Information on a variety of parties can be found at Project Vote Smart.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Politics As Usual (7)
Select 4 US political parties (2 of which must be Democrat and Republican). Compare and contrast the 4 parties' philosophical views that in large part determine party platform and beliefs. Include a brief discussion of how such philosophical differences play a role in the partisanship that occurs during political decision making.
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The Republican, Democratic, American Independent, and Liberal political parties are all the same with their beliefs by all agreeing that we should protect the right of life, liberty, and property, and that we should have a clean environment. They also all agree on the fact that we should all be treated equally, and that we should have freedom of speech. Yet there is plenty of issues that they don't all agree on.
Here are some issues that not all for parties agree completely on.
Abortion is an issue that is split 50/50 between the four parties that I have chosen. Democrats and Libertarians believe that we the people have the right to make are own decisions whether or not a person has an abortion, but the Independents and Republicans are against abortion.
All four parties believe that every child should be offered free education, but the Libertarians believe that the parent should have the right to decide how much or how little education that their child receives.
The Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians believe that we should have the freedom of religion and that we should be able to follow what ever religion that we wish to, but he American Independents believe that we should follow that Christian heritage and follow the Christian principles.
When it comes to the topic of foreign relations the American Independents and Libertarians believe that we should not send our military into other countries to preform foreign interventions, they believe that out military needs to stay on US soil and defend the United States. Yet when it comes to the Republican they will do all to protect the security of the United States even if it means putting our military in other countries. And the Democratic party says that yes they will send our military into other countries with the help of our Allies to help make peace.
When the topic of taxes come up between the four parties they all have a different opinion on how, what and who we should tax. The Republicans say that they believe that we should only tax to make money to pay for the essentials, the Democratic party says that they want to make taxes more fair by making it more equal between the poor and rich, the American Independents say that we should go back to the taxes limited to the original Constitution and we should return to a debt free system, and the Libertarians say that there should be no taxes, because the money you make should be yours.
Though I only chose a few topics to compare between the four parties you can see that they all have their own beliefs and opinions, and with these beliefs and opinions they need to be able to prove to we the people that they have knowledge and understand the issues that they are going to be making decisions on. They all so need to be truthful with themselves and those that they want to receive support from.
S.Q.Hall
Susan McCliment
Of all of the political parties in the United States of America, only 5 have a mathematical chance for their candidate becoming President of the United States of America. The Republican and Democratic parties are well known, yet there are others - including the Libertarian and Constitution parties - who have their candidates on ballots in enough states where their candidate could possibly receive majority of electoral votes to be voted to the Presidency.
The Republican party tends to have a very conservative philosophy overall. They generally support the doctrine of Unilateralism, which states that a country has the right to use military force without assistance or blessing from other countries when there is a threat to it's security. They approach economics with a view that government intervention should be minimal. Socially, they tend towards a more regulatory approach, where individual rights are balanced against the perceived good of society as a whole.
The Democratic party, on the other hand, tends to have a liberal overall overall philosophy, and rejects the doctrine of Unilateralism. Democrats tend to be the opposite of Republicans with regards to both economics, where they trend towards regulation and oversight, and social issues, where they take a more individualist approach and oppose legislation and intervention.
The Constitution party tends to have a conservative philosophy (even more conservative then the Republican party), and advocate a strict interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America. They state that their goal is, in part, "...to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations." [http://constitutionparty.com/mission_statement.php] As such, they believe that the Federal Government does not have the right to tax the American public (to the point of looking to repeal the 16th amendment to the Constitution, which gives the Federal Government exactly that right).
The Libertarian party has a philosophy of non-government intervention and personal responsibility, which causes it to appear conservative in some aspects, and liberal in others. In fact, the Libertarian party rejects the traditional "right-left" (one-dimensional) political spectrum, favoring a two-dimensional spectrum with the x-axis being Economic Freedom and the y-axis being Personal Freedom. They believe that "Government's only role is to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud." and state that "Live and let live is the Libertarian way." [http://www.lp.org/introduction/what-is-the-libertarian-party]
With the varied philosophies of major political parties in the United States, it is inevitable that partisanship will play a role in American politics. With the two major players (the Democratic and Republican parties) favoring regulation and independence in opposition on both social and economic issues, they can not help but have philosophical differences that divide legislative bodies along party lines. With the addition of smaller (yet vocal) parties advocating near-complete non-regulation, yet with conflicting reasons and ideologies ("...[restoring] American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations" versus "Live and let live") any proposed legislation will be supported by some parties and opposed by others, simply because it conflicts with their stated political and philosophical beleifs.
