definitions...

Below is an excerpt I copied out of a comment from Scott in PA to this article. While I admit not all politicians fit into neat cookie cutter definitions of Republican or Democrat I think that on a very basic level this is pretty good. Everybody has to decide for themselves this coming November 4th and yet again the choices we're being given...well I'll just say they both have their faults. I hope my country makes the right choice but which ever candidate does get elected our lives will be very different in four years...I just hope we're better off.

The key difference between Republicans and Democrats is as simple as the phrase "American Dream" versus the phrase "American Promise".

Republicans usually see America as a country with a framework of laws that provide unlimited upside, if you are savvy enough and work hard enough to take advantage. That is the ‘American Dream’, though sometimes dreams do not come true.

Democrats see an "American Promise", where a mediocre life is 'guaranteed' to everyone through taxation of the successful, to transfer wealth to those unable to function in a free society. With no motivation to excel, many sit back and suck at the teat of big government, till they become as helpless as a child, often unable to fulfill the most basic adult responsibilities of providing themselves with food, clothing and shelter.