# Republicans and Democrats. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495 "2002-11-06T03:55:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/1 "2002-11-06T03:55:43Z")
What a surprise (damn hamsters). I just clicked ‘subscribe to this forum’ by mistake. I hope my e-mail box doesn’t get bombarded. Anyway… Are Republicans the right-of-center party and the Democrats the left-of-center party? Are the Republicans the ‘conservatives’ of America and the Democrats the 'liberals? Are the Republicans the equivalent of the UK’s conservative party and the Democrats the equivalent of the Labour party? Or is it not as clear cut as that? I always assumed it to be the case. And it was sort of re-enforced when, at the Labour party conference - Bill Clinton said “It’s nice to be in a place where our crowd is still in” If it is true - Are the Republicans more right wing or less right-wing than the UK’s Conservatives? Are the Democrats more or less left-wing than the UK’s Labour party? How big is the left-right divide between the Republicans and Democrats compared to the same divide between Labour and Conservative? Is America’s Center line in the same ‘place’ as the Uk’s center line, or is it more to the left or right? Sorry if these are all crap questions. I am just curious and don’t live in America so don’t know much about it’s politics. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/2 "2002-11-06T04:02:24Z")
P.s. Sorry for the doulbe post. After my post failed I checked to see if it had actually posted - I opened GQ successfully and the post wasn’t there so I was sure it wouldn’t double post. But it did. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/3 "2002-11-06T05:02:07Z")
Being neither British nor american, my opinion isn’t probably worth much, but you’re going to get it anyway 😃 : I’d say the Republicans and the UK’s Conservative Party would be about the same overall on a simple left - right graph, but the American party is probably more strictly right-wing, as opposed to the UK’s guys being truly _conservatie_, though that’s a gross generalisation, and both are well… both. I’d guess the British Labour Party is slightly further left than the Democrats, despite Blair’s “New Labour”. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/4 "2002-11-06T05:05:17Z")
Democrats tend to be to the left of Republicans. However, there are a lot of folks who would call the Democrats the right-of-center party and the Republicans the further-right-of-center party. (Rabid Republicans would, of course, call Democrats “Leftists” and “Socialists,” but no European Socialist would be caught dead speaking the Democratic Party platform. Similarly, rabid Democrats would rail against those “right-wing” Republicans, but most folks would look on the Republicans as the “stodgy centrists” and the Democrats as the “disorganized centrists.”) ---
**Author:** ![Sublight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@Sublight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sublight)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/5 "2002-11-06T05:17:52Z")
Also, you may sometimes hear mention of the ‘Religious Right’, typically fundamentalist Christians who want to bring US law closer to their interpretation of The Bible. Most of them support the Republican Party, though most Republicans are not in the Religious Right. In fact, I think a significant number of Republicans wish the RR would go away, as their behavior and their spokespeople (Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Ralph Reed, et al.) tend to scare away moderate voters by making the whole party look extremist. Is there a counterpart to the Religious Right in the Conservative Party? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/6 "2002-11-06T05:19:36Z")
I think you’ll find that the party split in the USA is less distinctly on a left-right basis that the British system has been traditionally. By that I mean that you’ll find some Democrats that are more “conservative” than some Republicans on certain issues that are important to them personally, or that are hot issues in their geographical region. Also, don’t forget that the British system is not a two party system. Otherwise, apart from the fact that your OP has made a number of blunt generalisations, you’re roughly correct. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/7 "2002-11-06T05:37:26Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Sublight_ > Is there a counterpart to the Religious Right in the Conservative Party? No. Certainly not as a recognisable lobby. Religion is not a very politicised issue over here, and you will very rarely hear even church-going politicians discussing their religious faith in the House of Commons or using biblical references to justify policy decisions. The House of Lords, on the other hand, has automatic places allocated to Bishops. AFAIK none of them are fundies though. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/8 "2002-11-06T05:57:03Z")
> [@](#): > > apart from the fact that your OP has made a number of blunt generalisations They were deliberately blunt (to make the questions easier to answer I suppose) , and were questions. generalisations are ‘statements’ not questions aren’t they? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/9 "2002-11-06T06:18:49Z")
You can read the Republican party platform [here](http://www.rnc.org/gopinfo/platform), and the Democratic party platform [here](http://www.democrats.org/about/2000platform.html). To answer your questions, the Democrats are the mainstream liberal party and the Republicans the mainstream conservative party in the US. However, the issues about which one can be liberal or conservative differ from the UK, and vary immensely based on where you are in the US. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/10 "2002-11-06T06:19:51Z")
Alright, “made some general assumptions when drafting your questions” then. My remarks were meant as an observation, not a criticism of the OP. To reiterate one thing I did say in my earlier post, though, it’s worth bearing in mind that ground covered in the UK by the various Nationalist parties and the Liberal Democrats etc. have to be covered in the USA by just two parties (or else left out of politics altogether). For example, the sorts of criticisms made of the Tory party or the Labour party by the Scottish National party wouldn’t place the SNP in a consistent spot relative to either of the big two would it? On some issues they would consider themselves to the left of Labour, yet on some they might be accused of being to the right of the Conservatives. That’s what I had in mind when I suggested that the left-right/Labour-Conservative thing didn’t really cover the whole picture. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/11 "2002-11-06T06:45:25Z")
