I honestly think that if you put a republican and a democrat in a room and avoided the obvious classic arguments (abortion, etc) your average American couldn't tell them apart. It's hard to be clear in your positions when all that comes out of your mouth is spin.

For the most part, Democrats are liberal, while Republicans are conservative. This is not necessarily true in all things, but generally, this is considered one of the main dividing points between the two groups.

Democrats think that everyone should have a chance and they try to make things equal for everyone. Republicans think that by helping out the top people, they will pass it down to the lower people- Trickle down economics. However, it usually gets stuck at the top.

It started out as this. Republicans are for big business and big government. While Democrats are for your average man and smaller government.

If you are speaking about the US political parties, then there are no time-invariant core differences. Each party has been more "conservative" or more "progressive" at various times in history. If you are speaking about the relatively invariant difference between "right wing" and "left wing" politics, then I think looking at the political emphases in terms of traditional Father/Mother gender roles is illuminating. In the traditional nuclear family, Father is tasked with earning money (making the economy grow), protecting the household (national defense), punishing the misbehaving children (criminal justice) and ensuring that spending is kept within budget (tax/fiscal policy). Meanwhile, the mother is charged with taking care of the kids (social welfare), making sure they get to school (education policy), making sure they have food and clothing (infrastructure spending), seeing that none of them are treated unfairly (civil rights) and encouraging them to explore their interests (arts and cultural spending). People who are "right wing" in their political philosophy tend to emphasize the Father role of government while left-leaning people tend to emphasize the Mother role for government. Naturally, other factors (rise of corporate power, religious 'values' voters, dominance of incumbents, etc.) can make the Father/Mother model less clear, but I think overall the analysis is a valid model. . . .

Democrats usually support social issues such as attempting to eradicate homelessness making sure criminals who have done their time get a fair chance at getting a job so they don't resort to crime again. Making sure minorities have equal access to educational housing and job opportunities that white people have. Republicans on the other hand support more moral based issues such as making abortion illegal in most cases defining marriage as being between a man and a woman and making sure homosexuals don't have the same rights as heterosexual do. Preventing God from being completely eliminated from society. These are ideals that democrats and republicans support in general. That is not to say that all democrats and all republicans support those things just a good majority of them.

In the United States of America, the overall differences are these: . DEMOCRATS: ...push for a larger government with more government control . REPUBLICANS: ...want to keep government small with limited control ... There are other differences, but within this one difference sits the heart of the difference between the two parties.

CS - If you truly believe that, why aren't you moving to Iraq or Russia? They have very little government in either of those places...;-D...

Well, this is a starting point. It says a lot. Democrats are for the most part liberals/progressives. They have an elitist attitude. They think they are smarter than everybody else. Conservatives believe each person should be left to their own will, that all people are equal, no matter their background. Conservatives promote the rights and liberties of the individual. Democrats believe the government should be all powerful and take care of everybody's problems. Many Republicans and most Democrats are elitists. No Conservatives are elitist. You MUST differentiate between Conservative and Republican, there is a distinct difference.

Yes. Republicans claim to want smaller government, when it comes to them, but what much much larger government when it comes to enforcing thier "values" against everyone else. You can bank on the notion that they get abortions in secret, but scream when a non-republican wants one. In the following list, there are a list of "Moral Value" republicans and how they really act: http://dkosopedia.com/wiki/Examples_of_Republican_hypocrisy_on_moral_values Yet where is the list for Democrats? I've noticed some attempts by Republicans, but they give up rather quickly because such lists end up being very short. Republicans scream about the 'sanctity" of life when it comes to abortion. Yet ignore the endless lives lost in their unnecessary war in Iraq. I could continue to type about the manifold contradictions republicans are, for a very long time. No one died, when Clinton Lied.

It is ironic that Republicans say that they are for smaller government and less control while they have, at least doubled the government since their reign began. Here is the real difference, Democrats believe that government can be a force for good in peoples lives and that corporations should have a very limited role in government. Republicans say that government is always bad, unless it is handing out contracts for large corporations. They also believe that the people aren't smart enough to govern so we need corporate leadership to continue growth in the country. They also have the elitist position that there is no reason to help the poor and medical care is a privilege, not a right.