrat.  I believe in their values more than the republicans.  Also, republicans just whine about everything.  Also, Bush is the dumbest person on the face of the universe.  You could fit his library in a little corner.
1068746
There are two meanings here.  One democratic means we vote to decide policy the other is the "democratic party" which has a certain set of values it expouses that are different from that of the other dominant political party the "republican party".
219643
For a REAL answer...Republicans generally tend to want the power to go to the states and don't believe in big government (hence the tax cuts).  Democrats generally DO want lots of federal power and believe that government-sponsored programs will cure everything.  Obviously my answer is biased too, but at least I put some thought into it.  Also, Republicans tend to be much more conservative in their moral views than Democrats.\n\nOne more thing- Both parties are made up of the rich and the poor.  Hollywood tends to be Democratic (uber rich), and people who USE government programs (uber poor) are also usually Democrats.  Republicans are made up of uber rich CEO types as well as working class people who just want to be able to use their money the way they see fit rather than have the government support the afore mentioned group of Democrats.\n\nI can't stay away from this thread!  3rd time today...I'm a teacher in a public school- not at all rich...and I'm Republican.  So it's not all about rich people vs poor people (as I mentioned above).
376441
Democrats tend to think about what is best for the average citizen, Republicans favor corporations and the wealthy who can buy influence.   Also Republicans like wars.
272617
Democrats are generally Liberals, they voted for Kerry. Republicans are generally conservative, they voted for Bush. Thats the difference.
100094
National Republican and Democratic Republican. The Democratic Republican is our Democratic party today, and the National Republican party fell apart, many of it's members joining the Whig party, and many joined the Republican party we have today after it was formed.
958562
If you are a kid, it's time to go to school and ask for some civics lessons. The democrats are not homogeneous - that is one of the differences. Whereas the Republicans allow no discussion within their party - you have to support everything or you are not a republican - the Democrats are a broad house that allows differences of opinion.\n\nEven so, in both parties you'll find some that support and some that oppose both issues you mentioned. And there is definitely not general support for gay marriage in the Democratic party. In fact, it was President Clinton, a Democrat, who signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act, which forbids the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages. It was also Clinton who approved the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy for the military, which forbids gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the armed forces. Under that legislation, several thousand men and women have been fired from the army in the last few years (despite the fact that they had important skills like Arab translation) \n\nThe person who told you that was the difference was incorrect.\n\nRepublicans used to be the party for fiscal management and responsibility, but they stopped that six years ago and have been on a huge spending spree with tax payer's money. In the process, they've created a national debt 50% higher (8 TRILLION dollars) that you as a kid can look forward to paying off for the rest of your life. Under Clinton, the nation debt REDUCED every year - so I guess the Republicans are no longer willing to be fiscally responsible.\n\nGenerally though, the Democrats are better at representing the interests of the majority of Americans (those earning less than $100,000 a year), and the Republicans are better at representing the rich. The Democrats want everyone to have health care, and for poor families to be able to feed their families. These are not priorities for Republicans.
831314
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%.
1029401
If you want to provide him with a "broader point of view" why did you limit the choices to Democrats and Republicans?  Here's wha tI would tell the kid:  Most people want the same things, but some have different priorities.  A Green is someone who is willing to work hard for really clean air and water.  A Libertarian  is someone is who is willing to work hard to let everyone reach their full potential.  A Republican is someone who is willing to work hard to catch bad people.  A Democrat is someone who is willing to work hard to help the poor.  Those are short answers, but hopefully you get the idea.  I'd recommend having him read each party's platform.
888810
Republicans - the haves\nDemocrats - the have nots
215336
One of the most major differences (speaking more officially/ideologically, and leaving out de facto differences which are obvious enough today) is with respect to what the role of the state, and in particular the relationship of the state to individual liberty, should be. In general, republicans want as little government 'interference' as possible, and tend to be anti-taxation (to take one obvious example), on the grounds that 'It's my money and I should be free to do what I want with it; I know how to spend it better than the government does.' Democrats, on the other hand, tend to be more open to a system in which we all pay in, in the form of taxes, to fund social services like health care, education, and welfare.\n\nIf it clarifies things for you (or perhaps simply as a suggestion for further reading), I'd say that Robert Nozick, a libertarian, is a very good example of republican-style thought, whereas John Rawls would be much more of a democratic-style thinker -- major contrast between the two of them.
594411
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.
57009
Some conservatives are Republican and some are Democrats. Since we have only two major parties, the reasons behind why a person chooses a party over the other can sometimes be baffling. That's why they say that there are conservative, moderate, and liberals in every party (and some fanatics and extremists, too from each of those three). The two parties do their best to represent all the members within. A person may be a social conservative, but an economic moderate and choose to be a Democrat because the economic issues hold more importance than social issues, or vice versa they may choose to be Republican because social issues are more important. You can have a socially liberal person who is also economically conservative and very moderate on other issues who due to their conservative stance economically chooses to be Republican. Or because of their very liberal social views will choose Democrat, or will choose neither because the issues that are important to them aren't strongly emphasized either way by either party and will register as independent (my sister being a good example)