How Do You Tell a Democrat from a Republican?
by Tamim Ansary

What's the difference between the two major political parties? Some would say, "None." Third-party maven Ralph Nader claims they're all "Republicrats."

Then there's the other view. The two major parties, says conventional wisdom, represent enduring and opposing philosophies of government--liberal and conservative--two currents that go back to the beginning of the republic.

Let's just see about that
In the following list, which would you consider classic Democratic sentiments? Which are typical Republican stands?
[ ] People should take care of themselves, not rely on the government.
[ ] The government should help the poor and needy.
[ ] Government regulation stifles the economy.
[ ] America needs a big, powerful, active federal government.
[ ] The government can't solve social problems and shouldn't try.
[ ] The government must expand the rights of minority groups.
[ ] America must project military strength abroad.
[ ] The government should avoid war at any cost.
You're right--whatever you marked. Both parties have espoused all these positions at one time or another. Hey ...
• Are Republicans against government regulation? Under Teddy Roosevelt, they practically invented it!
• Are Democrats congenitally against war? I have 18 words for you: Vietnam, Korea, World War II, World War I, Mexican War, War of 1812--oh, and the Cold War.
• Are Republicans soft on civil rights for African Americans? Well, there was that little matter of Lincoln (a Republican) ending slavery.
• Okay, then, small government--surely that's a Republican concept. Right?
Well, actually ...

Part II: Platforms of the past
"That government is best which governs least."
So goes the motto usually attributed to Thomas Jefferson, founder of America's oldest political party--the Democratic Party.
At birth, incidentally, it was called the "Republican Party," and then the "Democratic-Republican Party," but Ralph Nader can stop smiling, because the Democratic-Republican Party didn't split in two to give us our modern parties. Today's Democrats trace directly back to the Democratic-Republicans, who simplified their name in the 1820s. Today's Republican Party was founded in 1854, by a coalition of groups opposed to slavery.
Ye olde Democrats and Republicans
Early Democrats believed the federal government had no legitimate role except to defend the borders, keep the peace, and negotiate with foreign powers. "Ya' wanna' road? Build one." That was their original attitude.
How on earth did that party end up founding Social Security?
By the same token, look at earlier incarnations of the Republican Party. Teddy Roosevelt, that environmental all-star, added 25 million acres of wilderness to the public park system. How did his party end up pushing for oil drilling in the Alaskan Wilderness?
Moveable platforms
Sure the two major parties stand on their platforms, but their platforms have wheels. They can move. To where the votes are. At least twice, according to John Taylor, American history professor at Kentucky's Union College, the parties have flipped positions, adopting their rival's platform wholesale.
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It happened after the War of 1812, for example, when the Democratic-Republicans suddenly decided the country needed a national bank and massive government-sponsored, domestic infrastructure projects, just as their rivals (the Federalists, at that point) had always clamored.
It happened again after 1912 when Democrat Woodrow Wilson suddenly embraced the entire program of the Roosevelt ("progressive") wing of the Republican Party.
In the 1840s, Democratic Party honcho John Louis O'Sullivan famously described the country's territorial expansion to the Pacific as "manifest destiny." Today, Republican "neoconservatives" celebrate spreading American values around the globe in much the same terms.
Part III: How political parties change
Look, it's not like the major parties start with core philosophies.
That may be true of startups and third parties, but each of the major parties is fundamentally an apparatus that exists for getting people elected. How it's used depends on who is operating the machinery at a given moment. That is, a party's programs reflect demographic realities as calculated by its current operatives.
And the underlying demographic picture keeps changing.
Demographics equals destiny
The Republicans were founded in opposition to slavery--which made them the party of the North--which was industrializing just then--so the Republican Party inevitably became that of the manufacturing interests, the captains of industry--which made them the party of (relative) big government … the party that built the railroads.
The Republican Party's antislavery roots also made it the party of evangelical Protestants--who formed the demographic basis of the abolitionist movement--and who overlapped with temperance activists and suffragettes--which made the Republican Party a standard-bearer for feminism at that time--
And so it goes.
New Democrats of ancient history
The Civil War left Democrats scrabbling for votes among defeated Southerners and disgruntled small farmers in the West, but the underlying demographic reality was changing. Tidal waves of new European immigrants were flooding the country. They couldn't go hack themselves rich new lives out of the untrammeled wilderness like earlier immigrants because everything worth trammeling had already been trammeled.

