2) Political Values: Left Or Right? (2 of 5)
2) Political Values: Left Or Right? (2 of 5)
A simple way to view the political philosophy of both parties would be that Democrats lean left whereas Republicans lean right. The Democrats are progressives and liberals whereas the Republicans are conservatives. Alas! If it were so simple… Within both parties are various factions and ideological differences that make the matter much more complicated.
In the Democratic Party, there are Progressives, who support government action to establish socioeconomic equality; Liberals, who advocate fair trade and a peaceful foreign policy; and Socialists, who want more welfare.
On the other hand, in the GOP, we have the Traditionalists, who are pro-business and hold a relatively more militaristic worldview; the Fiscal Conservatives, who vehemently insist on cutting down government spending; and Social Conservatives, who hold traditional views on many social issues such as religion and gay marriage.
The Libertarians hang around somewhere in between, and support one party or the other on the basis of the particular policies in question.
Both parties’ views on religion stem from their political beliefs as well. The more left-leaning Democrats are generally strictly secular and favor a clear distinction between the Church and State. The Republicans, in general, and the ‘religious right’, in particular, strongly associate their personal religious beliefs with their political policies. This cannot be considered a rule of thumb and there are various exceptions to the principle as well.
Come on now! What kind of journalism is this? “The Republicans want none of that hogwash.” The author already shows his bias in favor of Republicans.
Republicans favor large corporations and unregulated capitalism for maximum corporate profit. Democrats support workers rights and resit the power of large corporations to control government and want regulated capitalism. Everyone has seen the results of corporate greed for profit. The promotion of cigarettes as being healthy, crooked banks too big to fail, non foods and poisons being put in our food supply, bribing of public officials. The list goes on and on. Republicans recognize the problem and want the market to regulate crooked corporations but that is only possible if independent auditors are allowed to publicly illuminate their crimes.so the market will know not to do business with crooked corps. Democrats want to pay for enforcement with tax dollars, republicans don’t because taxes get out of control. Most people like less government but not NO government. Congressmen make more than 95% of what the rest of America makes. For that kind of money I think taxpayers are paying congress to come up with solutions that are agreeable to everyone. Unfortunately, taxpayers are paying for congress that stone wall and do nothing but call each other names which any lazy idiot can do. This should not be tolerated.
There are no differences beteen the 2. For example, for health care, one party wants private insurance & the other wants universal govt insurance. Both are identically wrong as health care is what chew do to yourself, not what others do 2 U. The coverage thing is about sick care, when your healthcare plan breaks down or is overwhelmed, calling for emergency intervention. We don’t need a doctor in good health. We need emergency intervention (sick care) when we can’t handle it.
Plus, on Election Day, the names & faces change, but the day after, it’s bidness as usual with oil wars & cross-border drone assssinations. So get over the “difference” nonsense already!!!
Bug differences — one is the party of dead beats, criminals, liars and traitor – led by sociopath, egotistical psychopaths. The other are hard working Americans led by cowards.
It seems to me that the analysis of issues in which Republican views are linked to “Christian” value misses the point. First, there are significant differences within Christendom on these issues — one example being the attitude towards same-sex marriages and the ordination of gay clergy. The Episcopal Church of the USA, to which I belong, supports both; the Southern Baptists, neither. Perhaps a more meaningful distinction is between tolerance of difference and what psychologists call “punitive orthodoxy” — the view encapsulated so neatly in the bumper sticker “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” For of course it settles nothing, even among followers of Jesus, let alone Jews and Muslims (my cousin’s husband is from Egypt and while largely secular, identifies as Muslim, and his son has served faithfully and well in the armed forces,)
As for health care, to say that this is what the insurance companies are “for” is awfully naive. Even under a drive for universal health insurance, private insurers have been guilty of price-gouging; but even were every private company honest, the fact is that they are far less efficient than government single-payer plans. When I first moved to NJ to teach, I discovered that Blue Cross (as it then was) spent forty cents of every dollar of my premium on administration. As of that same date, administrative expenses for Medicare were just eight cents on the dollar. Even were it not a matter of fostering universal health coverage as a right of citizenship in a civilized nation, as in Europe or Canada, the cost difference alone should be compelling. The Democratic approach (yes, there’s an -ic on the end of the adjectival form, and don’t let any alt-right ignoramus tell you there isn’t) is pragmatic here — and these days, that is the rule rather than the exception (other examples of Democratic realism: global warming is real, fossil fuel resources are finite, and “one-man-one-vote” means what it says), For the time being, the Republican party has been largely hijacked by delusional thinkers; the Republican representatives we knew in our youth (as a retired teacher I’m talking midcentury here) are largely extinct, whether through being pulled ever more to the right by the practical demands of obstructionist congressional politics or by deciding that they make better Democrats (e.g. Senator Leahy of Vt.) Or they throw up their hands in disgust and leave politics altogether (Reps. DeWine and Boehner and Sen. Snowe, for example).
This further exacerbates the polarizing of America into two camps incapable of dialogue (Tm Kne’s comment is a perfect example of this; he believes that based on his description alone we shall correctly identify the parties he coyly alludes to.) Articles like this one help, but in the face of the alt-right propaganda machine and fake news from Macedonia, coupled with their near-total abdication of editorial oversight and fact checking, it seems a bit like spitting into the wind. Fortunately, reality has a way of making itself felt irrespective of what we think about it. The problem, as Poor Richard said, is that “Experience teaches a dear [sc., costly] school, but fools may learn in no other.”