Political parties?

[kojikun]

What political parties are there (not just in the US) and what do they stand for? I'm just curious. People ask me sometimes what party I align with and I don't know what to say.

[Montcalm]

Wich country the US Canada or any other all political parties stand for the same thing,puting the maximum of money in their pocket before the next election,they all have a job that gives them about $100.000 annual salary but they leave with millions of dollars.

[StimNeuro]

Do you want fringe parties? The inclusion of fringe parties could increase the number of parties five-fold.

[kojikun]

With or without fringe, as long as you know the party philisophy.

[phongn]

For the US, look in the 'Political Resources List' sticky thread

[Andrew J.]

In the U.S. there are two political parties that matter, the Democrats and the Republicans. Although the former is more liberal than the latter, the difference is miniscule compared to the range of political parties in Europe.

[Lord Pounder]

I'm a paid up member of the Ulster Unionist Party. We are the strongest unionist party in Northern Ireland. Our main party agenda is to keep Northern Ireland in the UK. The party is a wee bit right if centre but lefties like myself keep the party line almost nuteral.

[kojikun]

Our main party agenda is to keep Northern Ireland in the UK.

Me as the IRA breaks into Pounders home: I DONT KNOW HIM DONT KILL ME

[EmperorSolo51]

What political parties are there (not just in the US) and what do they stand for? I'm just curious. People ask me sometimes what party I align with and I don't know what to say.

Republicans: They are right of center party. Yhis includes centrists, big business, the NRA etc.. They are anti-abortion, anti-gun control, premote conservative ideals like states' rights. They also premote christian values and believe that people should not be on welfare. Republicans are also in favor of large tax cuts and small spending

Democrats: They are left of center. They are a party of socialists, progressives, communists. This party get's its vote from minorities, Women's groups, Unions, enviromentalists, etc. They like to raise large amounts of money via hefty taxes and like to waste it all away on so called "social programs". They are pro-abortion, pro gun control.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Republicans: They are right of center party. Yhis includes centrists, big business, the NRA etc.. They are anti-abortion, anti-gun control, premote conservative ideals like states' rights. They also premote christian values and believe that people should not be on welfare. Republicans are also in favor of large tax cuts and small spending.

Not all republicans are like this; there is a significant libertarian wing, and also the differences between paleoconservatives and neo-conservatives would need to be elucidated to properly further understand the Republican party (along with the additional variation of Populist Republicans).

[Joe]

Paleoconservatism is quite dead, with the departure of Buchanan.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Paleoconservatism is quite dead, with the departure of Buchanan.

Well, point, though you could call the Dixiecrats "paleoconservatives" - the definitions of the terms are not exact. If you don't, that adds another category.

[NapoleonGH]

What political parties are there (not just in the US) and what do they stand for? I'm just curious. People ask me sometimes what party I align with and I don't know what to say.

Republicans: They are right of center party. Yhis includes centrists, big business, the NRA etc.. They are anti-abortion, anti-gun control, premote conservative ideals like states' rights. They also premote christian values and believe that people should not be on welfare. Republicans are also in favor of large tax cuts and small spending

Democrats: They are left of center. They are a party of socialists, progressives, communists. This party get's its vote from minorities, Women's groups, Unions, enviromentalists, etc. They like to raise large amounts of money via hefty taxes and like to waste it all away on so called "social programs". They are pro-abortion, pro gun control.

Actually no, republicans ae in favor of large tax cuts to the rich, small social spending, and massive military spending. They believe in deficiet spending, and fixing the economic problems of today with a quick fix, without taking into account the US government's already disasterous debt.

Democrats believe that if anyone should get a tax cut its the middle class/lower class. That the rich should pay good hefty taxes, that we should spend our money on social programs and education rather than making a military larger than needed for a purely defencive mission (which i think we can all agree it is, it is large enough for force projection to defend american interests abroad and our ideology, rather than just our soil).

while my own stance comes through in this statement, basically what i was saying is that republicans dont believe in lower spending, they believe in lower social and more military spending, and dems believe in higher social and moderate military spending. In general obviously

[Lord Sander]

What political parties are there (not just in the US) and what do they stand for? I'm just curious.