Jessica Meza
Today there are many political parties to choose from besides Democrat and Republican. Although they are still the two main parties that divide the people of the United States. Examples of other parties are the Libertarian and the Green Party. These four parties have lots of common beliefs and in over viewing them, seem to also have common goals desired to further enhance the quality of life for the American citizen such as, a better economy, cleaner environment, inexpensive healthcare, safety, less taxes, and education. In general these parties also support the amendments in regards to having the right to bear arms and freedom of speech. Coinciding with the similarities there are also many differences. The Green and Libertarian Party are smaller parties that are more personal. The Green Party is passionate about the environment, feminism and gender equality, community based, and non-corporate dominated.www.gp.org. The Libertarian's are non-interventionists who want free trade, no censorship and consistency.www.lp.org. Now, when it comes to the two mainstream parties after all the debates and campaigns it is still difficult to describe exactly what each party is going to do differently and how they are going to accomplish it. They do have different policies, plans of action and individual thoughts to what's of greater importance. In my opinion, at the end of the day there are many personal factors that are taken into consideration when it comes to political decision making that is biased. The factors include religion, social class, education, and unfortunately race. Therefore, an individual sticks to what they know and believe in which results in decisions based on personal and professional life experiences.
The Democratic & Republican parties are the most popular political parties in America. There are five different political parties all together. The Democratic, Republican, Green & Constitution Party all have thier own beliefs. Some of the parties agree with the same issues & some of them don't. Like for instance, the Republicans & Constitution Parties are against abortion while the Democratic & Green party are for abortion. All of the political parties are against the war in Iraq except the Republicans support the war in Iraq. Another thing that Republicans & Constitution agree on is against the same-sex marriage while the Green & Democratic party are in favor of it. There are many other issues that they agree or disagree. But those are some of the few issues they agree or disagree on.
Stephanie S.
Zabrina Ybarra
There are more than four different political parties, however, I chose the four that I understand most. These parties are the democratic, republican, constitution, and libertarian party.
Many parties share more than just one view. For example, the Republican, Libertarian, and Constitution party believe in opposing more gun legislation. The libertarians believe in preserving the bill of rights, and the Constitution party as well. The Republicans believe in citing constitutional rights as well. Also, the Constitution party believes in the right to defend ones self. However, the Democratic Party believes in allowing the right to bear arms of course however, they believe in stricter gun control. This being said, if any party were to be elected, it would be obvious that the Democratic Party would enforce more laws in order to have the right to bear arms. Perhaps, due to safety issues, and the fact that they believe in a larger government. If Democrats in office as president, chances are that a citizen would be under more pressure while trying to defend oneself. This doesn’t exactly complete the act of freedom or the right to bear arms when necessary.
Looking more on to the views they share on abortion. The Republican Party and the Constitution party are against abortion. Their views share a philosophy of protecting life of all. As far as the Republican party, their views stand that unless the mother’s life is in danger or more leveling of reason along the lines of why. On the other hand, Libertarians and Democrats share a philosophy of pro choice. Looking out of the eyes of Libertarians, their views stand on the mother having a choice to do as she pleases due to it being her body. They believe the government should not have the say on what happens to her body, and that the fetus does not have rights. With these views being shared, I believe that if any or the other are chosen to lead, it is obvious that there is an equal chance for a woman being able to chose whether or not she has the right to give life.
Depending on what they believe in, it is crucial to how our tax money is spent and how. Another issue is war. Where republicans view fit to believe in war. This may lead the country into a crisis as it has depending on money issues and spreading over into economic issues. This had a large impact on how financially successful our country is and stays. On the other hand, sometimes war depends on whether or not the country is safe. The philosophical judgments come into hand during these issues by having the president deciding what is safe or not.
Ryan Keene
There are a lot of political parties that say a lot of things. Each one with it's own philosophical and political views, however seem to all be saying the same things in different ways. I looked at four parties: Autonomy Party, American Synthesis Party,Party X, and the Thermodynamic Law Party. All four parties are very head-strong with what they believe it whether it political, educational or societal reform. All seem to say that they want specific things changed, and they all have different ways of doing it. If you actually read and think about some of the issues that they bring up, they all want the same outcome. These third parties all want some sort of reform, some sort of dramatic change and they want it now. They do differ on how the means will affect the ends though.
