Democrat or Republican?

[Coldicote]

The current hoo-ha of United States elections led me to look for the meanings of 'democracy' and 'republicanism'. Try it - if you’re prepared to be confused! One explanation I found was that democrats plan for the future, while republicans seek to preserve the status quo. What do you understand to be the difference between the objectives of the candidates?

[dotty.]

Mitt Romney wants to make great improvement to the lives of the very wealthy and the millionaire business community. Romney does not intend to help the sick or the poor or the ordinary people because he doesn't think they can be helped. If he did help them he feels his efforts would be watsed as the poor and the sick cannot help him in return and so wasted effort. Barak Obama wants to see everyone looked after.

[humbersloop]

^I'm legging it before clanad gets round to reading that one dotty... ;)

[emmie]

i rather tend to agree with Dotty, no matter what someone else thinks.
I have listened to both men, and would rather trust Obama than Romney any day of the week. I prefer American politics above our own, which is quite dull in comparison.

[sandyRoe]

To borrow a phrase from Thatcher, 'There's no such thing as society,' is what the Republicans seem to be saying. Society is a rat race where the devil takes the hindmost.
The Democrats appear to be a more caring party with an eye to the middle and working classes.

[emmie]

I would vote democrat had i lived in the USA

[dave50]

Let's hope Romney wins, he believes in getting the government off people's backs, which is what we could do with here.

[jake-the-peg]

He also believes the Angel Gabriel came and gave a bloke the word of God inscribed on Gold plates about how a lost tribe of Israel was wandering around America and that Jesus came and visited them.

So I guess it shows he'll believe almost anything

I'll bet David Icke believe in small Government too!

[dotty.]

do you mean mitt romney will get the governement off ALL the people's backs? what kind of pressure has the obama administration put on the unemployed and the poor that romney will have to rescue them from? I didn't think romney had any intentions of recognising any part of US society that had less than 10 million dollars to spend. Do you mean he is going to give the multi-million corporations tax breaks to allow them to employ poor people or donate their wealth to build schools and hospitals?

[andy-hughes]

I could not in all concience vote for a member of a political party that thought Ronald Reagan and Sara Palin were credible politicians, or that thinks Mit Romney is anything other than a deluded buffoon.

Gues that makes me a Democrat then ...

[FredPuli43]

" Conservative: A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from a Liberal, who wishes to replace them with new ones" (Ambrose Bierce 1847-1914. Nothing has changed much in the US since then!)

Republican:Bit late to get the US government out of American lives. It is everywhere you look,if you look closely, but there is this Republican obsession with big government. And it has become progressively more liberal over the decades.It is noticeable that, in a party that thinks universal healthcare is the work of socialist evil-doers, the presidential candidate introduced it to his own state.

Slowly and inexorably, the US has become, not more like France but more, perhaps, like the Netherlands ('Romneycare' was and 'Obamacare' is, like the system of compulsory health insurance in the Netherlands). All that remains is to give its workforce such things as proper holidays and more protection against summary dismissal and it may be as happy a place as others !

Democrat: In favour of something a bit closer to our welfare state. Believes that only 'Uncle Sam' is in a position to provide the remedy to certain shared problems (disasters, saving the car industry, healthcare insurance etc)

[Coldicote]

Apart from looking at the individuals concerned, I'm now wondering more than ever what is the fundamental difference between a democracy and a republic? Either way it's apparently a matter for the electorate to decide!

[mightyWBA]

Why are there only ever 2 candidates in a country as large as the USA?
Only one more than the old Soviet Union had.
It's a bit like the Boat Race.

[The Builder]

The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then they get elected and prove it.
....PJ O'Rourke

[janzman]

American politics is not the party but the man(woman).The Senate and Congress will decide the policies of the successful candidate.
You vote for the person you think will help you the most..all and every public office, from dog catcher,through schoolteacher to police chief,to mayor,to state governor and senator and then to president....all based on your vote.Republican or Democrat is immaterial it's the man the people will vote for........

[jno]

there are often more than two candidates, mightyWBA. Ralph Nader was a fairly influential one who may have cost Al Gore the 2000 election.

Roseanne ran this time. She got about 40,000 votes all told. http://www.myfoxtampa...ts-thousands-of-votes