Over here;
Partij van de Arbeid (Party of Labour): somewhat socialist
Groen Links (Green Left): environmentalist lefties
Socialistische Partij (Socialist Party): very socialist
Christen Democratisch Appel (Christian Democrats): center right conservative
Democraten '66 (Democrats '66): center
Volkspartij voor Vrijheid en Democratie (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy): despite the name, it's center right conservative
Leefbaar Nederland (Habitable Netherland [bad translation, but literarily that's it]): no one knows
Lijst Pim Fortuyn (List Pim Fortuyn): whatever direction they say honors Pim's memory, whether it does or not

[Andrew J.]

So, no extreme right-wingers in the Netherlands? Sounds like a nice place.

[kojikun]

andrew, they smoke pot in coffee shops, you honestly think anyone could be far-right there? even if they were, theyd be too stoned to get up and do anything.

[Joe]

Actually no, republicans ae in favor of large tax cuts to the rich, small social spending, and massive military spending. They believe in deficiet spending, and fixing the economic problems of today with a quick fix, without taking into account the US government's already disasterous debt.

Are you fucking kidding me? Democrats practically invented deficit spending! The deficits we're running now don't compare to those huge deficits from the early Clinton years. And how dare you suggest that the Republicans don't care about our massive debt while the Democrats fight every fucking spending cut the Republicans ever propose tooth and nail! Democratic social programs are far more responsible for the national debt we have now than is military spending (taking into account the unfunded liability created by these programs, which is not recorded as a normal part of the national debt).

while my own stance comes through in this statement, basically what i was saying is that republicans dont believe in lower spending, they believe in lower social and more military spending, and dems believe in higher social and moderate military spending. In general obviously

I do agree that Republicans do not believe in lower spending these days (which is why I'm a libertarian). To correct your stance the Republicans certainly do not believe in lower social spending (can't lose votes, after all), they just believe in a slower rate of growth in social spending.

[Lonestar]

Actually no, republicans ae in favor of large tax cuts to the rich, small social spending, and massive military spending. They believe in deficiet spending, and fixing the economic problems of today with a quick fix, without taking into account the US government's already disasterous debt.

Hate to tell you this, but the Republicans (up until this Administration) were the Guys screaming for Fiscal responsibility. As for "Massive Military spending", that's needed to maintain our place in the world, especially after 8 years of unusually high operations tempo, and less money to work with from the Clinton Administration.

I'm not sure if Republicans are into "small Social Spending" so much as to "How can we best spend the money on social programs while giving a Hand-up, not a handout." That's what welfare reform was about.

Democrats believe that if anyone should get a tax cut its the middle class/lower clas

I'm happy with the taxcut I got.

That the rich should pay good hefty taxes, that we should spend our money on social programs and education rather than making a military larger than needed for a purely defencive mission (which i think we can all agree it is, it is large enough for force projection to defend american interests abroad and our ideology, rather than just our soil).

That's the rub though. Lotsa countries won't listen to you if you can't "Project force". The 11 CVBG navy lets you do that. During Operation Enduring Freedom over 90% of the intial sorties were flown from 6 carriers in the Indian Ocean. No other country in the world can do that. That's what gives us our global power today. The Romans Used roads, the British used Ships-of-the-line, we Use Aircraft carriers. Like Bill Clinton said, "Whenever something happens in the world, the first question the President asks is 'Where's the nearest carrier'?".

while my own stance comes through in this statement, basically what i was saying is that republicans dont believe in lower spending, they believe in lower social and more military spending, and dems believe in higher social and moderate military spending. In general obviously

Kinda true. Republicans were the ones who pushed for the welfare reform a few years back. And it worked, spectacularly. That's why social spending has been on the decline.