The Autonomy Party wants an autocratic leader. This means that they want the United States of America to be ruled by one wealthy, educated person who can make all of our decisions for us. They do not like abortion, and treat it like murder. They do like educational and societal reform for the sake of the people, but how much can be reformed if we are governed by a dictatorship? That type of government does not give America the freedom that people desire, and it contradicts what they say about trying to make Americans fight for them. Overall though, they do want change and they do want it now.
The American Synthesis party is as if all Americans had a picnic and combined ideas and made the decisions that were best for the nation. Isn't this what we are trying to do now? It isn't working so far because no matter what the American people do, our own emotional preferences get involved, so they aren't really trying anything new, they just want the concept of something new.
Another party that is similar to the American Synthesis Party is Party X. The only difference between them is that Party X would bring the boxing gloves. A little extremist, and even anti-government at times, but they do deliver a good message about how we need to have a government that does actually pay attention to what the people are saying they want. They were basically saying that the government is making decisions based on what they think would be best for the nation so as not to hurt any feelings, but in turn were actually doing just that.
Lastly, one of the more interesting parties was the Thermodynamics Law Party. This party is actually trying to mathematically and systematically calculate what is wrong with the system, what we can predict will happen in the future, and then how to fix it, all by the Laws of Thermodynamics.
All of the parties have philosophical differences, and all have different political standpoints, this affects them in the sense that we will always be diversified and segregated because no one person has the same philosophical standpoint. People need to stop trying to use this as ammo or fuel to the fire. There is nothing wrong with having differences, but we need to unite and understand them, and ultimately realize that if a governmental system is to be effective it has to put aside something that it simply cannot. With that being said, it is in my opinion that there is no perfect form of government except that which promotes good judgment and does not critique something as to be wrong just because it is not a personally satisfying concept. One that will promote people to have philosophical and political differences and flourish with the notion of "we the people, for the people" can actually mean something to the people of this nation and we can realize that America is better because we promote diversity.
The Democratic Party has modernly been known to be the more “liberal” parties of the two major. The Democratic Party tends to favor the ideas of a mixed economy, social freedoms and a balanced budget. They believe that it is the United States duty to help other countries in poverty or suffering from severe injustice. Therefore, following the more liberal concepts they would probably vote, in favor of abortion and gay rights. They might be more likely to add taxation in times of deficit, but also support welfare. And they would probably be less likely to be aggressive in foreign affairs.
The Republican Party is normally looked at as a very conservative party. They tend to be pro-business and wealth, believe that the states should have more power then federal and that the military must be kept large, both here and internationally. That being said they would probably be anti- abortion, against gay rights and gun control, and big supporters of national security. They would probably be more likely to support a tax-cut if they believed it would help the wealth of the economy and in support of the Marriage Protection Act.
The Green Party is obviously centered on environmental issues. They also consider pacifism, social justice, and consensus decision-making the other platforms of their party. I would image they would be against nuclear power but supporters of wind and solar (natural) power. Also, I think they would be for a welfare system and voting more for themselves then for a representative that will vote for them.
The Libertarian Party believes in people being very independent and self-contained. Almost like you get what you work for and allowing everything to run on it’s own. They would probably vote for lower taxes, less government (particularly state) regulations, less welfare and strongly for privacy protection. They would probably be against “sticking our noses” in other countries business and greatly open the country up to trade and business. I would also image they would believe that the government should stay out of abortion and gay rights.
Peter Ngor.
In the United States of America there are quite few political parties that you can choose from when come election time. Though there are two main or dominance parties there are four that I do know that can be consider major parties beside Republican and Democrat party. Here are they names of the four parties that I chooses Republican well known as conservative this party belief in more wars when the can, they do not really care about allies when come to freedom and on the abortion the belief on the to live of the baby. Democrat which is know as liberal the do belief in wars when it come what is threatened our freedom but they are more on first we diplomacy instead of rushing to war. And on the abortion side the belief a woman can choose whether to abort or not. The libertarian party the belief in freedom first two parties and when come to abortion they are like Democrats and more on the to choose side than pro-life side . Then there is other party called the Independent these are people who do not involve in take side in all those other major issues that other parties had their differences on rather they let every do their thing and just vote who the feel like voting for. However all these four p[arties do belief in freedom, liberty, and freedom of speed speech.