So they pooled up in burgeoning cities and worked for low wages and no benefits in big, smelly factories. Since the natives and bosses belonged to the Republican Party, they joined the Democrats--especially since genteel Republican do-gooder temperance activists kept trying to save them from their (supposedly) hard-drinking ways.
The Democratic Party turns a corner
Sometime between the presidential administrations of Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, the Democratic Party realized its richest pool of voters wasn't Nebraska farmers oppressed by the gold standard, but urban industrial workers, immigrants, and minorities, united in their desire for more money, shorter hours, better working conditions, and greater job security.
Big government, public works, high taxes, social welfare--these policies followed inevitably as the mechanisms the party needed to deliver the goods.
Worth a Click
• An economist reinterprets the difference between the two parties as a difference in "risk management policy."
• One Republican says what he thinks a Republican is.
What now?
Today, the demographic patterns are changing again. The country that took to manufacturing between the Jefferson and Wilson administrations, left manufacturing behind between FDR and George W. Bush. The immigrant groups that put FDR in power are now fourth- or fifth-generation Americans--natives, in short. The grandchildren of struggling, urban assembly-line workers are middle-class suburbanites working as independent consultants. The great-grandchildren of immigrants who demanded a 40-hour week are working 60-hour weeks by choice as lawyers and software engineers.
Whole new immigrant populations, mostly Asians and Hispanics, have come to America in the last three-plus decades, but their often conservative social attitudes and historically rooted anti-Communism complicate their political loyalties. Today's low-end, hourly-wage workers are not industrial employees but restaurant help, data processors, nursing home orderlies, and such. Plus, globalization means that the marginal players in the economy who once swelled the Democratic Party's electoral base no longer live in America. Having no vote, they can't shape either party's platform.
What does all this mean?
To me, the two parties seem in flux. I'm saying, don't be too sure you know who the Democrats or Republicans are and what they stand for. These things change. And in the next decade or so, they surely will change, in ways that will make today's notions about Democrats and Republicans seem as quaint as Federalists and Whigs.

ARE YOU A REPUBLICAN?
ONE INDIVIDUALS PERSPECTIVE
By Neil Sinclair

Being a Republican is not black and white. There is no creed, nor simple statement of principals to follow. But the party and platform do over time attract a number of individuals that seem to hold some basic values that are shared in common. These values are debated periodically at Conventions and within the party in response to changing challenges and needs of society. No one person can stand up and hold themselves forth as the only version of being a Republican. Republicans come from all walks of life, all occupations, classes, races, cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

It is also important to appreciate that Republican leaders are vocal when it comes to articulation of those values, which are American that Republicans hold dear.

First there is a belief in JUSTICE, for all and is a foundation for the United States. It is a belief that American Values are grounded in laws that are fair and just. It is understood that fair laws passed in a democratic manner will be enforced. We believe that every citizen deserves equal protection under law. When acts of terror fell upon the innocent, President Bush called out not for revenge, but simply that the evil doers be brought to JUSTICE.

There is a pleasure from doing well for other people. GOOD WILL to all is Republican and American. As Citizens we respond to requests for help. In promoting a more perfect Union and general welfare, Republican Presidents have struggled to bring out the greatness, which is America. Is it a surprise that President Bush called for every child in America to donate a dollar to helping the children of Afghanistan? Americans help others at home and around the world, we do so out of GOOD WILL toward all.

Republicans speak about FREEDOM with a special passion. President Abraham Lincoln founded a party based on Freedom for All. President Ronald Regan saw the fall of communism being replaced by democracies and liberal economics. Domestically when Freedom comes around the world we all benefit. At home, Republican Legislators defend FREEDOM by being conscious as to the role of the state, government and bureaucracies.

