Democratic Party and Some of Their Beliefs

Last week we talked about the Republican Party so it would only be fair that this week we spend some time looking into the Democratic Party. Despite what you might believe, there are a lot of similarities between these two parties. As you might remember, these parties were intertwined from their beginning.So to start off, lets dive into a quick history of this Party.

When Democratic-Republican Party split up into two different groups, the Democratic party could be seen as far more successful for several years. In fact, from 1828-1856, they won all but two presidential elections. However, in the 1850’s the party began to divide up over the issue of slavery. Northern Democrats believed that states entering the Union should be able to decide if they were a slave state or not by a popular vote. Meanwhile, Southern Democrats thought that owning slaves was a constitutional right. This divide lead to a weakening in their Party that helped in part elect Republican Abraham Lincoln and a Republican majority in the house for the rest of the 19th century. Over the next several decades, the Democratic Party continued to struggle on the national stage until the stock market crash of 1929 which led to Franklin Roosevelt winning the Presidential election in 1932. He ran on a platform of governmental reforms that gave aid and assistance to people who were struggling during this time. His election led to a another period of relative democratic dominance for the next 60 years. However, up until 1948, this party remained blatantly racist and in favor of segregation. They were the most vocal opponents of the 14th amendment (amendment that abolished slavery) during the 1860’s. Also, it was the democratic party that enacted and supported the infamous Jim Crow laws of the south and opposed the rights of minorities to vote. However, Harry Truman in 1948, introduced a pro-civil rights platform to the party. This caused many Democrats to leave the party for awhile to form their own party called the Dixiecrats. After this pro-civil rights platform was introduced however, the democratic party progressively began to shift more and more towards supporting  organized labor, the civil rights of minorities, and progressive reform. Which leads us to where the Democratic Party is today.

In today’s society, the typical Democrat supports a government that has the power to regulate business and industry, the ability to finance social services or benefits for those who are poor, unemployed, or older. They are also on the front lines of additional rights issues such as LGBT advocacy, Pro Choice and issues surrounding immigration or gun control. Now may of the things that the Democratic party are very good. Issues such as helping those in need and making providing for the elderly and those who can’t help themselves are issues that should unite everyone. However, the difference between the Republican and Democratic party is, who’s job is this? The Democrats believe that this is the governments job, and the way to pay for it is to tax those who have more money in order to help spread the wealth. While, the Republicans think it should be the private citizens job to do this. So, to simplify it, I think the argument between these parties is where does the responsibility of taking care of the rest of society lie? I think it should be with the private citizen, (thus why I’m more conservative) while most Democrats think it should be the governments job. Also, my concern with their preferred style of government is the unsustainability of it. For a government to adequately provide for its citizens, there has to be a massive amount of money flowing into the government (i.e. taxes). And the more you take from your citizens, the less incentive you give for them to create more wealth on their own. So, if you want to keep taxes at a moderately low level, then you have to get that money from somewhere. This leads us to borrowing money at an unsustainable rate. Thus why we are 22 trillion dollars in debt and counting. Now this is a problem that Democrats and Republicans both have a problem with. Because in today’s society, to run a successful campaign, there seems to be a need to promise all sorts of free stuff to the base that you are trying to get votes from. This is one of the reasons we see many of the presidential candidates this year promising everything from free college, free healthcare, increased benefits and even one candidate who promises to give every citizen a thousand dollars a month. Now don’t get me wrong, these would be nice things to have. But a country cannot create all these programs to give things away without paying for it somehow. So if these free things are what you want, than be prepared to pay for them with increased taxes and debt.

Now that is the basic economic argument between Republicans and Democrats. Obviously, there many more aspects to it, and the varying beliefs of people within these parties create a lot of friction and different beliefs. And we haven’t even discussed business regulations and how the government plays a role in that. However, I’m going to assume most of you don’t care as much about that. So let’s look real briefly at some of the other arguments within these parties. Specifically my single biggest problem with them, and that is the right to life for the unborn. The Democrat party has had a history of being on the wrong side of civil rights arguments throughout their history. And seemingly as they finally figured out how wrong they were on the issues of segregation and the rights of minorities, they went the wrong way on the right for life for the unborn. Now this blog post is not here to debate if abortion is right or wrong.My belief is that the murder of an innocent, helpless child within the womb is an evil that is comparable to what the extermination projects carried out by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, and Mao Zedong. These are men who killed millions of people because they believed that these people were an inferior class or holding their country back from what they wanted to accomplish. I believe groups that kill close to 900 children each day fit into likes of such figures like those who I mentioned. So for me personally, I cannot support a party that overtly promotes this. Now I know this is a sensitive subject that people feel very strongly about (obviously I do). You can even see how several Democratic candidates are openly campaigning on the right for an abortion all the way till the moment of birth. Now this post isn’t here to address that issue, but simply to say here is what their party platform says and here is how I feel about it. I think it is wrong, and I think it is the one area within this party that no one should support. Which is the main reason that holds me back from voting for most Democratic candidates.

Now there are other issues such mainly such as gun control and immigration. However, I do not have time to go into those right now, though later on I will try in a different post. But there are many different issues that we can respectfully disagree on or even learn from each other on. The only argument I do not see up for debate is the argument of the right to life for the unborn. But please, tell me why you agree or disagree with me below. Or tell me what makes you support the party you do. Thanks for reading and if you get this far into the post, well I congratulate you.