Propaganda, social media, and influential political leaders have worked with the increasingly intense political climate to create an extremely bi-partistan country. When there seems only to be room for the extremes, it can be hard to get a grasp on the core beliefs of the Democratic and Republican parties.
According to an article about political parties in the United States, “The Republican Party is known to support right-leaning ideologies of conservatism, social conservatism, and economic libertarianism… Thus, Republicans broadly advocate for traditional values, a low degree of government interference, and large support of the private sector” (usembassy.org).
AP Government and Economics Teacher Michele Fournier explained that she believes that most Americans want the same things when it comes to schooling, the elderly, homelessness, the military, and other issues, but the two parties just have different opinions on how to get there. She also thinks that the chaos and division seen between political leaders influences how the people are divided amongst themselves.
According to the US Embassy’s website, “The Democratic Party… generally represents left-leaning, liberal and progressive ideological values, thus advocating for a strong government to regulate business and support for the citizens of the United States. Thus, one of the key values emphasized by Democrats is social responsibility” (usembassy.org).
Fournier said, “The core difference between the two parties is what they feel the scope or the influence of the government should be. Republicans tend to want smaller government and to give more control back to people whereas Democrats believe that it’s the job of the government to step in and kind of provide a safety net for people when they hit hard times.”
“A lot of it is social and economic. They have very different opinions about what social programs and economic benefits or tax benefits the government should be providing,” said Fournier.
When it comes to gun control, the parties’ thoughts on government involvement is the main influence on where they stand. The Republicans, or GOP, do not believe that the government should have an engrossed control on gun rights and they tie this to the second amendment of the constitution. The Democratic party on the other hand typically advocates for more gun control from the government (usembassy.org).
According to the 2024 Republican Platform, the Republican Party’s top two promises to the American people were to “Seal the border, and stop the migrant invasion” and to ¨Carry out the largest deportation operation in American history” (rnc.org). According to the 2024 Democratic Party Platform, Democrats would aim to carry out the same priority of sealing the border, but they also placed focus on expanding legal immigration and ways to increase support for immigrants (democrats.org).
Both the 2024 Republican Platform and the 2024 Democratic Party Platform put an emphasis on investing in the United States military. One of the promises made in the 2024 Republican Platform was to, “Strengthen and modernize our military, making it, without question, the strongest and most powerful in the world” (rnc.org). According to the 2024 Democratic Party Platform, “President Biden has made historic investments in America’s military industrial base, putting billions of dollars to work in America to increase production capacity of critical munitions and other capabilities to support U.S. and allied forces in combat zones such as Ukraine” (democratic.org).