The short answer is that the Democratic Party is generally left of center on political issues while the Republican Party is generally right of center. By "left" vs "right," I am denoting the degree to which one favors increasing the power of government as a tool for promoting societal progress, often in overcoming a perceived cabal that controls "the system" (the left) versus a preference for evolved norms and private ordering as the driver of social organization and change, generally viewing the expansion of governmental power with suspicion (the right).
The US is starting from a more conservative point than most other OECD nations, but the tendencies of leftists and conservatives are pretty much the same in all of those countries.
Having…show more content… Libertarians generally favor minimal government intervention in either personal or economic affairs. They would be just as happy with a separation of business and state as they are with the separation of church and state. Part of their antipathy toward government initiatives is utilitarian, believing that the free market will create more wealth for more people than markets overly constrained by state control. But a bigger part of their antipathy is ontological, born of their view of the government as an inherently coercive institution, and their belief in the minimum use of force in the organization of society. Unfortunately for libertarians, their general antipathy towards government greatly reduces their participation, and therefore their influence, in party politics. For a brief time, this was somewhat changed by...
- The Tea Party. This faction began as an amalgam of libertarians and religious conservatives. But as religious conservatives are more motivated to participate in political activity, they have gradually taken over the Tea Party. While the dominant platform of the Tea Party remains smaller government and lower taxes, it has taken on a more socially active agenda and a more nativist turn on immigration reform, both of which are more populist positions than libertarians have historically…show more content… Fanning paranoia is what politicians do best. Both American parties, and most factions inside those parties, literally have this down to a science. Over time, this contributes to an increasing polarization. Progressives think that business interests (they don't distinguish philosophical libertarians and crony capitalists) wield inordinate influence on the Republican Party, and on more than a few "turncoat" Democrats. Knowing both types of "business" conservatives very well, I assure you that they WISH they had anything like the control they are accused of wielding over government. At the same time, religious conservatives sincerely feel they are under siege by socialists and atheists bent on destroying civilization as we know it. Yet when I ask my many Progressive friends how they are doing, they are perpetually distraught at how the "right wing" continues to dominate the political machinery, even with a liberal Democrat as president, and one in control of the Senate, and many liberal judges as