Personally, I think the Republicans should be paying more attention to the enviroment ( c'mon fellas, we're conservatives here.) than they are. I also don't like the Energy policy of the Bush Administration, and the CinC has pissed away a lot of poiltical capital that he could've used on letting NASA drag out the old '60's Nuclear thrust rockets.

[Joe]

Paleoconservatism is quite dead, with the departure of Buchanan.

Well, point, though you could call the Dixiecrats "paleoconservatives" - the definitions of the terms are not exact. If you don't, that adds another category.

Dixiecrats are not likely to have the rabid anti-trade stance of most Buchananite paleoconservatives, but other than that they are somewhat similar.

[NapoleonGH]

Lonestar to respond to your first comment, hate to tell you but reagan was not about fiscal responsability and the "debt during clinton's early years" was the debt of twelve years of major military over spending by reagan which was made smaller during the clinton administration. Generally as i said the democrats want to keep taxes as is and transfer the money to social from military, republicans want to cut taxes and thansfer the money from military to social.

[Joe]

Your suggestion that the Republicans are the champions of deficit spending and the Democrats of fiscal responsibility is still absolute, complete hooey with no basis in reality. Over 50% (probably a good deal over, in fact) of federal spending goes to social services. Your claim that the Republicans "believe in deficiet spending" (sic) shows how little you know about American politics. The military, BTW, not social services, is the primary purpose of the federal government.

[Lord Sander]

So, no extreme right-wingers in the Netherlands? Sounds like a nice place.

Pim Fortuyn was nominally right-wing, but no, right-wing here is mostly fringe.
Belgium is the nearest place you'll find a popular right-wing group. Vlaams Blok (Flemish Bloc), a pro-secession party, is the most popular extreme right-wing party around.

</boring everyone with Dutch trivia>

[Peregrin Toker]

Political parties in Denmark:

Dansk Folkeparti (Danish People's Party): Despite the communist-esque name of the party, they are in fact an ultraconservative party slightly right of center economically, but quite authoritarian socially. They're disproportinally numerous for an extremist party. Oh, and they are very xenophobic and renowned for their flag-waving national jingoism.
Konservative Folkeparti (The Conservative People's Party): Exactly what the name suggests. Conservatives.
Venstre (Left): Despite being named the "left" and calling themselves "libertarian", they are currently little more than regular conservatives. Since they currently are the ones running the nation, they're getting a lot of flak.
Kristeligt Folkeparti (The Christian People's Party): The religious ones. They even tried to make it legal to teach Creationism in Denmark and love nothing more than making preposterous claims about modern Western culture being "built upon christian values." You get the picture.
Centrumdemokraterne (The Central Democrats): A centrist party whose voters are the middle class. I really don't know much about them.
Det Radikale Venstre (The Radical Left): Their name might fool you, but they're little more than ordinary centrists. A little to the left of the "Central Democrats". They're known for bragging about their adherence to human rights.
Socialdemokraterne.(Social Democrats): Claiming to be socialists, which they aren't. The best description of them are centrists who use Communist slogans.
Socialistisk Folkeparti. (Socialist People's Party): No, these aren't Maoist wackos. Their position in the Danish parlament is where the true collectivism starts. As far as I know, they're your typical reform socialists. Quite left-winged, but they're not extremists either.
Enhedslisten.(The Unit List) This is a confederation of a lot of left-wing extremist groups who didn't get enough votes to get much support, so they fusioned. Because of this, they include anything from anti-government anarcho-communists to ultra-totalitarian Leninists. The only common denominator for their members are a burning desire to abolish property rights.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Lonestar to respond to your first comment, hate to tell you but reagan was not about fiscal responsability and the "debt during clinton's early years" was the debt of twelve years of major military over spending by reagan which was made smaller during the clinton administration.

Reagan's military spending didn't blow the budget during his years in office - It was mostly the pork that he had to agree to as compromises to get Dixiecrats and Moderate Democrats to vote for his tax cuts. If the tax cuts had been voted for without those compromises, the deficit would have been far less severe. Granted, the revenue from the tax cuts probably would not have covered it fully, but we were at war, and the military buildup was necessary.