Introduction
The Democratic Party of USA is the oldest political party in the world. It gained a lot of popularity in the years of Great Depression when it came up with policies to tackle unemployment and fuel industries. It also sponsored the most famous president in the history of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who is the only president to have been elected for four years. It has become popular in its support for civil rights, social welfare and the Third countries aid. The Republican Party on the other hand, was founded in the 1854 during the anti-slavery movement by members of the former Democratic-Republican Party supporting the extension of slavery in the Nebraska and Kansa territories fell out with their party members opposed by the act who argued that territories should be allowed to decide on their own (Chace, 2004). The two parties are the main rivals in the US and exhibit many differences in their view of Government and governance. These are discussed in the following paragraphs.
Political ideology
The Democratic Party supports a strong federal government that control business and industry in the interest of the public example during the presidency of Woodrow Wilson (1913-21), he made reforms which saw the breaking up of monopolies and a wider federal control of banking and industry. This is as opposed to the Republican Party view which supports a laissez-faire capitalism government structure which advocates for less government control of the economy. The republican law makers were opposed by the economic stimulus package design to revive the economy in the face of global recession by Obama but were defeated by the majority Democrats in the Congress (Chace, 2004 & CQ Researcher, 2009).
Taxes
The Democratic Party advocates tax cuts to the lower income bracket citizens in order to maintain social justice while the Republican Party supports reduced taxes to the upper income class as way of stimulating the economy and as support of individual progress in economic freedom. This is demonstrated by Obama’s 10 billion dollars stimulus package which creates $1,000 tax cuts for 95% of working class families which was passed by the congress earlier this year mainly due to support by the democrats majority in both houses as it was widely criticized by republicans. This is in contrast to the Ronald Reagan presidency in 1980, when he immediately embarked on major tax cuts for the wealth after his election (CQ Researcher, 2009).
Social programs
The Democratic Party is a major champion of federal government funded social services and benefits to the poor, aged, unemployed and other marginalized groups. Government funded social programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, social security etc. President Roosevelt’s New Deal Social Programs which encompassed programs to alleviate the suffering of majority of unemployed population by providing emergency and short term government aid, youth work in the national forests and temporary jobs. This introduced social programs such as the social security, statuary minimum wage; The Obama health care programs are government financed which have drawn criticism from the Republicans (Goldman, 1986).
Foreign policy
The Republican government is of the view of strong national defense and USA security interests as a priority. Ronald Reagan made major military build up after his election in 1980. In 1991, the incumbent Republican president joined forces with other nations which drove away Iraq military from Kuwait and the Bush foreign policy which saw the American armies attack Afghanistan and Iraq a war yet to be worn but costing the government a lot in terms of resources and lives of soldiers. On the other hand, the Democratic governments have adopted internationalism and multilateralism in dealing with foreign issues. The Democratic Party opposed the Vietnam War under Johnson presidency. The party also follows mutual diplomacy as opposed to churning particular political systems like its rival. Jimmy Carter was instrumental in Camp David Accords where peace agreements were made between Egypt and Israel which led to signing of peace treaty in 1978. The Obama policy is not to be left behind which operates on mutual relationships between USA and other countries and resolving of disputes trough established international institutions such as United nations (Chace, 2004 & CQ Researcher, 2009).
Civil Rights
The party opposes legislations dealing with civil rights especially the racial integration in schools and the military. During the Eisenhower presidency the Party opposed the passing of the civil rights Acts of 1957 and 1960 though he went ahead and passed them due to pressure from the civil rights groups and international community. The party opposed the federal mandated racial integration. Democratic Party supports the civil rights and racial desegregation. During the presidencies of Truman, Kennedy and Johnson the passed the civil rights Act of 1964 and the voting rights Act of 1965 (Goldman, 1986).
Works cited
Chace, J. 1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft & Debs- the election that changed the country. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
CQ Researcher. The Obama Presidency: Can Obama Deliver the Change he Promised. CQ Researcher, 2009, Vol 19. Issue no. 4: pg 73-104.
Goldman, R.M. Dilemma and destiny: the Democratic Party in America. Madison Books, 1986.