Republicans believe in SECURITY through strength. America's SECURITY is part of America's underpinning and our federal government is charged with the role of "Providing for the common defense". Recently President Bush has agreed with Mr. Putin to reduce Nuclear stock piles further, as one element in a number of ongoing strategies to keep America safe and secure for all its citizens.

Given OPPORTUNITY every American can succeed. Jefferson and Franklin proclaimed the ability for the world to allow every man, of every background in America, the ability to the 'pursuit of happiness'. Republicans believe that Americans can create opportunities at home and abroad. President Bush (Sr.) supported Free Trade throughout North America through NAFTA. Today this dream of free trade is global and leads to this goal, Republican's attempt to help in creating an environment for individuals to discover their own paths to OPPORTUNITY.

Individual RESPONSIBILITY cannot be legislated or regulated. We might think we can, but responsibility is character. The expression of faith and desire to overcome obstacles is what is sought. Republicans view government of the people not above the people. We believe in families, in communities, and in people taking charge of their lives. The framework for individual responsibility is under pinned by basic moral values and ethical principals. William Bennett is one of the foremost leaders and authors on this perspective.

Republicans prize KNOWLEDGE. Thomas Jefferson wrote; " Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day." President Bush follows the legacy before him in striving for innovation, ideas, and lifetime learning opportunities. It is without surprise that President Bush was in a school when terror struck on September 11th.

Perhaps there is more or a lot more one can write. But core within our history the forgoing values seem to pop out again and again. There is more to learn, more to appreciate and study. There is a Republican Institute, and many political science topics devoted to this topic. Read more, study and when someone asks where you discovered your being a Republican consider first what lies in your heart. Are you a Republican?

I know alot about the Republican party since I run a high school Teen-Age Republicans club and I basically try to get teenagers in school to have an interest in the Republican party, help get Republicans in office, and do community service. Other groups in the Republican party are College Republicans (college students) and Young Republicans (18-40 year olds). I know alot where the Republican party stands.

The Republican Principles Are:
- Individual ability, dignity, freedom, and responsibility are basic to good government.
- The free enterprise system and the encouragement of individual initiative and incentive are musts for a strong economy.
- Government exists to protect the freedom of each individual, not restrict it.
- Government should get involved only in those things which the people cannot do, or cannot do well for themselves.
- Both governemt and society should assist those who cannot provide for themselves and should help them become self-supporting, productive citizens with pride in their independence.
- Equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity belong to all, regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex.
- The preservation of our nation and security of our citizens depend on every citizen's respect for the Constitution, the law, and courts.
- Government must maintain sound money and responsible economy. The rights of life and liberty are meaningless if citizens are deprived of their property through excessive taxation, inflation, and government waste.
- World pecae and friendship will continue through strength.

Basically it says it wants Americans to be individuals, not rely on the government, have a strong economy through business, and have a strong defense.

__________________
"Republicans believe that everyday
is the 4th of July, while the Democrats wish everyday was April 15th" - Ronald Reagan

TR, do you realize that about half of what you listed are also considered Democratic values?

- Individual ability, dignity, freedom, and responsibility are basic to good government.
- Government exists to protect the freedom of each individual, not restrict it.
- Both governemt and society should assist those who cannot provide for themselves and should help them become self-supporting, productive citizens with pride in their independence.
- Equal rights, equal justice, and equal opportunity belong to all, regardless of race, creed, color, national origin, or sex.
- The preservation of our nation and security of our citizens depend on every citizen's respect for the Constitution, the law, and courts.

__________________
"The only thing we have to fear is four more years of George W. Bush." -Teddy Kennedy

I very surprised by that. Most Democrats only like you if you are taken care of by the government (like welfare). Republicans believe you take care of yourself but if it comes to getting on welfare then the government will take care of you until you can become independent once again.

__________________
"Republicans believe that everyday
is the 4th of July, while the Democrats wish everyday was April 15th" - Ronald Reagan