Democratic Party: What makes it so great?

[RI]

For me, I really don't like either party very much, but the Republican Party seems much more dogmatic on economic issues such as taxes, spending, social programs, the deficit, etc. in ways that deny compromise and go against a lot of what I've learned from studying economics and contradict values that I hold. Their ideological inflexibility really irritates me; I can't in good conscience support a party that pulls ideological stunts like the Republicans did last year with the debt ceiling. That's just idiotic and dangerous to everyone, and it shows they fundamentally don't know what they're talking about. The Democrats, for better or for worse, do not display this dogmatism and are much more flexible on economic issues.

Social issues aren't as important for me, though the few I care about distributed between the views of both parties, leaning more toward the Republicans. Both parties are pretty dogmatic and disdainful here, so it's a wash on that front; you just have to go with who you agree with more, I guess.

I'm also not a big fan of Republican foreign policy. It generally seems to be of one extreme or the other; it's either gung-ho, hyperpatriotic, invade-anyone-who-disagrees-with-us jingoism or hide-from-the-world, screw-anyone-who's-not-American isolationism. As someone who supports the UN and cooperative world ventures between countries that only occasionally involve humanitarian intervention, there really isn't much I like in the Republican Party. The Democrats tend to have at least some people with this attitude, though they have plenty of isolationists too.

For me, it's more of a case of the Democrats getting a C and the Republicans a D. The Democratic Party isn't great, it's just better than its opposition.