I have never beenable to figure out what makes a democrat a democrat and
a republican a replubican, let al one a liberalist a liberalist, etc.
lol
I refuse to classify myself in any catagory, cause there are times when
I agree that subject a is best, yet a month later subject b would be
best, adn they belong to two different groups.
So what makes a dem a dem, a rep a rep and a lib a lib?

im not sure either , all i know is , when one person chooses to be dem
or rep etc , they seem brainwashed , its like, they will side with their
dem or rep no matter what ,

you have a brain , use it. like daniel said, there is always something
you will disagree with , all seperation parties do is "seperate" mud
sling, and make pointless arguements.

eventually dividing a nation into 2 or even more sides, creating
problems and helping them do whatever they want, because opposition will
never stand together.

i personally dont care what makes a dem a dem and a rep a rep, i just
wish it would stop , vote for people by what they stand for , and not
cause they have a silly title.

the problem with voting for what someone stands for is getting more than
you bargin for.

Like the excess baggage they carry in the form of their political party.

Sometimes it is necessary for them to abrogate what they stand for to
what their party wants them to do.

Money colors all their thinking and influences their vote. Name one
politician that has voted consistently with their personal beliefs.

also a good point, which goes against what i just said, but hey im not
perfect,, but how can one vote for it , nixon made it most obvious when
he said "read my lips" ,, he just forgot to follow it with , "dont
believe a word i say"

i think that goes with pretty much all candidates.

did i say nixon? , duh , i meant bush

thank you guys, but this still does not answer the questionof what each
side represents in its beliefs, like education reform, or welfare, etc.

im too dumb to answer that =) sorry

trust me friends your not too dumb you ave been quite vocal
enough to prove that

What does it matter what they say today. Tommorrow that will change
with the new wind.

What they stood for in the 60's got blown in another direction by the
80's.

I am glad columbus did not sail by the wind but by the chart. If he had
just followed each wind who knows were he would have ended up.

democrat vs republican, yea at 1 time they stood for something...now
it's all about filling up their bank accounts

the easiest way to find info about the differences, is to put something
similar to democrats vs republicans in the browser, or differences
between political parties, etc

i remember reading uncle johns bathroom reader a while back , it brought
up a story of rep and dem , etc, and one of the founding fathers was
against it , for basically the same reasons i stated before , of how it
would create seperation umong our country and would lead to revolt.

Well, like most affiliations, I think what causes a person to identify
particularly with one or the other political party tends to fall into
three categories: strong familiarity, overriding issues, or because it's
easier than thinking. In my case I self-identify as a Democrat not only
because I was raised in a very political environment (DC), but because I
do see strong and, to me, important differences between the parties.

I have friends who declare their party affiliations over different
reasons. My Russian Orthodox friends, for instance, vote Republican
because of the abortion issue. I, for my part, vote Democratic because
I am strongly in favor of gun-control, limiting corporate powers,
international outreach, and social services, all of which are partisan
issues.

In answer to the well-deserved question of "how can I tell who's
candidate is who's?", that's a more complicated issue. While "tree
huggers" are obviously dem and "red-necks" are obviously rep, most
candidates are forced by political realities to position themselves as
moderates. Personally, I would heartily endorse anyone who cares to
make an informed, educated decision, regardless of who they vote for.
At least they voted.

That said, my vote will always be in favor of carefully reasoned,
intelligent, compassionate dialogue, a position far more commonly held
(to my mind) by the Democratic candidate. I could here begin a tract on
radicalism and the flaws of the two-party system, but I'll stop there
for now. Hope that helps. ( c;