Liz Stern
To begin I would like to say that before this class I had not taken any time to invest in politics and knew absolutely nothing beyond the idea of Democrat and Republican. After doing research I learned that there is much more and when I decide that I would like to take part in the decisions that affect my everyday life that I have more than two options. This is why I would like to discuss the Green party and the Independent American party in addition to the Democratic and Republican parties. I am going to do my best to paraphrase a lot of the information so I do not have to put quotes over everything I write but everything I am going to discuss is based on the information I found on the following websites:
http://www.gp.org
http://www.usiap.org
http://www.gop.com
http://www.democrats.org
Some of the main beliefs of the Green party are “Commitment to environmentalism, non-violence, social justice and grassroots organizing, Greens are renewing democracy without the support of corporate donors.” Their dedication to taking on corporations is one that makes them stand out from other parties that I have read about. Without being rude I would say that they are the “hippies” of the 21st century, this is not necessarily a bad thing. They want peace and tranquility and don’t want corporate politics to continue to run our nation when they would be able to bring better options and help to the table. Their platform includes issues such as enabling government to put a cap on spending and proportional representation on ballots for citizens to vote based on candidate not solely on party.
The Independent American Party stands for all things that represent God and all things that support the rights of citizens. All principles are in support of the text from the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution for the United States and the Bill of Rights. They all have a belief and are strong standing in their belief of God and Jesus Christ as a savior. Their mission is “To promote respect for life, liberty, and property; strong traditional families; patriotism; and individual, state and national sovereignty—with a strong reliance on the Declaration of Independence and allegiance to the Constitution for the United States of America—by petition to God and by political and educational means.”
Republican National Committee has some similar views to both the Independent American party and the Green party. They are out to ensure that citizens of American are all treated equal and given their rights entitled to them by the Declaration of Independence and other national doctrines. They are also there to preserve traditional marriage and religious liberties. “Republicans believe that economic self-sufficiency is the ultimate answer to challenges in Indian country and that tribal communities, not Washington bureaucracies, are better situated to craft local situations. They believe that Native Americans aren’t given enough respect and they should be honored for their values and traditions.
Democratic National Committee has a guarantee for affordable healthcare for every American. Democrats want to “give everyone willing to work hard the chance to make the most of their God-given potential.” Democrats want to make sure that retirement and social security is available and lower taxes. It seems that the Democrats focus their attention on making sure the citizens of America are well off, not just the upper class but the middle and lower classes as well. They care about poverty, work safety, opportunities for women, and education. The Democrats are different from the three parties discussed above. Their ideals and values are about ensuring the happiness of the citizens; this is remotely similar to the Green party but not completely.
The main philosophical role that is played in each of these is the idea of a God. Every one of these parties mentions God, so this makes me believe that those who don’t believe in a God aren’t Democrat or Republican. Many philosophical views take part in politics such as the idea of cause and effect (each plan that is enforced will have an effect on the economy), the idea of knowledge (they all know that their party is the best and will make America a better place), and logic (each party believes that their idea of logic is better than the next guys). Peoples/citizens have to think on their own, believe what they thing is right and logical, and follow the path that they feel will better America, basically each person is their own reality with their different views and opinions.
Nicole Hahlen
Republican,Democratic,Independent, and Liberal political parties are all the different parties you can register to vote as, they all have very different beliefs which is why we as the people get to chose which party we want to vote for. Although they all do have one thing in common which is to protect the right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Also that everybody should be treated equally reguardless their race, background, or living status. The democrats and republicans are the two most widly known political parites you can say both are almost completly opposite from each other democart's are for the people and what the people want and republicans are for what the president thinks would be the best decision reguarding the direction the world is going in, and how to make this a better world. There are also many different things reguarding the two such as republicans are pro-life and democrats are for what the mother wants such as terminating the living fetus or allowing it to live. Along with gay marriages one party is for and they other party is usually against. This is one of the many things that can be discussed about the two opposing political parties.
Try to remember that rarely can one find a political party in sync with all their beliefs. As a result, many people join parties they don't agree with on all issues. For example - there are pro choice and gay republicans, there are Southern Baptists (largely pro-life) who are democrats.... Just be sure to include sufficient detail (and sources of info) to justify your statements on platforms of the various political parties.
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