The similarities between the two that many don’t see....
Tensions have risen tremendously now that we are getting closer and closer to the presidential election. Even though we all grew up with a “red v. blue” or “republican v. democrat” narrative, I think it’s time to learn the true differences and similarities these major parties share. Although many of us may have put them against each other for centuries, they’re a lot more similar than you may think.
By Yamilux
How are Democrats and Republicans Different?
To be able to understand and analyze these major parties we have to know what they are. The republican party is an attack party while the democratic party is a governing party, this means that the republican party organizes around developing and implementing political vitriol while the democratic party organized around developing and implementing public policies. Although both have their strong points, they both lack what the other party does best. To run a country properly it is important to be able to have the capacity to do both, govern accordingly, and fight effectively to attain and retain power.
Now let’s talk about the obvious differences and the overlooked similarities between the two. Although topics like abortion, same-sex marriage rights, climate change, voting rights, Medicare and universal healthcare, taxes, and gun control are some big and very talked-about topics that these two parties contradict, this is not something I will be focusing on in this article. Instead, I will be focusing on the way these two parties plan to govern our society by using Joe Biden and Donald Trump as representatives of each party.
The main differences between the two in this election are that Biden plans to institute a national mask mandate, reverse the withdrawal from the World Health Organization, raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour, promises to fund up to 12 weeks of paid family leave for American workers, he does not support the 2017 GOP tax cut and instead wants to increase the corporate tax rate, he doesn’t support any laws that support the use of guns/weapons without precaution and supports the Affordable Care Act that would make healthcare more affordable for everyone. While this isn’t the end of the list over everything they disagree on, what has been stated are some of the most important topics that the two have had to talk about.
Although I just stated many differences these two parties hold about many topics, they are very comparable overall. Something that many must remember when talking about these two parties is that not all democrats are liberals with liberalistic or socialist ideologies. I think this is where people tend to try to contrast the democrat party with the republican party the most, but in reality, when comparing the two parties they’re pretty indistinguishable. Biden and Trump are a great example of how similar the two parties’ principles and ideas truly are. Biden and Trump both support capitalist ideologies, they both support the wars that have been going on in the Middle East and the neverending wars on drugs and labor, both don’t support net neutrality, both don’t support Medicare for all, bothdon’t support any student debt relief plans, they both plan to continue using fossil fuels and not take any climate action, and they both want to continue to support for-profit prisons that encourage neo-slavery. Again, like with the list over everything they disagree on, this isn’t the end of the list that showcases all their similarities.
I chose to write a political piece this month since the elections are coming up and voting has started.
The other reason as to why I wrote this article is because I have seen so many people confuse democrats with liberals and socialists. I thought it would be nice to write a piece explaining how wrong that idea is and how similar democrats and republicans are. While I did not write this with the intention of making it seem like it is pointless to choose between the two parties, I do hope that whoever reads this reflects and starts to inform themselves over what ideologies they agree with by researching other parties’ beliefs, ideas, and principles.