Democrat Versus Republican… How Should You Vote?

First, the purpose of this article is NOT to try and sway anyone which way to vote. No more than I would want someone to try to shove a political party down my throat, I won’t insult you with my doing that to you. Fair enough?

Also, I’m a firm believer in you voting based upon your values and what you personally feel is important to you.

What I have a problem with is people voting for a specific party because that’s just what they do. This hard line of, “I’m a republican” or “I’m a democrat” really needs to end. It’s time people voted based upon the individual candidate and their values based upon how they align to your values.

Personally, for the most part I’m a republican, but there are also things the democratic party believes in that I also believe in.

Maybe the Republican candidate is too far to the right and I believe more closely to the middle but still on the Republican side and the Democratic candidate is closer to what I believe. In this case I’d agree with the Democrat.

I personally refuse to vote for a party, but instead vote for the person who I believe is going to move this country in the direction that supports my values and what I feel is important to this country and for my way of life. Over my lifetime I’ve voted for both Democrats and Republicans because I vote for the person and what they stand for, not because of the party they belong to.

Most people consider me an Independent. I would agree.

Doesn’t this make a whole lot more sense?

However, having said all of this, I put very little weight into campaign promises and what a candidate says he’ll do if elected. It’s been my experience, they all LIE and will say whatever they have to say to get elected. 

That’s why I research their past and take a look at who they were as a person. If they are already an elected official I’ll look at their voting record to see how they’ve voted on other issues. For example, if a candidate “says” they support something but their voting record shows they have voted against it in the past, that candidate just lost credibility with me and depending on how important that issue is to me, may even lose my vote.

Politicians LIE. They ALL LIE, in my opinion. That’s why you have to confirm what they say with their past actions and voting history.

Let’s first do this. Let’s take a look at the core values of each party (pulled from: http://www.svgop.com/files/Differences%20Between%20Republicans%20and%20Democrats.pdf).

Republican: Represented by the Elephant and Red. Website: www.gop.com

Democrat: Represented by the Donkey and Blue. Website: www.democrats.org

My Comments: After showing the views for each party I share my views to them. It’s not that I’m trying to sway you. I’m showing you why I believe the way I do. You also need to have a reason WHY you believe the way you do. This will help you from just voting for a party, but to more effectively vote for the best candidate for you regardless to the party.

In my opinion, Democrats too far to the left and Republicans too far to the right are not good for America and alienate too many republicans. I’d prefer to see candidates in both parties more close to the middle which is like compromising for the benefit of a lot more American’s, in my opinion.

Core Beliefs

Republicans believe that each person is responsible for his or her own place in society. Government should enable each person the ability to secure the benefits of society for themselves, their families and for those who are unable to care for themselves.

The Republican philosophy is based on limiting the intervention of government as a catalyst of individual prosperity. Government should only intervene in specific cases where society cannot effectively act at the individual level. With the core belief that individual destiny should be in the individual’s hands, governmental power and resources should be kept close to the people, through their state and community leaders, and not centralized in distant federal government agencies.

Democrats believe it is the responsibility of government to care for all individuals, even if it means giving up some individual rights and/or subordinating enterprise and initiative.

Democrat Party administrations have pushed for the centralization of power in Washington D.C., with only secondary consideration for the rights of both individuals and communities. Democrats have favored federal-level interventions that replace community-based solutions to community problems. These tactics have created several federal regulations and controls that are often in the hands of unelected bureaucrats, causing a severe erosion of local authority.

My Comments: I’m an entrepreneur and have hired many employees over the years to work with me. As such, I’m usually the decision maker for the direction of the company. I don’t like being told what to do. I don’t believe the government has any business to butt their noises into my business and control me, other than to have regulations that protect consumers.

Just like the government has tried to go into Health Care with ObamaCare, which has been a total disaster, let the government do government things and let businesses conduct business.

Democrats are all about “big government” where Republicans are about supporting local businesses. Consider this … let’s say we have 20 years of democrats and we end up with a huge government, and businesses continued to close their doors because they couldn’t make any money due to the high taxation, with the democrats needing the taxes from these business to support a big government, what would they do?

