Republicans, what do you like about the Democratic party? Democrats, what do you like about the Republican party?
I like their social programs. Not enough bright, creative young minds in the Republican Party, because usually, it's like Churchill once said... "To be in one's twentys and be Conservative is to not have a heart...To be one's forty's and be Liberal is to not have a mind..." Democratic programs, such as Head Start, are AMAZING, and innovative, and in the case of this particular example, they are VERY successful. I also like the fact that on a state level, it's much easier for one to get involved in the state's party system than it is in the state's Republican system... I have ineracted with both. I have seen both in action. I have seen the level of people in both. Arrogance is RIFE within the younger members of the Republican Party, and compassion isn't a four letter word, it's simply not in their vocabulary to a large degree. The Young Republicans at LSU always gave me the opinion that they were "projecting themselves above" many of their classmates not because of their party, but because they deemed those that didn't engage in extracurricular activities such as theirs as "beneath them". I find people my age to be more left-leaning in many aspects of their life, but like most natural life arcs, as their ways, and their means, change, so do their views on politics...Just like Churchill pointed out. I wish we had a tad more empathy in the Republican Party, but I also we had more balls, and less interjection from special interests and more input from the working class.
Head Start's success depends on how local administrators carry it forth. In my parish school system, Head Start engages in little classroom instruction and is basically little more than a free baby-sitting service for low-income families. Which I have no problem with, as long as you call it what it is, "free child care for low-income families" instead of trying to pitch it as some great educational opportunity, which it is not. I'm all for universal pre-school though. Just make sure actual instruction is what we're talking about here. I do like the Democratic Party's tendency to be more compassionate, more open to everybody, and such. While I disagree with Alan Colmes' sweeping generalization "Conservatives are mean," we, the GOP, could do a heck of a lot more to understand and reach out to people who do not necessarily "fit the mold" of a traditional Republican. Some Democratic social programs are good ideas. Medicare and Medicaid are good ideas in spirit. They could use some changes, and the first step was taken this year. But I wouldn't radically alter them, just put the emphasis on "preventative care" instead of surgery and hospital stays. I like the Democrats continued stance on labor and environmental issues, and they have helped pull the GOP to the center on these issues. Sometimes I do think they go way too far and they get way too over-emotional about these items. But the GOP can too. The GOP has always identified itself as the pro-business party, which is fine. But the fact of the matter is, corporations do tend to be short-sighted at times in their actions. Making money is their primary goal, as it should be. The business of America is business to a large extent. BUT, I am not okay with corporations making money literally at any cost. They must be good corporate citizens, good stewards of environmental and economic resources, and be loyal and caring to their employees (by the same token, workers need to owe some loyalty and allegiance to the corporation who employs them and takes care of them and their families). I just wish the Democrats would acknowledge that not all corporations are evil, most do want to make a buck the honest way. And too often, hard leftist elements of the Democratic Party lump all corporations, even down to small, family owned businesses, into one category: evil corporations out to rape the environment and screw the workers. That's not right and that's not realistic. By the same token, I wish some GOP'ers would recognize that their is nothing Communist about a regular Joe wanting fair pay for a hard day's work or for expecting corporations to be good corporate citizens and pay their corporate taxes on time and in full (which in my perfect world would be much lower, but still exist) and be good stewards of the land and the environment. But the ones that aren't are in the VAST minority of all the corporations in America. Dems need to understand that. I like the way liberals so passionately defend personal liberties. I am with them on that 100%. We need constitutional watchdogs. I just wish that passion extended to the 2nd Amendment (the most important civil liberty of all) and I disagree with some of their interpretations and applications (Example: I do not think the Constitution gives NAMBLA the right to distribute their disgusting literature, which presents a clear and present danger to children, nor do I believe that women should have the "right" to cruelly murder their own children in the womb). If the Democratic Party would distance itself from the hard leftist elements in the party, and acknowledge some basic truths; that capitalism, with a few common-sense limitations (not watered-down socialism, which is their current desire) is the way to go economically, that not all government programs are wonderful or successful and some do need to be cut, that local school boards, town councils, and state govts., not the feds in Washington, know best what their people need, and that America does have real, EVIL enemies, and that our people need to be protected from those EVIL enemies with a strong military and an aggressive foreign policy, than I would be voting Democrat a lot more than I am now. But it seems like all the Democrats I admire today, guys like Zell Miller, Joseph Leiberman, Max Baucus, John Breaux, and even Dick Gephardt, and guys like that, have little power and influence in the Democratic Party of today. The neo-socialist, neo-pagan monstrosity that the Democratic Party has become also treats these men with nothing but contempt. With Breaux and Miller retiring, and Leiberman unable to make very much noise in the Presidential race, it seems like it will only get worse. I thought it was very telling and very fitting that Dick Gephardt, an old school Midwestern Populist, was replaced as House Minority Leader by Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco liberal whose social positions are absolutely frightening to me. Where are the Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Scoop Jackson Democrats? Where have they gone to? Please show yourselves, your party needs you! America needs you!
Not so much like, but I admire the way the democrats never admit defeat. They always behave like they're in power, no matter what the situation is.
I like the way they shuffle Blanco off to Baghdad so they can get a few things accomplished in her absence.
There are a few good things about the Republicans that I can think of off the top of my head: I like the Rudmann/Gramm wing's commitment to fiscal responsibility, plus the GOP's support for the Second Amendment and its commitment to protecting the unborn.
Well, I'm the oddball. I'm an independent. Now, most independents are right of the republicans or left of the democrats. But I'm a moderate and a centrist. I vote for both Republicans and Democrats based on how pragmatic I think they are, not by party affiliation. As they two parties have drifted further right and left, centrists like myself find there is no party that represents us. The extreme elements of the Democratic party are effectively socialists, while the extreme elements of the Republican party are effective fascists. There are too few moderate Republicans like John McCain and too few moderate Democrats like John Breaux. Instead we have extremists like Ted Kennedy and Dick Cheney controlling partisan politics. Centrists don't just sit in the middle of the road, we go right and left depending on the issue. I can't just go lockstep with either major party. I'm liberal on issues like education, Roe v. Wade, drug policies, religion, human rights, the deficit, and the environment. I tend to go with the Democrats and I like their policies in these areas. I'm conservative on issues like foreign policy, military supremacy, the economy, welfare, states rights, crime, and less government. The Republican policies seem to be the ones I follow in these areas. So, getting back to the topic, I admire many of the programs of both parties, but I lament that the gap in the middle is growing. There are a lot of us in the middle politically and there is a vacuum here as far as political representation. If the pendulum does not swing both parties back towards the center soon, I can only hope for the rise of a centrist third party.
