Simplify Your Life

To be frank, I have two minds about the US political system and its politicians. I believe the system was founded on strong value system and many of the politicians are passionate about upholding the same. On the other hand, US is a capitalist country and of course its politicians are also driven by the market (i.e. money).

One of the things that keeps US politics in check is the 3 branches of government – Executive (President and his office), Judiciary (Supreme court and other courts) and Legislative (US Senate and House of Congress). More about these 3 branches in another post, let’s understand the 2 US political parties – The Democratic and Republican Parties.

Common US values

As i mentioned above, the politics and politicians are driven by some common US values below.

• Respect for the US constitution
• Freedom – Free speech, right to carry gun
• Individualism
• Capitalism

Beyond these few but fundamental common values, there are huge differences between the 2 parties which is logical given that there are only 2 parties.

Key differences between the parties

The Democratic party

• More socially liberal
• Believes that individual freedom/ values are more important than society values and then followed by family values, unless the former harms the latter. Eg. They support LGBTQ+ and abortion rights. They believe gun access should be restricted as it’s hurting the society.
• They believe that government is important to help society as a pure form of capitalism will hurt the vulnerable in the society

The Republican party

• More conservative/ pro in the following areas, in this order
  • Socially conservative / Family values. Eg. Not pro LGBTQ+, Abortion
  • Racially conservative. Eg. Anti-immigration to maintain original American ethnic identity (white)
  • Gun ownership
  • Religion
  • Market / capitalism/ Economic conservatives. Eg. On Revenue side, prefer tax cut to new tax. On expense side, prefer less social spending. Prefer small govt (as they believe that market can take care of society)
  • Isolationist foreign policy
• For them, Family values triumph over individual values which in turn is priority over social values
• They are generally anti-woke which is just a combination of social and racial conservatism