The government survives and pays all of their expenses (entitlement programs, government employee salaries, etc.) from the taxes they receive, and the less people and companies who are making money to pay taxes the higher the percentage those who are left will have to pay. As more businesses close, more people will be asking for entitlement programs. Something will have to give, but what?

Just so you know, businesses in America pay the highest corporate tax in the world.

The point is, it wouldn’t be long before the “big government” will have no choice but to start firing people because they won’t have the money to pay all of those salaries, and God forbid should they stop the entitlement programs and create incentives for people to open up their own businesses. It would be too easy, but it goes against their core beliefs. Business development is a Republican thing.

It’s a guaranteed downhill spiral. Just use your common sense and some basic math here.

Another thing to point out is Democrats feel like they know what’s best for us and that they can make better decisions for us than we can make for ourselves. You do grasp that what this means is “they want to control you”. You got that, didn’t you?

What makes no sense to me is why they’d believe this. It’s like going to an auto mechanic and asking him to perform open heart surgery on people. The government is no more qualified to determine what’s best for us than an auto mechanic is to perform open heart surgery.

I’m sure it’s easy to guess that I’m more Republican when we look at the Core Belief differences between the two parties.

Remember, this is based upon who I am as an individual and my values and what I believe. You may have a completely different perception to all of this than me which is perfectly fine. What’s most important is that you establish where you personally stand on the issues and then support the candidates that most closely support what you support.

The Economy

Republicans believe free enterprise has brought economic growth and innovations that have made this country great. Government should help stimulate a business environment where people are free to use their talents.

Democrats believe that the economy is too complicated for individuals to navigate alone. They believe that business decisions should be guided by government officials and in the best interest of labor unions.

My Comments: I’m Republican all the way here. Here again Democrats are butting their nose into an area they have no right to butt their nose. Think of this way, would you take advice on marriage from someone who’s been divorced 10 times? Would you take advice on how to be a millionaire from someone who only makes $12,000 per year?

No and no. Then why would you want an entity who has no idea how to run a business telling you how to run a business? There are a lot of very savvy business people out there who offer courses on how to successfully build a business … turn to them, but certainly not the government!

It’s been my experience that every time the government puts their hands into a business they do more damage than good.

Along with this, I don’t support heavy taxing of businesses. Just like the $15/hr wage requirement in the Seattle area has forced a lot of businesses to close shop and like ObamaCare has created more part-time workers and dropped the number of full-time workers (along with other things that aren’t helping employees or the economy), because the government doesn’t understand business they don’t see the bigger picture in their decisions or the “rippling affect” to their decisions.

Already American businesses are taxes higher than any other country. This forces companies to move their businesses (and pool of employees) to other countries where they can make a buck instead of giving most of the profits to the government in the way of taxes.

The Democrat approach to American businesses hinders new growth and forces businesses to move to another country or to just close their doors for good. What’s the point in investing your life savings into a business to be giving all of your money to the government so the government can continue to give money and benefits to people who are capable of working but find they can make more money off of “entitlement” programs than holding a job?

The majority of American’s work in a small business. Tax them to the point of not being able to make any money and we’ll lose the small business and the employment pool because of them. This is a path of destruction as you want the number of people taking advantage of entitlement programs massively increase while the amount of money coming into the government in the way of taxes dropping because of less businesses paying taxes which will force the government to increase the deficit to cover these entitlement programs.

Like I said, this is a road of destruction.

Taxes and Government Spending

Republicans work tirelessly to cut government spending and to eliminate government waste. Republicans believe individuals should control both their own and their government’s pocketbook – the people should authorize all tax increases.

Tend to favor a “flat tax” (same tax rate regardless of income). Generally opposed to raising taxes.

Democrats believe that government knows what is best for individuals. They argue that federal bureaucrats better understand the needs of a community than a locally elected council and the federal government should define the tax burden necessary to meet its obligations, because this is too complicated for individuals to understand.

