The Party Platforms of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party

The Party Platforms of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party

Alesha Hope

GOVT 200-D05 LUO

The Party Platforms of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party

Introduction

Process philosophy is the idea that all aspects that are found in society are the products of ideologies and philosophies that are adopted by society as time moves. The changes in these philosophies result in the realities that are evident in society. This paper looks into the platforms of the two major parties in the United States. Their party platforms indicate that they are products of, and part of, ideologies that are meant to support certain values and viewpoints in American society.

The Democratic Party

The Democratic Party has been associated with supporting various philosophies that are of pertinent importance to American society. One of these ideologies is the liberalism, and especially modern liberalism as is popularly known in the United States.  Modern liberalism incorporates the ideals of equality and civil liberty (Geismer, 2017). Equality, in this case, is seen as a situation where every citizen enjoys equal rights and privileges. This means that no citizen should be discriminated against based on many factors such as race, sexual orientation, gender, and culture, among others. The party also supports equality in regards to how the law treats everyone. Thus, everyone is equal before the law, and all legal processes that pertain to any given criminal offense must be uniform regardless of the suspect or case in question. Recently, the party played a considerable role in ensuring that marriage equality became a reality, and, therefore, gay couples can also marry in the same manner as heterosexual couples (Beer & Cruz-Aceves, 2018). Regarding civil liberties, the party strongly supports the idea that the government cannot abridge personal freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the constitution without due process. These civil liberties are such as freedom of conscience, freedom of movement, freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and the right to own property, among others.

Another party platform of the Democratic Party is the support of having a mixed economy in the country. A mixed economy is where a country incorporates elements of free markets, planned economy, state intervention, public enterprise, as well as private enterprises. The main element of a mixed economy is where the economy is founded on principles of capitalism and supported by robust regulatory frameworks from the government. The Democratic Party identifies with this type of economy and pushes for it to be the mainstream economic system in the country. This is because the party also believes that elements of social liberalism are of great significance in society. The party holds that there are instances where the government should intervene in the welfare of the citizens, and especially where market forces fail to offer a solution to a public problem. Social liberalism encompasses such issues as government intervention in the eradication of poverty, expansion of education through such actions as lowering of costs, and the making health more accessible and affordable through the employment of such methods as universal healthcare.

The Republican Party

The Republican Party can be seen as on the opposite end of various issues as compared to the Democratic Party. The party’s main platform is conservatism, where the party promotes the conservation of American traditions, support for Judeo-Christian values, individualism, republicanism, and western values. The party believes that religion is an important part of American society and often fights to defend Judeo-Christian values against any perceived or actual attacks. In this view, the party prides itself as being pro-life and is strongly opposed to abortion rights that currently exist in the country. The western values that the party associates with are democratic values, civil liberties and freedom of religion, among others.