Democrats vs. Republicans
Political parties in the United States of America have been in existence for a long time. The parties determine the political power that their candidates can manage to scoop and the support that they get from the American citizens. Different political parties have different ideologies, culture, and beliefs. In the US, there are only two such political parties; the Democrats and the Republican. The Democratic Party in the U.S.A traces its roots back to Thomas Jefferson and his colleague James Madison. The modern day Democratic Party comes into existence in 1828 making it one of the world's oldest parties. The Republican Party, also known as Grand Old Party, on the other hand, was founded in 1854 (Richardson 3). It was dominated by anti slavery activists, ex-free Soilers, and economic modernizers.
There are vast differences between the present day democrats and the republicans. One of the inevitable differences between the two parties starts from their symbols. The Republican Party's symbol is an elephant, and the Democrats symbol is a donkey. The color of the Democrats is blue while that of the Republicans is red. Philosophically, the Democrats believe in liberalism, meaning that their ideas are founded by equality and liberty, while the Republicans are conservative. The Republicans are more into holding traditional values and attitudes and are averse to change. Economically, the Democrats believe in progressive taxation where the more you earn, the more taxes you pay. These tax laws are there to favor the regulations of the government. The Republicans, on the other hand, believe that the taxes should not be increased for any person whether wealthy or poor. They also believe that the free market should be left to influence the wages in the country (Ganzach 21). The Democrats do not oppose the fact that the government can raise taxes to fund its expenditures while the Republicans highly oppose the issue of raising taxes to support the government. Republicans prefer a flat rate tax regardless of the income of a person.
In the sector of social and human ideologies, the Democrats believe that everything should be based on social and community responsibility while the Republican's human and social ideas are based on justice and the rights of an individual (Mason 16). Democrats believe in government regulations. They think that laws are used to protect the consumers in the market. The Republicans, however, do not support this ideology and belief that the government regulations hinder the growth of jobs and the free market capitalism. The free-market economics believe that the market forces of supple and demand, working without any government involvement, are the most effective way for markets to operate (Krutz & Waskiewicz 595). The Democrats support the Obamacare and support the government involvement in the healthcare industry in the country through bodies like Medicaid and Medicare. On the other hand, Republicans view it that the private healthcare providers are more efficient in healthcare provision and therefore do not support the involvement of the government in the universal healthcare in the country. They oppose Obamacare and some of its provisions like a compulsory purchase of individual health care insurance. Another difference in the two political parties is their stance on immigration. The Democrats support the moratorium on deporting undocumented immigrants and also offer a pathway to citizenship for those undocumented immigrants that have lived in the United States for more than five years. On the other hand, the Republicans are against amnesty for any immigrant who is in the country illegally.
The core beliefs of the Republicans are geared towards individual responsibility and based on the idea that every person should be responsible for their own place in the society. Even as many in the united States recognize the benefits provided by private goods, we have increasingly come to recognize problems with the ideal that all social problems can be solved by exclusively private ownership (Krutz & Waskiewicz 596). They believe that government intervention should only occur if the society fails to function at the level of an individual. Republicans believe that the government should be as close to the individual as possible thus advocate for the reduction of power of the federal government and advocate for the return of authority to the state governments. The liberals tend to feel very comfortable with the ideal of the government shepherding progressive social and economic reform (Krutz & Waskiewicz 594). Their beliefs are also based on the right to free speech and support to women's suffrage. It is evident in the fact that Jeanette Rankin, who was a Republican, becomes the first female to ever serve in the congress. The core beliefs of the Democrats are centered on equality (Pimlott 56). They believe in equal opportunities for all citizens despite the race, gender, religion or even sexual orientation. They believe in creating tax gaps between different classes of people in the society who include the wealthy and the less fortunate. The heart of their beliefs is on bringing hope to renew communalism among American citizens thus creating more opportunity for general public to realize its goals and dreams ("3. A Multiracial World" 32).
There are practically no common grounds in the beliefs of the two parties in the USA, and this brings political division in the country. However, there are some legislatures that Republicans and Democrats support and that show vivid hope of reconciliation. One is in the criminal justice reform where members from both parties come together to support the issue. It is evident from Google's summit on criminal justice reform where Mike Lee, a Republican congratulates his colleague Cory Booker, a Democrat for his excellent work concerning the issue. The other area they come together is in combating drugs in the country especially during the Opioid and Heroin Epidemic.
The main weakness of the Republicans is the shift from what they once believed. Republicans are known to support the middle-class society but now are moving away from dealing with their issues and focus more on those of the upper class. They do so with the notion that the middle class is diminishing at an increasing rate and the upper-class increasing. This tension leaves the middle class in confusion and unlikely to support the party. Their strength is that they are willing to have tax reformations in favor of the public, for instance, tax cuts to favorable rates. The power of the Democrats lies in the fact that it is a diverse party and that it has room to accommodate any one from any race, religion, gender, and ethnicity. Their primary weakness is inter party divisions where one wing of the party, i.e., the ‘progressive wing' seems to be at war while the ‘Establishment side' is more accommodative ("Democratic-Republican Party" 45). If Democrats aim to have an active party, unity is needed, and this unity is not evident in the divisions.