Here is probably one of the best explainations I could find to your questions. By the way, they were very good questions, I never gave it much thought before.
"Democrats today tend to believe in programs which benefit primarily the lower classes by asking the wealthy to pay for them.
Republicans today tend to believe in programs which are more inclusive of all classes and expect costs to be spread a bit more evenly.
Take, for example, health care. Democrats are currently pushing a universal health care plan which would be paid for primarily by taxes on the top five percent of earners. Those same earners would then receive little or no benefit from their contributions, which would then be given to the lower classes.
Note that I said "today" in my descriptions above. This wasn't always the case. Social security, a program originated by Democrats, has a flat percent which is paid by all who contribute. It highlights the difference in thinking today.
That is the philosophic difference between the two parties. Then there are the 'issues' differences. These have little or nothing to do with the parties themselves, and have simply attached themselves to the parties via special interest groups and lobbyists. Some examples of these:
Abortion, Gun Control, Labor Rights, Religious Freedoms, Gay Marriage, etc.
For example, abortion has nothing to do with being Republican or Democrat. Yet it has been a hot button topic to both for decades. Why? Arguments would usually point to the religious conservatives who make up a large portion of the Republican voting demographic - which is completely disingenuous and utterly false. Historically - and here I'm talking about less than twenty years ago - Democrats were a stronghold of those of religious faith. Ever been to a black church? And blacks vote overwhelmingly Democrat. Heard of the Southern Democrats? Dixiecrats? All card-carrying Bible-belters.
So both sides of the aisle have strongly religious factions within them, or at least have been in very recent times. Why the difference then? This issue, on face, has nothing to do with either party's core beliefs. The answer has to do with the vocal minorities within each party. Sometimes a party can be characterized (incorrectly) as a whole by a vocal minority within it. In this case, the Republicans have a small group of far Right members who are very openly and vocally opposed to abortion under all circumstances and who show up at photo ops to embarrass themselves and decry the dissolution of the family and morality. The Democrats have the same small group of far Left members who are opposed to even such basic laws as parental notification for a minor child (a notification which would be required for something as insignificant as a school field trip).
In the above case, the parties themselves aren't really different, it is merely by inclusion of a vocal minority that the majority voices of the moderates are drowned out. So on the issues, the parties really aren't that much different (which is why it can seem confusingly homogenous at times). It is only on their core philosophy of who should pay for things and how evenly that payment should fall on the shoulders of each taxpayer that Democrats and Republicans truly vary."
by
OccumsRevelation
