Republicans are generally dumb, while Democrats are generally hateful.  Republicans try to focus on the positive aspects of things, which usually means ignoring the negative ones.  For example, a Republican would say how well the war effort in Iraq is going.  A Democrat would say something like, "[insert exact number here] Americans have died since this 'war' began.  Is it worth that many American lives?  And what was the original purpose of the war?  To get Osama Bin Laden.  Have we found him?  No!  Therefore the war is unsuccessful."  While all these points are true, Republicans ignore them and focus on the fact that Saddam Hussein is no longer in power.  Democrats point them out and focus on character flaws in the leadership of our country.  Without Democrats and the American left, the country wouldn't be where it is today.  We wouldn't have things like civil rights, women's rights, and stuff like that.  The left has always brought about unpopular opinions and made them standard policy.  This is good.  It was a good idea.  But a lot of ideas are good.  Take the Catholic church for example (Politics and religion in the same post?  Bold!).  The Catholic church set up many things in the beginning that were great ideas.  The idea of catechism/confirmation was to teach young people about Jesus and to baptize them into Christendom.  The problem is that things change over time.  Nowadays, people blindly go through catechism to please their parents (or to avoid punishment from their parents) and make a significant profession of their faith without even blinking.  So anyway, back to politics.  Republicans usually don't have answers to Democrats' questions about the goals of the war.  They usually just ignore them or find a way around them.  And let's face it, President Bush isn't the most eloquent man alive.  I think he means well.  It just doesn't always come out well.  So then there's name calling, which Republicans and Democrats both participate in.  In conclusion, I would say that both parties in this two-party system have their problems.  But I also think it's obvious that I lean a certain way. #religion