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Alright, here is a thread where hopefully some people will shed some light on American politics for me...as we do not get much domestic US politics in the news or papers over here, I suppose one is just supposed to pick up information gradually ...
So tell me about these things:
Where is the left wing? Why is there no liberal party? And why only two parties...or are the Republicans and Democrats just the only important competitiors?
Why are there no left wing workers? In England the 'working man' (miners, factory workers etc) is traditionally left wing and concerned with all other working people...why is the US working class apparently extremely conservative?
What is the state of trade unions in America?

Left Wing=Liberal=Democratic Party...Associated w/ liberalism, socialism, trade unions, large government involvement in daily life and State's affairs. Have a record of strong advocacy for civil liberty and poor record on protecting religious freedom (Unless you religion is Atheism),Conservatives also associate them with higher taxes and gun control...

Right Wing=Conservative=Republican...Associated w/ conservative government spending and small central government, Capitalism, private ownership, State's rights (More government from state level instead of federal), protecting religious freedom, Big Business (Trickle Down theory), anti union, anti socialism, anti welfare, big military, right to bear arms, Poor record on social programs.

To add some to Scayde's reply...




Left Wing=Liberal=Democratic Party... Associated more with Domestic policy.

Right Wing=Conservative=Republican...Associated more with Foreign policy.


Now take into account being one or the other doesn't limit members of one group from having differing views on how to get what they want.

And why only two parties...or are the Republicans and Democrats just the only important competitiors?

The main reason for only two major parties is you have to have so many members in so many states to get federal money to back your election hopes. The Green Party is one group I believe have in recent times met the requirements to get backing.

From a corporate backer (where most of the money comes from), the two major parties are the only ones worth backing. Buying influence, and with the little support the Green Party has, they would consider it wasted money to support them.

The Democratic party is the labor party. We do have a conservative party and a liberal party, as well as a libertarian party. Liberal party traditionally supports Democrats and Conservative party supports Repulicans - see previous post. We also have a few folks who run independently although they few and far between.

Both of the major parties encompass many different viewpoints and constituencies. The differences between the parties at the national election level (senators, congressmen, president) are not as clear cut - to be elected candidates often move to the center - Clinton and George W are good examples of this. At the state and local level differences between parties are more clear cut.

Back to the original question - why two parties? I have a theory on this that I wrote about way way back in my college days - A two party system is very efficient. Boiling an argument down only two sides is a necessary step to coming up with a resolution. It comes down to the importance of consensus building. Having only two major parties in the American government works on this principle - and before some of you jump on and point out the faults of this system I would simply point to the history books - the rise of the US as the most influential economic power in the world has been facilitated by our system of government. It taint perfect - but somethings working right...

One question you had "where are the workers" made me feel that you were suggesting that they were not represented. This is not the case. In fact, the working class, minorities, and women are the traditional constituency of the Democratic party - Amazingly, after the whole Clinton debacle in the second term of his presidency - Gore (Clinton's VP) almost won (he had the most votes). This was due to the support of these "blue collar" groups and women voters.

The last comment I would like to make is that I believe that the average American - white, black, asian, hispanic, man, woman, whatever - is very moderate. We have our bleeding edge folks - and those are the ones who get the most press - but by and large we are a nation of that shares the same core values of hard work, hard play, and love of family and friends. Man that sounded weak - hopefully you get my point - we are united even though we can appear divided. Our nation's success - however you would like to catagorize is it - is the best evidence supporting my claims. That sounded arrogant - well I guess I couldn't resist giving the flames some fuel.

Good Job Smass!!!!!!!!!!!

