Good morning and happy Saturday.
Today, while I am at the library typing my blog. My daughter is in her Math class. She takes electronics, and she loves it. I want her to spend more time studying the intracacies of technology. I told her she needs to spend more time studying the vocabulary so that she can gain more knowledge as to what is exactly going on.
I have to push her. But do we as Americans know what is going on with our two party system? What are the differences between the Democratic and the Republican parties?
Democratic Party- "The Democratic Party traces its origins to the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. However, the modern Democratic party truly arose in the 1830s, with the election of Andrew Jackson. Since the division of the Republican Party in the election of 1912, it has gradually positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic and social issues. Until the period following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Democratic Party was primarily a coalition of two parties divided by region. Southern Democrats were typically given high conservative ratings by the American Conservative Union while northern Democrats were typically given very low ratings. Southern Democrats were a core bloc of the bipartisan conservative coalition that lasted through the Reagan-era. The economically activist philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which has strongly influenced American liberalism, has shaped much of the party's economic agenda since 1932, and served to tie the two regional factions of the party together until the late 1960s. In fact, Roosevelt's New Deal coalition usually controlled the national government until the 1970s.
In 2004, it was the largest political party, with 72 million voters (42.6% of 169 million registered) claiming affiliation. By comparison the Republican Party has 55 million members. During the first quarter of 2009, 52% of Americans identified more closely with the Democratic party while 39% leaned Republican."(Wikipedia)
Historically, the party has favored farmers, laborers, labor unions, and religious and ethnic minorities; it has opposed unregulated business and finance, and favored progressive income taxes. In foreign policy, internationalism (including interventionism) was a dominant theme from 1913 to the mid-1960s. In the 1930s, the party began advocating welfare spending programs targeted at the poor. The party had a pro-business wing, typified by Al Smith, and a Southern conservative wing that shrank after President Lyndon B. Johnson supported the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The major influences for liberalism were labor unions (which peaked in the 1936–1952 era), and the African American wing, which has steadily grown since the 1960s. Since the 1970s, environmentalism has been a major new component. (Wikipedia)
Republican Party-Founded in Ripon, Wisconsin, in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers,the Republican Party quickly surpassed the Whig Party as the principal opposition to the Democratic Party. It first came to power in 1860 with the election of Abraham Lincoln, a former Whig, to the presidency and presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction.
The party began to form in the late 1840s, though it would take opposing the Kansas-Nebraska Act to unify the party. Their first official party convention was held on July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan. The Republican's initial base was in the Northeast and Midwest and the party solidified its position as the second party with the nomination of John C. Fremont in the 1856 Presidential election. Early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men. "Free labor" referred to the Republican belief in a mobile middle class that left the workforce and set up small businesses. "Free land" referred to Republican efforts to facilitate this spirit of entrepreneurship by giving away government owned land. The name echoed the 1776 republican values of civic virtue and opposition to aristocracy and corruption. (Wikipedia)
A leading economic theory advocated by modern Republicans is supply-side economics. Some fiscal policies influenced by this theory were popularly known as "Reaganomics," a term popularized during the Presidential administrations of Ronald Reagan. This theory holds that reduced income tax rates increase GDP growth and thereby generate the same or more revenue for the government from the smaller tax on the extra growth. This belief is reflected, in part, by the party's long-term advocacy of tax cuts. Many Republicans consider the income tax system to be inherently inefficient and oppose graduated tax rates, which they believe are unfairly targeted at those who create jobs and wealth. They believe private spending is usually more efficient than government spending. (Wikipedia)
Now with the above being clear and coherent, I can guarantee you that MOST people do not understand why they are a Democrat vs a Republican. I must admit to you that I have not kept in tune with these American parties. I have some idea about each one's ideology. But I am lacking. Are you lacking? Do you really know why you select one party over the other? Is it because of the PEOPLE we vote for? If they are affliated with a certain party, we automatically become a member of that party?
The truth is that we have been intentionally blinded. I know for a fact that most African Americans do not realize that the Republican party was initially against slavery laws and the Democratic party was for slavery. Did you know that?
I bet many of you did not know that neither party is truly the party for the middle class. Why do you think so many of our congressional members stay in office so long? Now I loved Senator Kennedy more than the next, but he was in office for almost 50 years, or something like that. It was an inordinate amount of time.
What party am I affliated with?
I am an Independent. I prefer to vote for a person, depending on their philosophy and what are their goals for the subject office. I do not vote, JUST because the person is Democrat or Republican. How do you VOTE?
Have a wonderful day.
L. for Love
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Thomas Jefferson couldn't get good beer. You think that present day american beer is poor, think 1700's and think of warm Killian Red. They used to serve that crap at the Dolphins games and at 1 pm in September after 5 minutes in a clear plastic cup... I almost puked all over the abnoxious and certainly illiterate Jets fan sitting in front of me. Thomas Jefferson solved his american beer problem by shipping over a biermeister from Germany and he set up his own personal brewery. He proceeded to sit on his porch and drink beer while watching everyone else work. As TJ got loaded he declared himself a statesman and kept ranting that the Brits were keeping him down, took all the good jobs, and fucked with his peoples women. At night he had unprotected sex, fathered a bunch of black children and then denied ever being the baby's daddy. A true american visionary!
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