Democratic Party (United States)

American political party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Democratic Party (United States)
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"Democratic Party" redirects here. For other uses, see Democratic Party (disambiguation).

The Democratic Party, also known as the Democrats, is one of the two biggest political parties in the United States. Since the mid-1850's, the party's main opponent has been the Republican Party. Both political parties have controlled American politics ever since.

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Overview

The party sits at the center to center-left of the American political spectrum, with the Republican Party being positioned to their right.

Every four years, the party holds a National Convention where they agree on their candidate for president. The Democratic National Committee coordinates most of the activities of the Democratic Party in all 50 United States. Since Andrew Jackson's inauguration in 1829, there have been 16 Democratic presidents. The most recent is Joe Biden who took office as the 46th president of the United States in January 2021. The Democratic Party represents a broad spectrum of liberal and left-wing ideologies, including but not limited to classical liberalism, social democracy, progressivism, and social modern liberalism.[source?]

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Philosophy

Democrats, also sometimes called the left, liberals or progressives make up one of the two main political parties in the United States. A mostly Democratic state is sometimes called a blue state. This comes from the party’s main color, which is blue, referring to a state supporting "blue" candidates.

Role of government

Democrats believe in a strong government with social assistance programs to help members of society. They prefer diplomatic solutions to conflicts, and take generally multilateralist views on trade, believing that trade must be free, but fair to protect American workers, consumers, local communities, and the environment. Some Democrats are economic centrists.[21][22]

Social issues

Socially, most Democrats believe in sociocultural liberalism, taking pro-immigration, pro-marriage equality, and pro-choice views.[23]

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Beliefs

Currently, the Democratic Party is identified by progressivism, liberalism, and left-wing policies. Not all Democrats hold the same beliefs, but generally these are the things many Democrats support:

  • Progressive income tax
  • Higher corporate taxes and recapturing income from overseas profits
  • Spending on business, education, infrastructure and clean energy
  • Expanding spending on government programs
  • Ending the death penalty
  • Expanding rights to abortion
  • Gun regulations to prevent citizens from hurting themselves and others with firearms
  • Support same-sex marriage
  • Universal healthcare
  • Declare Washington D.C. an official state
  • Helping students go to college or university for free without having to pay back the government
  • Believe in allowing undocumented immigrants to work for their U.S Citizenship in the U.S. to stay, pay taxes, and oppose mass deportation

Most support for Democrats comes from states in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and the Pacific Coast, as well as from the state of Hawaii.

Symbols

The symbol of the Democratic Party is the donkey.[24] Since the election of 2000, the color blue has become a symbol for Democrats.[25]

Historically, Thomas Jefferson, whom the party claims as its founder, has been often seen as symbols of the Democratic Party, particularly emphasized in the annual celebrations of Jefferson Day Dinners held since the days of Andrew Jackson. As such, the Democratic Party is also often referred to as the “Party of Jefferson.”[26]

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List of Democratic presidents

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Select list of Democratic politicians

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Independents who work with Democrats

List of former Democrats

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President Ronald Reagan
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Related pages

References

Other websites

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