It is funny, in Denmark - a liberal is usually located towards the right as in regards of the economical politics but also belive firmly in the free choice of people. (think that is what the US call a libetarian)
They are more "rightish" then the Danish Conservatives

(sorry for the kinda OT, but always thought the meaning of the liberal was fun comparing the danish and the US meaning )

Originally posted by Scayde
Left Wing=Liberal=Democratic Party...Have a record of strong advocacy for civil liberty and poor record on protecting religious freedom (Unless you religion is Atheism),

Pardon my ignorance, but have the Democratic party really actively discouraged religious freedom? I always thought that was unconstitutional, much like the encouragement of one religion over another/atheism, but then I'm not familiar with the American constitution.
People are, I assume, still free to practice whatever religion they choose (though I'd likewise assume Rastafarians aren't allowed to smoke marijuana, which is technically part of their religion, but oh well) with no favouritism shown to one system of belief over another (aside from Rastafarianism, of course), including atheism.
In other words, please elaborate. Also @Scayde you haven't posted your details in the anatomy thread, are you yourself an atheist/religious?

Thankyou for all the good information .

@Smass, my question was 'Why are there no left wing workers?'... I suddenly am less sure if this is true or not, but I have received the impression that the working class is right wing, whereas in Britain it has traditionally been left wing...

And in terms of policy, how do the alignments of the Republicans and Democrats compare to the British Conservative and Labour parties?

Originally posted by Ode to a Grasshopper
Pardon my ignorance, but have the Democratic party really actively discouraged religious freedom? I always thought that was unconstitutional, much like the encouragement of one religion over another/atheism, but then I'm not familiar with the American constitution.

No, what the Democrats have done, through their alignment with the ACLU, is see to it that the fundamentalist Christian right is kept in check and that non-Protestant beliefs and practises aren't pushed off on others under the guise of "historical value".

For instance, there has been a movement lately to remove the Ten Commandments from classrooms and courtrooms. This has the backing of the ACLU because the Five Pillars of Islam are not posted as well. The reason why the phrase "under God" was declared unconstitutional in the pledge of allegience is that not everyone believes in God and in many schools, saying the pledge is not optional (a holdover practise from the Cold War). If you changed that phrase to "under Satan", I'm sure that the Christians would have no problem removing any religious reference from the pledge, even though there are practising Satanists in the US.

The only people who fell that religious freedom is under attack in the United States are the fundamentalist Christians who frankly have had far more freedom than other groups and now that they are no longer receiving special treatment under the law, are feeling like they are being persecuted. A secular state, which the United States is, needs to have no bias towards or against any single religion and this is just now beginning to be a reality (though we still have a long way to go).

@frogus:
The reason why there are no so-called left-wing workers is that even the poorest and most destitute worker is convinced that he can one day strike it rich. That's what the "American Dream" is all about; that everyday folks can become fabulously wealthy regardless of their social class or personal circumstances. The best example is Dave Thomas, the late founder of Wendy's, who became very wealthy despite the fact that he never graduated from high school (he got a GED a few years back because someone pointed out that he looked like a schmoe advocating education when he in fact was diploma-less).

While there are unions over here, there are not socialists and other left-wing radicals because everyone has more or less bought into the system which exists here and there aren't any real desires to change it. Despite the fact that there is a stark difference between the richest Americans and the poorest and that thousands of children live in poverty, the general feeling is that most Americans don't live in squalor or on the brink of starvation and so the masses don't feel the need to revolt (plus the Democrats and Republicans have effectively locked out any hope of a viable third party through federal matching funds and they frequently throw the poor a bone with their welfare checks).

"as we do not get much domestic US politics in the news or papers over here"

We don't get much over here except self-centred jingoism, spineless hatred and bigotry.

Originally posted by Gruntboy
"as we do not get much domestic US politics in the news or papers over here"

We don't get much over here except self-centred jingoism, spineless hatred and bigotry.

Well, yes. There is that .

Originally posted by Gruntboy
"as we do not get much domestic US politics in the news or papers over here"

We don't get much over here except self-centred jingoism, spineless hatred and bigotry.

You should move to Australia @Grunts, we still have the self-centered jingoism, spineless hatred and bigotry, but for the most part it isn't directed at the US, in fact the Australian government insists upon blindly following the US government's lead in everything (irrespective of what the Australian people think).

@Xandax: Yeah, LOL, wonder if we should tell em about Glistrup?