What the diff. between republicans and democrats?

Question

i really have no idea. i dont understand politics and dont pay attention in govt. i mean, i just feel dumb. any help?

Answer 1

Not much anymore, both have spent tax payer funds like drunken sailors on nickle night at the local w***e house!

Answer 2

Republicans are better in bed.

Answer 3

when you disagree with a Rep., they think you are evil; when you disagree with a Dem., they think you are stupid

Answer 4

The core difference is the constituencies they have to keep satisfied.

Elections turn on donations and voter turnout, often enough.  When a group always goes heavily for one party (environmentalists for Democrats for example, or gun enthusiasts for Republicans), the party has to keep that group from getting too displeased with them or they'll lose the donations and voter turnout from that group.  They two major parties do pretty much the same things in campaigning for swing voters, but not entirely because they have to avoid stepping on different people's toes.

Note that each party has to keep their core constituencies only minimally satisfied.  If they win once-and-for-all on an issue, they lose the ability to use that issue to whip up support.  So they each do the minimum necessary to keep the donations and votes flowing from their respective supporters, prompting accusations from both sides that there's no difference between the parties -- but they do keep on doing that minimum, so there is indeed a big difference.

Ideologically, Democrats tend to favor the interests of the have-nots, whereas Republicans appeal to a coalition that includes big money and cultural conservatives.  

But at the national level, the biggest single difference is in fiscal policy.  Democrats want to spend money on stuff, but they know it will have to be paid for with taxes and they (not the Republicans) will get the blame for the taxes.  So their fiscal policy is pretty good.  Occasionally they get tempted to focus on their spending priorities and suffer the electoral hangover, but at least there's a powerful check on that tendency.  Republicans on the other hand cannot possibly exercise fiscal restraint.  They have richer tastes, favoring richer constituencies like big oil and other big-money interests, so they tend to be penny-wise and pound-foolish.  You routinely hear them rail against hundreds of thousand or even MILLIONS of dollars of wasteful spending, while turning a blind eye to big-ticket categories costing billions or trillions.  They also have a powerful constituency of pseudo-libertarians who want low taxes now but don't care about limiting spending to match, on the grounds that deficits now will decrease the government's ability to spend money later.  So it doesn't matter how devoted an individual Republican may be to fiscal discipline: you're better off electing a Democrat who doesn't want to balance the books but has to, than a Republican who wants to but can't.

Constituencies that each party has to keep satisfied include the following.  For the Democrats: blacks, trial lawyers, environmentalists, gun-control advocates, and some segment of the financial industry.  For the Republicans: worst-case Southern racists, pseudo-libertarian deficit-mongers, gun enthusiasts, the Religious Right, and various segments of big business.  However, most of big business is bipartisan.

Answer 5

no difference they are both out to s***w us