Politics
Definition of Political Status:
Republican - Conservative, Neoconservatives, Tea Party, Moderate
Democrat - Conservative/Centrist, Liberal, Progressive
Centrist/Independent
Republicans
Conservatives call for reduction in government spending, less regulation of the economy, and privatization or changes to Social Security. Supporters of supply-side economics predominate, deficit hawks, and protectionists predominate within the party as well.
The conservative wing typically supports socially conservative positions, opposition to LBGT rights and same-sex marriage, and restrictions on abortion. Conservatives generally oppose affirmative action, wokism, and support increased military spending, and oppose gun control. Conservative Republicans oppose "big government education" while fearing government control over private and church schools. The conservative wing are generally anti-environmentalist, promote climate change denial, and are in opposition to the general scientific consensus, making them unique even among other worldwide conservative parties.
Libertarian conservatives favor cutting taxes and regulations, repealing the Affordable Care Act, and protecting gun rights. On social issues, they favor privacy, oppose the USA Patriot Act, and oppose the War on Drugs. On foreign policy, libertarian conservatives favor interventionism.
The Christian right is a conservative political faction characterized by strong support of socially conservative policies. Christian conservatives seek to apply their understanding of the teachings of Christianity to politics and to public policy by proclaiming the value of those teachings or by seeking to use those teachings to influence law and public policy.
Neoconservatives promote an interventionist foreign policy to promote democracy or American interests abroad. Neoconservatives were in earlier days identified as liberals or were affiliated with the Democrats. Neoconservatives have been credited with importing into the Republican Party a more active international policy. Neoconservatives support unilateral military action when they believe it serves a morally valid purpose such as the spread of democracy. Neoconservatism peaked in influence during the administration of George W. Bush, when they played a major role in promoting and planning the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Moderate Republicans are known as fiscally conservative social liberals. They tend to be conservative-to-moderate on fiscal issues and moderate-to-liberal on social issues. While they tend to share the economic views of other Republicans—e.g. balanced budgets, lower taxes, free trade, deregulation, and welfare reform—moderate Republicans differ in that some are for affirmative action, same-sex marriage, gay adoption, legal access to and even funding for abortion, gun control laws, more environmental regulation and anti-climate change measures, fewer restrictions on legal immigration and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and embryonic stem cell research. In the 21st century, some former Republican moderates have switched to the Democratic Party.
Liberal Republicans, a small fraction of the Republican Party, have the same economic views as moderate Republicans, support more environmental measures, have open views on recreational marijuana, socially liberal, and are generally young or celebrities.
The Tea Party movement was an American fiscally conservative political movement within the Republican Party that began in 2009 following the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. On matters of foreign policy, the Tea Party largely supports avoiding being drawn into unnecessary conflicts and opposes "liberal internationalism”. Its name refers to the Boston Tea Party of December 16, 1773, a watershed event in the launch of the American Revolution. By 2016, Politico said that the modern Tea Party movement was "pretty much dead now"; however, the article noted that it seemed to die in part because some of its ideas had been "co-opted" by the mainstream Republican Party.
As of 2021, a significant faction in the Republican Party are Trumpists, supporters of a movement associated with the political base of Donald Trump. The Tea Party may have paved the way for Trumpism.
A divide has formed in the Republican Party between those who remain loyal to Donald Trump and those who oppose him. A recent survey concluded that the Republican Party was divided between pro-Trump (the "Trump Boosters," "Die-hard Trumpers," and anti-Trump factions (the "Never Trump" and "Post-Trump G.O.P." wings).
Members of the Trumpist movement have called for lower taxes, and for a reduction of the national debt of the United States and federal budget deficit through decreased government spending. The movement supports small-government principles and opposes government-sponsored universal healthcare. It has been described as a popular constitutional movement.
Democrats
The Democratic Party of the United States is a big tent party composed of various factions. The liberal faction supports modern liberalism that began with the New Deal in the 1930s and the Great Society in the 1960s. The moderate faction supports Third Way politics that includes center-left social policies and centrist fiscal policies. The progressive faction supports social democracy and left-wing populism in addition to social liberalism. The conservative faction supports centre-right policies, though it lost much of its influence in the 21st century.