Imagine having a dumptruck full of rocks. The rocks are politicians. Now imagine that each rock has been hewn from a regional substrate, in a vast swath cutting across an entire continent. Those regions are the states, and each rock is somehow representative of that region, or parts of that region. Now imagine that the truck lifts its bed and starts to dump the rocks into a series of separating funnels. The big rocks are Senators, and the smaller rocks are Representatives. Each one of those funnels in turn separate into two separate funnels, one each which separates the angular rocks from the rounded rocks. Now paint the rocks red or blue according to shape, and [dump 'em](http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/images/vctt8photo.jpg) into a box on one side or the other according to size. We call that box the [Capitol](http://www.ambuehler.ch/trip_reports/usa_1989-1990/capitol.gif). By the use of occasional tie-breakers, there are always more of one shape of rock than the other, on each side of the box. The majority shape runs the show on that side of the box. Individually, a lot of those rocks are quite similar to one another in color, regardless of their shape. And a lot of the rocks fall into [a gradation](http://www.starcitystriders.com/photos/miscpics/lancehokiebird.jpg) of shades. Some are supposedly [painted like](http://miller.senate.gov/) one thing, but are really [shaped like](http://mccain.senate.gov/) another. Often it’s impossible to tell, and occasionally, the rocks [aren’t sure themselves](http://jeffords.senate.gov/). The one thing of which we can be certain is that collectively, [the box](http://www.merrillphoto.com/images/FaceOfSatan.jpg) is as [smart as](http://www.allamericansnacks.com/images/7-box-rocks_md.jpg) its collective intelligence. That’s why we occasionally vote. ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/12 "2002-11-06T06:45:30Z")
Just to avoid over-generalising myself, I see from a list of Senators in [this site](http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=party&Sort=ASC) that one of the Vermont Senators - James Jeffords - has an **I** against his name for party affiliation, which I assume stands for Independent. Could anybody tell me how many members of Congress typically represent something _other than_ the Democrat or Republican parties? ---
**Author:** ![everton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecb155/32.png) [@everton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/everton)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/13 "2002-11-06T06:49:27Z")
“aren’t sure themselves” eh? How 'bout that for a simulpost? ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/14 "2002-11-06T06:59:12Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by everton \* > \*\*Just to avoid over-generalising myself, I see from a list of Senators in [this site](http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=party&Sort=ASC) that one of the Vermont Senators - James Jeffords - has an **I** against his name for party affiliation, which I assume stands for Independent. Could anybody tell me how many members of Congress typically represent something _other than_ the Democrat or Republican parties? \*\* Usually only one or two. One thing to remember is that I don’t think that party discipline in America is anything like it is in the UK. Us representatives will vote however they please much more that Uk representitives will. ---
**Author:** ![chula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a4c791/32.png) [@chula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chula)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/15 "2002-11-06T08:29:50Z")
I think it’s safe to say that the U.S. political center is to the right of the U.K’s. In fact, I can’t think of any liberal democracy that’s as far to the right. The Democratic Party is far to the right of the Labour Party. They’ve been steadily moving to the right and are losing their left-wing base. Jeffords is the guy who switched to the Democrats, right? Strange that he’s still listed as an Independent. The Independent Party is an actually political party, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Gui](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@El\_Gui](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Gui)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/16 "2002-11-06T09:21:07Z")
Jeffords left the Republican Party but didn’t join the Democratic Party. He remains independant of either party but he normally votes with Democrats. There is usually no more than one “other” party candidate in the Senate (at least recently). ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/17 "2002-11-06T12:05:03Z")
If I may offer an alternate view, Libertarians call them Demoblicans and Republicrats. They are practically identical, but fight over who gets the money. Here is the [Libertarian Party Platform](http://www.lp.org/issues/platform/). ---
**Author:** ![Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rex_fenestrarum/32/7265_2.png) [@Rex\_Fenestrarum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rex_Fenestrarum)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/18 "2002-11-06T18:53:43Z")
Don’t forget geography! Although the Democrats are _typically_ the left-leaning party and the Republicans _typically_ the right-leaning party, not all party members are the same. A Democrat from the South (like Georgia’s Zell Miller) might be considered a Democrat in name only, as he often votes with the Republicans and is generally far more conservative than Democrats from Massachusetts or California. Likewise, some Republicans - like former New York mayor Rudolph Guliani - are far more “liberal” than the “party average”. I believe that these are called “Rockefeller Republicans” (after "progressive’ Nelson Rockefeller), but I might be wrong. Rex ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/19 "2002-11-06T19:11:11Z")
Indeed, Rex, regional politics are at least as important as national politics, but not quite in the same way that they used to be. From the Civil War until the 1960s, the dividing line was north and south - Northerners (outside of big cities) tended to be Republicans and Southerners tended to be Democrats. But with the Democrats adopting a racial integrationist platform in 1964, the South turned more Republican. Lately, a lot of pundits have referred to “Red America” (Republican) and “Blue America” (Democratic), based on colors the networks use in reporting results. They’ve noted a different split: the coasts (Blue) v. everyone else (Red), evidenced by [this map](http://mwhodges.home.att.net/usmap-large.gif). It shows the 2000 presidential results by county. Note the concentration of blue along the east and west coasts, and a few urban centers in the middle - in a vast sea of red. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/republicans-and-democrats/135495/20 "2002-11-06T23:07:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by chula \* > Jeffords is the guy who switched to the Democrats, right? No, he became an Independent, but caucuses with the Democrats. > [@](#): > > The Independent Party is an actually political party, by the way. There is an Independ_ence_ Party, but that is not the same thing as running as an Independent, in which case you are not running for any party.