The Democratic Party is looking to regain the White House after eight years. Whether they succeed or not will depend on their stated positions on major issued affecting the lives of all Americans. If a majority of the electorates views match the Democratic candidate’s own opinions, the chances of occupying the White House are bright. So what is the Democratic Party’s stand on major issues. Here they are.

1. Economic Issues:

1. 1. Democrats favor a higher minimum wage and more regular increases in order to assist the working poor.
   2. Democrats have opposed tax cuts and incentives to oil companies, favoring a policy of developing domestic renewable energy.
   3. Democrats believe that they always provide a balanced budget. They are in favor of higher taxes on the rich and businesses and better control on government spending to keep budget deficit under control.
   4. Democrats favor affordable and quality health care and more government intervention in this area.
   5. Democrats will strengthen environmental protection laws and impose stringent sanctions on polluters.
   6. Democrats aim to provide low-cost publicly funded college education with low tuition fees and increase availability of grants and scholarships.
   7. Democratic Party is in support of a progressive tax structure and has vowed to adjust the Alternate Minimum Tax (AMT) to give permanent AMT relief for those tax payers who were never meant to pay it. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the important role of the Democratic Party in US political history, only few Americans can state the basic facts about its history. The democrats were dominating US politics in two distinct periods: between 1828 and 1860 and between 1932 and 2000. The establishment of the Democratic Party happened in 1829 when Andrew Jackson became the President of the Unites States. If many Americans did not like the ideas of Jackson in the 1820s ad 30s, the Democratic Party would never have been formed. Together with his followers, Jackson founded the Democratic Party. In those days, the democrats were definitely in favor of slavery and had widespread support in the southern states where slavery was still a normal aspect of daily life.

After the Civil War, the democrats became the party of big business and this was the main reason why it alienated the less prosperous voters in the north. Moreover, the democrats were able to perfect the urban political machine long before the Civil War by getting loyal votes from immigrants and others who were given jobs and services. This clever combination of large urban support in the north and the unquestionable support in the south, paved the way for the democrats to sometimes win the presidency or control Congress. This became explicitly apparent in the presidential elections of 1884 which was won by the democrat Grover Cleveland. He got the solid support from the south, the Border States, and even Indiana, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. Read the rest of this entry »

United States is a huge country. That and favorable conditions led to an early and advanced car culture (Canada, Russia, China, Brazil had various restrictions stifling that, ranging from permafrost to outright ban on private property). The love for cars and the infrastructure that makes it possible has been a source of national pride for decades and brought envious glances from around the world. As much as smaller vehicles make sense in urban areas, anybody who has been to rural U.S. would immediately appreciate the benefits of increased horsepower and vehicles whose size would be considered military grade elsewhere in the Western world. When you take into account that most Americans lost their virginity inside cars, the psychological obsession with motor vehicles begins to make sense. It’s no wonder that road trips hold a special place in the national consciousness and that advertisements for cars overly utilize freedom and sex appeal compared to how cars are marketed elsewhere (for more on this, check out advertising guru Clotaire Rapaille’s Culture Code). Read the rest of this entry »