Major Party Beliefs (according to GOP)

[Chichiri]

This was sent to me a while ago by a lady who, while admitting to being biased herself, nonetheless told me with a straight face that this was a fair and balanced comparison between the Dems and Repukes. I think this, or something like it, is the stuff they use to train young republicans these days, since the lady in question is a trainer and supervisor at a Republican telefundraising firm.

Edited to add: So far as I know, this material is not confidential or proprietary information, or copyrighted; it was sent to me as an email forward, and so far as I know, it is one of many Internet pieces of floatsam that I receive every day -- the only thing that sets this apart is the identity of the sender.


TAXES

DEMOCRATS: Don't believe that tax cuts foster economic growth and more tax revenue for the government. Democrats have typically used taxes as a way to redistribute income and wealth.

REPUBLICANS: Believe that tax cuts to all Americans foster economic growth, which in turn fosters more tax revenue for the government.


SPENDING

DEMOCRATS: Generally believe that increasing spending is a beneficial and necessary part of the serves government provides to the nation. Believe increased taxes equal more servies people would want.

REPUBLICANS: Believe in limiting spending by slowing the rate of spending. Believe that ideally, the rate of increase of government spending should be in line or below the rate of inflation.


SIZE OF GOVERNMENT

DEMOCRATS: Believe a large national government is best. Believe that regulation at the natonal level is best, vs. state and local agencies.

REPUBLICANS: Believe that a smaller national government is best. Support initiatives that give power to state and local governments.


SOCIAL SECURITY

DEMOCRATS: Believe that Social Security should continue to evolve its scope to include other programs, not just ensuring elderly retirement income. This dilutes the purpose and funding of Social Security.

REPUBLICANS: Want to put an end to government spending of the Social Security Trust Fund to pay for other government programs.


MEDICARE

DEMOCRATS: Believe Medicare should continue to expand to become a form of socialized medicine or a national healthcare plan.

REPUBLICANS: Want to protect Medicare for future generations by exposing fraud and waste, and streamlining the way the program is administered.


ENVIRONMENT

DEMOCRATS: Protecting the environment should be goal number one, dispute(sic) it's(sic) impact on our economy, world standing or security.

REPUBLICANS: Believe in protecting our environment while protecting our economy and people's jobs.


NATIONAL DEFENSE

DEMOCRATS: Believe our defense should be more coordinated with other nations and participate with the sign-off of the United Nations.

REPUBLICANS: Want to restore our military to the level it was before Clinton was President. Believe strong national defense is extremely important.


FIGHTING CRIME

DEMOCRATS: Believe strategies such as community policing are the answer to fighting crime. Generally are wary of efforts to increase penalties against criminals.

REPUBLICANS: Believe victims' rights should be the number one priority and swift and fair justice is brought to bear on all criminals. Believe in increasing penalties and number of police officers.


FARMING

DEMOCRATS: Believe price controls and subsidies are the most effective means to keep our farmers competitive and in business.

REPUBLICANS: Support free trade proposals that protect American family farms. Believe we need to be more forceful in fighting unfair tariffs in the world market, by imposing sanctions on unfair trading partners.


ABORTION

DEMOCRATS: Democrats tend to be pro-choice and fight any efforts to obtaining an abortion more challenging (sic). Some Democrats are pro-life, but the Party position is pro-choice.

REPUBLICANS: Many Republicans are pro-life and oppose partial birth abortions. There are also Republicans who are pro-choice. this is an issue that divides the Party, and best to not mention.


GUN CONTROL

DEMOCRATS: Support gun control initiatives. Believe in national registries and eliminating the sale of many guns.

REPUBLICANS: Believe strongly in our right to bear arms. Want to preserve the Second Amendment rights.


PARTY SYMBOL

DEMOCRATS: Donkey

REPUBLICANS: Elephant

[Old and In the Way]

1. So what to make of this administration?

Not Democrat, not Republican. Just criminal.

Pretty funny looking at the "theoretical" positions and then comparing the results of each Party's governing record. Nothing like reality to refute a carefully marketed image.