They believe in progressive (high income earners should be taxed at a higher rate). Generally not opposed to raising taxes to fund government.

My Comments: Here I agree with parts of both parties. I agree that the government MUST get their spending under control. I mean, $18 Trillion in debt … unbelievable!

On the other side, there are way too many tax loopholes for high earners and businesses where they’re ultimately paying a smaller % of their income in taxes than people making a poverty level income, and that’s just wrong!

I’m all about a flat tax, getting rid of all of the loop holes, overhauling the IRS to simplify it and make it fair to everyone. For example, 5% flat tax for everyone below the poverty level paid right out of their paycheck, and 10% for everyone else on all income earned. Then 10-20% on all businesses right off the top.

Or 10-20% of their net profit but the number of deductions available would be greatly reduced. The only deductions they’d have is required expenses to run the business. Extra’s like lavish parties or travel wouldn’t be a qualified deduction.

Along this same line, an individual has required expenses as well like rent or a mortgage, electricity, garbage and water.

I was talking to my uncle the other day and he feels we should do away with income taxes altogether and create a “consumption tax” instead. What this would do is end the IRS and increase the price of items you purchase due to paying a consumption tax in replace of federal taxes.

While on the surface this sounds good, I’m not sure if this is a good idea. For one, I have no idea how much money people are spending on things. His idea is that this tax would be on EVERYTHING (except food) that people spend money on … buying a new home, cell phone bill, utility bill, etc, etc, etc.

A friend paid $1500 in taxes this past year. His total monthly expenses (mortgage, utilities, etc) is around $1400/mo. If they paid 10% per month on just this they’d pay $140/mo in taxes times 12 months = $1680/year which is more than he paid in taxes. And we haven’t even taken into consideration clothes, gas, going out to eat and all of the other items he spent money on throughout the year.

Looking at this, I’d say a 5% consumption tax. 10% is too high. Having done the initial analysis on this, this could actually work. This could actually bring in more money in taxes AND do away with the IRS all together which would be a huge savings to the government. I like it.

Anyway, I’m rambling here. I think you get the point which is the IRS code needs a major overhaul all the way around!

National Defense

Republicans believe in a strong national defense. Republicans know that defending our nation against its enemies must be a fundamental commitment of the federal government and this requires the besttrained, best-equipped and most effective military in the world.

With America as the world’s only superpower, Republicans believe that true security comes from the strength of character to act collaboratively, when possible, and alone when necessary. After the tragedy of 9-11, America must be ready to fight terrorism abroad in order to prevent it at home.

In the past 10 years, Democrats have advocated for scaling down our military and reducing the money spent on military intelligence. Democrats believe that true security comes from negotiations with foreign nations, even if they harbor or have financial ties to terrorist groups. Democrats believe that we must ask other nations for permission before we act to protect our own security.

My Comments: I’m Republican here again because I feel it’s important to have the military strength to defend our country in the event of a war. In my opinion, it’s not whether we’ll end up in another war (especially with everything Obama is doing), but when. Just look at what’s going on with Russia, China and ISIS. It’s going to happen.

I also believe that as long as we have the 2nd amendment to bare arms, there would never be a war on our soil, and that’s a very good thing. Yet the Democrats want to take away our guns. That would be disastrous on so many levels!

Education

Republicans believe all students, regardless of race or socio-economic background, should become proficient in both reading and math. While it is desirable that children learn more than one language, mastery of the English language will allow our children to be competitive at the university level. Republicans also believe that schools should be held accountable for student progress through testing, which can be used to identify individual childrens’ needs. These reports, at both the student and school level, should be provided to the parents to ensure accountability.

Democrats believe that tests burden teachers and waste classroom instruction time. They also believe children should be forced to stay in schools that fail to teach the basic skills. Democrats argue that literacy should be left for unions to define rather than local PTAs or other parent groups.

My Comments: Republican again. However, I also feel American children are getting their lunches eaten by India, China and Japan in education. What are they doing right and we are doing wrong?