-Jer

"Vote-Smart" is the premier, non-partison organization in a America
dedicating to collecting and disseminating objective data to enable
voters in America to be as informed of possible in their voting. To
obtain the ratings for the parties as described here, and so provide
informed answers to the question or how similar or dissimilar the
Democratic and Republican parties are, the most recent reports for every
special interest group listed at www.Vote-Smart.Org were reviewed and
aggregated into averages according to each group's individual ratings of
the Congressmembers of the two parties. The whole purpose of these
groups is to know the two parties inside and out, to try to influence
the votes of their congress members, and to keep score as to which
congress members their own groups members should be told to reward and
supported and which which need to be opposed and punished.
Job Growth Rates
under recent presidents:
President % Growth
in # years
Johnson (D) 3.8% in 5
Carter (D) 3.1% in 4
Clinton (D) 2.4% in 8
Kennedy (D) 2.3% in 3
Nixon (R) 2.3% in 5
Reagan (R) 2.1% in 8
Bush-I (R) 0.6% in 4
( Bureau of Labor Statistics )
Of particular interest is whether the average ratings for the
parties fall above or below fifty percent for each group -- that is,
whether the party votes with the wishes of a given special interest
group more often than not or whether the party votes against that
group's wishes more often than it does with them.
After combining these ratings in this way, the question then
becomes whether any difference can be seen in the way the two parties
vote. Do the numbers reveal any useful information about the parties'
voting patterns? Is there a reason for those disillusioned with the
political process to hope?
And the answer? A profound, emphatic, resounding, definite: YES!
Yes, there is a huge chasm between the way most of the members
of the two major parties vote on many issues. Vote-Smart.org lists 107
different ratings. Of these, fully 93 found the parties stratified on
either side of the fifty percent mark, one supporting a particular
interest, and the other opposed to that same interest.
Furthermore, not only did an overwhelming majority of groups
find the parties to be on opposite sides of their issues, but the
difference between their positions is normally huge. The average spread
between the ratings that any group assigned to the parties was 55
percentage points. The parties do not simply differ slightly on the
issues-- they often differ like night and day.
What's most instructive are the particular groups that found the
parties to be voting with their wishes. Looking at those groups,
together with their self-described missions produces a composite view of
the positions of the parties.
I have not updated the figures on this page since the year 2002,
but there hasn't been any need to do so because the purpose of this page
is to highlight the contrast between the two parties, and if anything
that contrast has only grown in the period since this study was made.
The most glaring disparity between the parties is regarding
organized labor. Sixteen different labor unions provide ratings of
Congressmembers' voting, and all 16-- every last one-- found that the
Democratic Party voted in favor of the interests of the working men and
women that they represent, while the Republican Party voted against
those interests. In fact, the most common rating individual Democrats
in Congress received from labor unions was a perfect 100 percent--
voting with that union every time. In stark contrast, the most common
rating any individual Republican received was a perfect zero, never
voting with that union even once. For example, of the 261 Democrats in
Congress that the United Food and Commercial Workers union rated in
2001, 206 received a perfect 100 percent rating. In contrast, of the
269 Republicans in Congress the UFCW rated in 2001, 232 received an
unqualified zero. It's as if the Republican Party has declared outright
warfare on working people in this country.
"But what about business?" might come the rejoinder. When that
general charge has been expressed more narrowly, it translates to: "The
Democrats and the Republicans are just two branches of the Business
Party." The facts show how totally untrue that charge is, and coming at
this matter from opposite points of view, business and labor both say
the same thing, i.e. that Republicans favor business interests, while
Democrats favor workers interests.
Five different special interest groups are listed as
representing business on Vote-Smart.org, and all five found the
Republicans to vote with their interests while the Democrats vote
against them.
As demonstrated by their voting records, Democrats are viewed by
working people, women, seniors, African-Americans, Hispanics and
consumers as the advocates for just and equitable working conditions,
for civil rights, for protecting the environment, for reproductive
freedom, for gun control, for education, for public health, and for
humanitarian social policy.
And the Republicans? The Republicans are viewed by big business
opponents of taxes on business, or those who benefit most from business
and opponents of government services to any entity other than
businesses, as services require taxation to pay for them. Perhaps they
can best be defined by what they're against, rather than what they're
for: they are against all those groups and all those social aims that
the Democrats serve.

you can google all your information like I just did there in that page.
democrats vs republican

Heck of a lot of info, Dontlook, thanks for sharing.
-J

"So what makes a dem a dem, a rep a rep and a lib a lib?"

To be perfectly honest I think the bottom line comes down to nothing
more than one box they check when they sign up to run.

There have been people who have changed party midstream, in fact, I
think some people have actually done that after they were in office.
I'm not sure how that works. But I think any member of the House or
Congress can change their official 'party' affiliation at any time.

I’m not sure why it actually matters because what really matters is how
they vote on issues and they can vote however they like with total
disregard to what party they might be affiliated with.

I was just recently listening a radio broadcast about some Judge that is
running for office. It’s a woman and somehow she is running as BOTH a
republican and a democrat simultaneously! I didn’t even know that was
possible. They said that at the end of the preliminary voting their
will only be two candidates left.

HOWEVER, if she wins BOTH the democratic AND the republican nomination
then she’ll be the only one left to run!

Now that’s really strange. But that’s what they said on the radio.
This was for some local judge in Pennsylvania. I don’t know who they
were talking about. I wasn’t really paying attention to the broadcast,
except I did hear them explain what I just said above and I thought it
really sounded strange. But evidently you can run on both sides at the
same time. She could lose on both sides too of course.

Weird!

I'm not into politics at all so I have no clue how it works.

there is no fundamental difference between dumacrats & republicons...
it is a shell game giving the illusion of choice for us..

we need to take control of the game...3rd party...


but I am not optomistic that anything will change before the big
crash..

I watched Face the Nation a few weeks ago, and they were talking to
Governor Huckelbee. The guy, I dont remember who, kept telling him he
did not have a chance to become President, because he did not have
enough money in his campaign. To me that is the problem. Now he has
issues I dont agree with, but his lack of money isnt one of them. It
brings me back to what I have thought all along. The funds raised by
political parties should be distributed evenly among the candidates,
without allowing any personal funds to be used in their campaigns. The
current system keeps every American from running for President. The days
of telling your children that one day they can be President do not exist
anymore. Maybe they never did, I really dont want to believe that
because to me that was always part of the American dream. Currently if a
candidate doesnt kiss ass, either with one political party or the
lobbyist for major corporations he will never be President. This
maintains that every president we have will be one of the boys, and
never an average American that knows the struggles of the average
American. Think about it do any of the politicians running for office
have to worry about Out sourcing of jobs, or whether they can make ends
meet at the end of the month?..... Do they have to worry about how to
pay for their children's college tuition?
The professional politicians of today do not care about you and me or
our struggles. They have no idea what it is to be an average American
and it shows.

The professional Politicians will be the downfall of America. Mark my
words.......

Davinci I agree, it's up to us to force the changes if there is to be a
change.