[LiberalAndProud]

6. Mostly a Democrat -- if the above descriptions are valid.

[Chichiri]

7. Yourself, you mean?

[LiberalAndProud]

8. No ... I'm entirely a democrat. I was referring to this administration--

SPENDING

REPUBLICANS: Believe in limiting spending by slowing the rate of spending. Believe that ideally, the rate of increase of government spending should be in line or below the rate of inflation.


SIZE OF GOVERNMENT

REPUBLICANS: Believe that a smaller national government is best. Support initiatives that give power to state and local governments.

[UCLA Dem]

2. The underlying philosophies here are:

That Democrats believe that a great society stems from the government promoting morality by promoting public welfare. Thus, if you treat the people well (acting in a moral and just manner), society as a whole will benefit. If you help the least fortunate, society as a whole will benefit and prosper. Its very simple. Democrats believe in helping society as whole prosper, while the repukes on the other hand...

Repukes believe in the individual as a moral starting point. If you force individuals to be "responsible" for themselves and work hard than society will be better as a whole. What this translates into is that the government should not be helping the people because it makes them dependent and thus weakens them as individuals. This is where the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" comes from. They think if you "fix" individuals and make them live morally, than we will have a successful and prosperous society. Thats why they don't want social programs and think they can tell you who you can sleep with etc. (The greatest hypocrisy in this, I think, is that most repukes want social services. When quizzed on the stuff they want from their gov., they want all those things...they just don't want to pay for them).

[hyperium]

3. That's about as fair and balanced

as a Fox article. Nice how the author managed to get in plenty of subtle jabs on Democrats, while presenting every issue in black and white. I wouldn't be surprised to see this on Fox's site, actually.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. Welcome to DU! :^D

[bunkerbuster1]

12. "Subtle" jabs?

About as subtle as a Louisville Slugger upside the head. The whole thing is Freeperifically craptacular.

[Lexingtonian]

4. pretty strained

But just barely within the envelope.

The untruth about it is not what it claims or distorts but what it leaves out. All Republican policies favor the privileged, deserving of privilege or not, and imply that the listener can and should share in that status. (Of course, it can't be delivered on.) The Democratic policies are all based in the idea of fair treatment and abuse of privilege by those who wield it.

IOW, this bit of agitprop is 'balanced' in portraying each side's policies, roughly, but all about avoiding seeing the elephant in the room for what it is- the idea that 'the system' is inherently unfair and defined by exploitation.

[snippy]

9. There are four completely objective criteria which distinguish the two

major parties. They are: job creation; stock market performance; deficit spending; and criminal activity.

Since the depression, no republican president has had an annual rate of job creation during his term which equals the lowest such rate during the term of democratic presidents. Since the end of WWII, approximately twice the number of jobs were created during the terms of democratic presidents as during the terms of republican presidents.

The stock market performs significantly better during the terms of democratic presidents than during the terms of republican presidents. This has been true going back many years and is true even if the years of the depression and the dot.com bubble are excluded.

Since 1960, the accumulated annual deficits of the federal government total approximately $4 trillion. Over 90% of this total was accumulated under republican presidents while less than 10% was accumulated under democratic presidents. Of the fourteen times since 1960 that the annual deficit exceeded 3% of GDP, every single time it was under a republican president.

The number of republican administration officials indicted and convicted for crimes committed during republican presidential terms dwarfs the number indicted and convicted for crimes committed during democratic presidential terms. This does not include any of the criminal activities of the current administration.

These four criteria reflect the different values and ethics of the two major parties.

[DBL]

10. dem or repub?

is this forum purely democrat?

[Chichiri]

11. It is in the sense that conservatives may not post.

From the FAQ:

Democratic Underground is not intended to provide a soap-box for our political opponents. If we let conservatives post here, then this discussion forum would be identical to all the other discussion forums on the Internet. If you want to debate conservatives, there are thousands of other websites on the Internet where you can do so -- just not this one.

By the way... There are lots of conservative discussion forums that don't permit liberals to post, including this one.

[Chichiri]

13. Great post!

[LittleClarkie]

14. If Repubs believe in limiting spending by slowing the rate of spending

Then what is George Bush? Cause by that definition, he ain't a Republican.