Definition Help

[renie408]

I usually post on Politics and Campaigns, but a post there brought to mind something I have been mulling over and which I thought would make a better General topic than a campaign topic.

Can somebody help me define the centrist, left, right, independent, Green, Democratic and Republican POV's?? I keep hearing about Republicans that are pro-gun control and pro-choice and Democrats that are pro-death penalty and have 100% ratings with the NRA and then somebody will always end up throwing around the word 'centrist' like it is some kind of foul name. Some people are right of center of the liberal party and some people are left of center of the conservative group (which seems to me would put them in the same place).

What are the defining political ideals of the Democratic Party vs. those of the Republican Party? What would be considered a left wing viewpoint or a right wing viewpoint? I used to think I was a fairly conservative person, but now I don't know. I am pro-choice, pro-guncontrol, anti-death penalty, pro-legalization of some drugs, and anti-Bush tax cuts. I guess all that makes me liberal, but I don't FEEL liberal.

Can you guys help me out here??

[eyesroll]

1. I think the party platforms/issues pages are a good starting point...

http://www.democrats.org/about/platform.html
http://www.rnc.org/Issues
http://www.greenparty.org/issues.html

But the terms centrist, left, right, etc. are a little hard to pin down. The word "liberal" has been demonized; "conservative" has been taken from the decent people and now belongs to the far right, and so forth. There are people on DU who can define these much better than I can, so I'll let them.

Hope this helps.