The Conservative Democratic coalition was an unofficial coalition in the United States Congress bringing together a conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern wing of the Democratic Party. It was dominant in Congress from 1937 to 1963 and remained a political force until the mid-1980s, eventually dying out in the 1990s. In terms of Congressional roll call votes, it primarily appeared on votes affecting labor unions. The conservative coalition did not operate on civil rights bills, for the two wings had opposing viewpoints.
However, the coalition did have the power to prevent unwanted bills from even coming to a vote. The coalition included many committee chairmen from the South who blocked bills by not reporting them from their committees.
Today, Conservative Democrats are generally regarded as the most conservative members of the Democratic Party as a whole. The Blue Dog Coalition was originally founded as a group of conservative Democrats. After reaching a peak of 59 members in 2008, the caucus was reduced following the 2010 election to only 26 members. The caucus has adopted more liberal stances on social issues in recent years. The Coalition remains the most conservative grouping of Democrats in the house, broadly adopting socially liberal and fiscally conservative policies and promoting fiscal restraint, although some members retain socially conservative views. As of March 2023, 8 House members are part of the Blue Dog Coalition.
In 2016, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton eschewed her husband's "New Covenant" centrism for more liberal proposals such as rolling back mandatory minimum sentencing laws, a debt-free college tuition plan for public university students, and a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Joe Biden, despite having largely been a centrist over the course of his career, has increasingly adopted more social liberal policies during his presidency.
Moderate Democrats like the Clinton Administration adopted right-wing and left-wing ideas in the Third Way. During the 1992 United States presidential election, Bill Clinton and Al Gore, both members of the Democratic Leadership Council, each ran as a New Democrat, positioning themselves as Democrats willing to synthesize fiscally conservative views with the more culturally liberal position of the Democratic Party ethos, or to harmonize center-left and center-right politics. Bill Clinton was both the first Democrat elected President since the 1970s and the first elected to a second full-term since the 1940s.
Most moderate Democrats in the House of Representatives are members of the New Democrat Coalition, although there is considerable overlap in the membership of New Democrats and Blue Dogs, with most Blue Dogs also being New Democrats.
Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden have largely tried to bridge the gap and unify the wings of the Democratic Party while still addressing the goals of the liberal wing, and the Third Way is still a large coalition in the modern Democratic Party.
Liberal Democrats promote expansion of LGBT rights, federal hate crime laws, and rescinding the ban on federal taxpayer dollars to fund research on embryonic stem cells. In the 2010s, many Democrats began pushing for the legalization of cannabis, succeeding in several states. Liberal Democrats are often described as "pragmatic progressives," due to having advocated for fairly progressive policies. Such policies referred to as "pragmatic progressive" operate as a "glide path" to eventual Medicare for All.
The modern Progressive movement in the U.S. draws deeply from the left-wing populist economic and political philosophies of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and Woodrow Wilson's New Freedom, the latter occurring at the end of the Progressive Era, which was largely started by Republican President Theodore Roosevelt and his Square Deal. While Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt considered themselves progressives, Franklin Roosevelt only referred to himself as a liberal. Modern progressives are much more culturally liberal on social issues like race and identity, where they draw inspiration from the Civil and Voting Rights Acts proposed by President John F. Kennedy, enacted by President Johnson and advocated for by ML King.
While it does not transcend the political philosophy of social liberalism, the Progressive wing has fused tenets of social liberalism with traditions of the Progressive Era as well as drawing more robustly from Keynesian economics, social populism, and social democracy. Progressive Democratic candidates for public office have had popular support as candidates in metropolitan areas outside the South. The first self-described liberal president was Franklin D. Roosevelt whose ideas, such as his calls for a second Bill of Rights, continue to influence progressives today.
Modern progressives seriously emphasize the threat of climate change and rally around the Green New Deal. Progressive Democrats have also been described as constituting the most robust anti-establishment wing of the party in the sense that they "see part of their role as not just attacking Republicans, but also highlighting what they see as shortcomings of the Democratic Party itself.”
Independents
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views that do not align with the platforms of any political party, and therefore choose not to affiliate with them. Some independent politicians may be associated with a party, perhaps as former members of it, or else have views that align with it, but choose not to stand in its name, or are unable to do so because the party in question has selected another candidate. Others may belong to or support a political party at the national level but believe they should not formally represent it (and thus be subject to its policies) at another level.
In running for public office, independents sometimes choose to form a party or alliance with other independents, and may formally register their party or alliance. Even where the word "independent" is used, such alliances have much in common with a political party, especially if there is an organization which needs to approve the "independent" candidates.