Immigration

Republicans recognize that our nation is enriched by immigrants seeking a better life. In many cases immigrants have fled violence and oppression searching for peace and freedom. All suffered and sacrificed but hope for a better future for their children in America.

Republicans agree that the lack of security along our borders has contributed to the flow of narco-trafficking, gang violence, and the yearly forced servitude and slavery of over 50,000 women and children from foreign countries by human smugglers. While our nation has been enriched by the determination, energy, and diversity of immigrants, Republicans believe that in this nation of laws, immigration policies should be followed and that securing our borders is vital to ensuring the safety of our citizens.

Democrats believe that as the world superpower, it is a fundamental right for the United States to provide unconditional aid and comfort to the citizens of other nations. Democrats believe in open borders, unconditional amnesty, and that the laws of this nation be curtailed to provide non-emergency assistance and legal forms of identification to foreign nationals.

My Comments: Republican all the way here again. I’m all about helping others, but not at the cost of taking care of my own family first. It makes no sense to me that we’d be providing all of this aid to other countries or to illegal aliens when we have so many people here in America — like our vets — who need our help.

I’d prioritize my spending here putting the needs of America and Americans at the top of the list, and then if there’s money left over it’s this money I’d use to help other countries.

Do you have any idea of all of the things we could do to help Americans if helping Americans was our highest priority over helping other countries?

Conclusion

My sole point in all of this is to show what each party stands for just to get an idea of their stances on topics in relationship to how you believe. In the “My Comments” section I explained WHY I believe the way I do.

When voting, it’s important to know where the candidate stands on the topics that are important to you personally and then vote for the candidate, NOT the party.

Like I said, I’ve voted for both Democrats and Republicans over the years. That’s because I always vote based upon the issues and where each candidate stands. There are times when the the Democrat is more toward the middle and not way over to the left and the Republican is way to the right with issues that are important to me. In this case I’d likely vote Democrat.

Or maybe I just don’t have a warm fuzzy feeling about a candidate. I vote based upon what’s important to me just like you should vote based upon what’s important to you regardless to the political party a candidate may belong to.

In addition, be very, very careful of the news mediums you read or watch and what you believe from what they tell you. It’s a known fact that the majority of media outlets are extremely biased. Each slants a story to their beliefs. This is why I feel it’s important to get both sides of the story. This gives you a much better chance of getting the truth behind a story versus one new mediums slanted version where they commonly leave out key parts of the story that don’t support their agenda.

This is why you should watch MSNBC and Fox News both. Having watch both, I find Fox News does a better job of trying to show both sides where MSNBC is very slanted to the left and leaves out key information that could sway your opinion about the story.

I also find Fox News is quicker to call politicians to the carpet regardless of whether they’re a republican or democrat.  If they did something stupid or wrong, Fox calls them on it. On the other side I find MSNBC having Democrats backs and only calling them on their actions IF it’s super serious and there is no other conclusion. Taking Hillary Clinton as an example, MSNBC tries to minimize or cover up her scandals, straight out lies and her illegal actions. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the only place Hillary Clinton should be going is to jail!

Recently Fox News was recently voted as the most honest and trusted news medium available today (see graph here). I would agree after watching numerous news mediums.

Listen, all I’m after is the facts and the truth! I do NOT like it when any of the news mediums fail to provide key information that could change the whole context of the story, or only give half of the story to support their agenda, or who try to cover for people in their party. I simply want the truth.

Unfortunately I have met way too many people who are hard core democrat or republican and they simply will not listen to anything that doesn’t support their party, or who will disregard facts that go against their party. I feel for these people.

You need to decide for yourself.

Getting More Information To Compare The Two Parties

Here are a few more sites where you can get more information about the differences between the two parties:

• http://www.diffen.com/difference/Democrat_vs_Republican
• Bill O’Reilly And Glenn Beck Clash Over Future Of Republican Party – This is a great video and I personally have to agree with Glenn Beck.