Is there really a difference between the current democratic and republican parti

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   BizGenGirlposted 12 years ago

   Is there really a difference between the current democratic and republican parties anymore?

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   badeggposted 12 years ago

   No. They all have one thing in mind, as does the rest of the country: Get Obama out of office!!

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   MikeSyrSuttonposted 12 years ago

   Yes a huge difference! If you read the national platforms of each you will see day and night differences in beliefs. Plus, though the media never covers it, one party polices and vets potential candidates thoroughly and the other no longer does. That is why the latter has many more corrupt politicians that the other party does.

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   MelissaVsWorldposted 12 years ago

   Yes, and no.  They each wish to accomplish the same things, but by very different means and with very different outcomes.  The democrats want to reorganize the government, reducing its size but increasing public handouts and entitlement programs.  The republicans want to reorganize the government, reducing its size by reducing unnecessary programs and reducing, and possibly eventually eliminating, public handouts and entitlement programs.

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   wingedcentaurposted 12 years ago

   Hi BizGenGirl!
   
   I think the question contains its own answer. Once you ask the question you have answered it. If their differences were clear you would not feel the need to compare notes.
   
   Both parties have been moving substantially to the Right since the 1970s -- the beginning of the so-called 'neoliberal' (hardcore free market economics)/'neoconservatie era (hardcore, much more 'muscular' foreign policy -- War on Terror, and so forth). Basically the liberal (ish) consensus that both parties enjoyed from, say, 1945-1973, based on FDR's New Deal -- they now enjoy on the conservative side.
   
   Also, we must remember that political campaigns have grown steadily more expensive -- and there's only one place the parties can get the serious money they need, as you know. The Republican party has always been the business party, so its second nature for them to increase their support of business. The Democrats were forced to become more supportive of business in order to survive, and they did it.
   
   We know the traditional values the Democrats and Republicans stand for, and they generally hold to those values, 'all things being equal,' whatever that means. By the way there is a Nobel Prize-winning Keynsian economist (by the way Keynsianism was one of those things the parties shared a broad consensus on during the New Deal period) called Joseph E. Stiglitz, who had been a member of the Clinton administration in the 1990s, as Chairman of Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors.
   
   Stiglitz published a book in 2003 called The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World's Most Prosperous Decade. One of the things one gets reading this book, I think, of how striking Stiglitz himself found it, that Clinton did, more or less, behave like a 'good' Democrat at home as far as economic policy (but from my perspective Clinton wasn't good enough with 'Welfare Reform,' 'changing welfare as we know it,' the financial services deregulation bill, and other things, etc.), but this same administration of William Jefferson "I feel your pain" Clinton behaved like a right-wing Republican abroad.
   
   Stiglitz largely attributes this to what's called the financialization of the American economy, which started in the 1970s but really took hold in the mid-1980s and 1990s. And so on and so forth.

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   Brandon Spauldingposted 12 years ago

   Great Question! Yes. There is a huge difference between the current democratic and republican parties. There has never been a point in history when there were greater differences than there are today. When people don't understand this, I suggest studying the differences so you can increase your understanding of the situation. Great Question!

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   BizGenGirlposted 12 years ago

   Wow! Those are all such superb answers and arguments! I'd love to see them all in hubs.... and I bet a lot of voters would as well

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   Hubpage Galposted 12 years ago

   This is my opinion about the differences between the Democratic and the Republican Parties. 
   
   The difference is that the Republican Party  is still the party of millionaires, Mitt Romney, no pun intended. Mitt Romney reportedly is worth more than 200 million dollars, twice the wealth of Lady Gaga but is in a "maybe" status about making his income from investments in Bain Capital,Staples, and Home Depot. As am addendum, the union representative at the Bain plant indicated that there was a substantial loss in jobs that was attributed to Mitt Romney.
   
   Former Republican President George Bush  received a place in the book of world records as being the President who had the most millionaires in his presidential cabinet.
   
   Once President Obama won the White House, the millionaires as reported in Fortune Magazine found tax shelters not only in Switzerland but in Mexico as well.
   
   If a Republican president was seated, would these millionaire have to find ways to protect their money?
   
   I disagree however with the Obama Administration concentration on that 1% of wealthy American however to bail the country out of its financial situation. I applaud the President however on creating jobs that resulted in a decrease of the unemployment rate to about 8.5 per cent.
   
   President Obama was recently in Disney World to promote tourism and to ease Visas to allow more tourists to visit and invest in the country.  The feat however was followed by a Republican advertisement  on C-Span that faulted the president for not allowing the pipeline to be constructed that supposedly would have created jobs. 
   
   Again, the Republicans were not looking at the entire picture in regards to the safety  of the country  and was more concerned with the jobs (money) that could be created. The pipeline could very well be a repeat of the Gulf Oil spill disaster if constructed of which the Obama Administration  was aware of. America has experienced enough disasters with the Katrina Hurricane that the Republicans did not provide the funds that could have prevented such as catastrophe with the reconstructing of a larger dam in New Orleans.
   
   Republican presidents seeming are not as concerned for the middle class in America that the Obama Administration claims hold the key to reeling the country further out of the economic recession. 
   
   Your question ended with "anymore" which indicates that you question if there are still any differences in the political parties.  I wish that the White House allowed spectators other than reporters in the Congress Chambers so the public can realize the difficulty of a Democratic president trying to get a stimulus bill, health bill, or education  passed into a law with ever dissenting Republicans.

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