Belief structures of USA political parties
 

I'm getting ready to register to vote in the USA, but I grew up in Canada so I'm not too familiar with the 2-party system. Can anyone give me a good rundown of the philosophies behind the two parties?

Re: Belief structures of USA political parties
 

This is what I told my gardening friend when I finally convinced him to register:

"Look at your hands, if you have callouses then the Democratic party probably represents your interests." ;)

I'm going to look for some informative websites for you because this could become an explosive topic.

EDIT:
The best info may be straight from the source:

The Democratic Party's platform:
http://www.democrats.org/about/2000platform.html

The Republican Party's "Who We Are" page:
http://www.rnc.org/gopinfo

I think Dick Gephart summed the philosophies quite nicely when he remarked that:

The Republicans believe in survival of the fittest while Democrats believe that people don't get where they are without help from others in society.

You can register as an independant as well.

pyraxis - The problem you will face is neither parties platform really says what they DO and that’s where the difference is.

No platform will say something like 'We incite class warfare in order to create an atmosphere where we are guaranteed to harvest votes from the largest subclass', but if you have followed these parties all your life, you would know exactly who I'm talking about :)

While my basic political philosophy has not changed much in the last 20 years, my understanding has grown to the point where I can 'read between the lines'.

Sadly nothing can really help you with that except experience.

Like someone said - look at your hands - if you have callouses - I suppose what was being eluded to is if you "work for a living" - then went on to imply that the Democratic party would most likely act in your best interests. This at one time might have been correct but I seriously doubt it - the implication comes from long time labor union support for the party - has absolutely nothing to do with the slob that paid the dues and was basically forced to vote for the union's candidate. This is bullshit. Look at the candidate or candidates and ignore the party other than its expressed view. Does the candidate look like and act like someone you can support and trust. Look at who is supporting that candidate - for example - Gore just came out in support of Dean - I was unlikely to have voted for Dean in the first place and now have no question at all in deciding that if Gore likes him, he doesn't need to be elected to anything. That is just my view but the idea is valid - look at the individuals and consider the party later. If you are in a state in which you have to register by party then registration makes a difference. In this state most local elections are decided in the Republican primary - if you are not registered as a Republican then most often you have no say at all in local elections - when the national and state wide elecetions come along it makes no difference how you are registered - then you vote for the candidate and not the party.

Unfortunately, neither party has recently exhibited a strong belief structure. Republicans do things in the name of conservatism that are not really conservative, but are politically expedient. Democrats do things that are just plain silly at best, and not in the interests of good governing or the people they claim to represent just because it will hurt Pres. Bush and the Republicans.

In my opinion, this makes the old stereotypes that I used to argue against of there being a party for the haves and the have-nots more true now than ever.

Given that, I think the advice given by Liquor Dealer above is sound, especially concerning local elections and registration.

The unfortunate truth is that Democrats tend to believe that anything the Republicans do is evil and must be stopped, and the Republicans believe that naything the Democrats do is evil and must be stopped. This is why our legislature has trouble getting anything done. The problem has become worse now that Bush's presidency has polarized most of congress into Bush-haters (Dems) and Bush-lovers (Reps)

Party affiliation is only really important in primaries, and you should vote for whatever candidate you feel will best represent you.

If you don't know, you can just be independent and not register as a party member.

Your best bet is to claim yourself Independent.

And then decide on each policy or candidate on their own merits.

In the end, both parties are out for their own,
so vote with your heart, and not on the line.

BTW...don't let anyone tell you that you "have to" belong to a party,
being Independent is what being an American is all about. ;)

P.S.
Republican - lower taxes, military/industrial support, moral programming, individual rights
Democrat - Union/Agricultural support, governmental programming, civil rights
Libertarian - lower govt, lower taxes, lower subsidies (no real civil stance), individual rights
Green - Environmental, Anti-industry (no real economic policy), civil rights
(**this is just overall rhetoric platforms...but many times it blends together)

This is all domestic agendas
With foreign agendas they all go back and forth with whether we should get involved or not.
It depends on the cause.
Both Dems & Reps claim to be for being in budget, neither is able to stop spending money.
Neither Libertarian nor Green has enough backing to get consistent or strong representation.