Using the definitions below how would you label the following groups: 1 Democrats (or the equivalent in your home country), 2 Republicans (or the equivalent in your home country), and 3 The Libertarians (or the equivalent in your home country).

Republicans are realists, Democrats are idealists (with a distorted view of the ideal). I have no idea what a Libertarian is.

I think they're all a bit of both.

Blah.
What about people who is both and is not a democrat,a republican or a libertarian...? I'm an idealist,because I can see things that aren't clear and go for crazy stuff when the (bleah!) reason doesn't need it...but I have sense...so it doesn't matter if you're right or left wing,if you're human and not delusional then you're a realist-idealist of course.In my experience left wing are bit more on the reality side,but just because I define left wing as progressive and right wing as regressive or conservative...but communism for me is right wing...is not progressive at all...so my categories are different from the usual...and I hate liberals and I hate conservatives that think they're right because they're right...without knowing that sometimes you can see things with your mind more than with your eyes...
Good god,who cares,but I don't like order,I don't like government I don't care the label they put on themselves...it makes me sick.

My opinion is the same as Kaleb's

Feh

1. Republications -- rotten to the core, "devils", not to be trusted; 2. demos -- not anything to get excited about, but surely better than any repubs. 3. Libertarians -- promising, my voting choice; this latter also applies to the Green Party and Peace & Freedom.

Lables are for jam jars.

Since you give them all capital letters, you're referring to the political parties rather than the ideoligies - therefore, they're all realists. The ideologies are obviously idealist....

Labels are for jam jars.

I really have now idea how to categorise the political parties of Canada, according to your criteria.

The political parties in the United States called the Democratic party and the Republican party are virtually indistinguishable and would both be pretty much equivalent to Canada's Progressive Conservative Party. Canada has a Libertarian party as well, and although I know little about either of them, I'll assume that they are pretty similar. I suspect that neither of them have a hope in hell of ever getting someone elected.

I wouldn't use the terms "idealist" or "realist" to describe any of these parties. I have trouble imagining anyone getting very far into the political system with their ideals intact, unless of course their ideals consist of the most base and degraded forms of self-interest. I don't think that politics and pragmatism mix very well either. That would suggest considerably more honesty than I've ever witnessed in a politician.

I would be more inclined to describe the Democrat/Republican/Progressive Conservative types as being pretty much satisfied with the status quo, and wanting to continue more or less in the same direction.

The Libertarians are like these weird, flaky, quasi-anarchist capitalists. They want less government, but only in such a way as it would benefit big business.

You are quite capable of coming up with the most surprising comments on occasion!

I find it amusing that there are people who actually think that there is a profound difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. Whatever that difference might be, I've never seen evidence of it.

Thank you.

http://au.news.yahoo.com//021230/2/imeh.html

Monday December 30, 07:30 AM

Port Hedland fire causes evacuations

A deliberately lit fire has forced the evacuation of a residential block at Port Hedland Detention Centre in Western Australia.

Fire broke out in the India residential block at Port Hedland some time before 1.45am (AEDT), a spokesman for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (DIMIA) said.

The blaze follows deliberately lit fires which destroyed large parts of the Baxter Detention Centre at Port Augusta in South Australia over the weekend.

Detainees at Port Hedland were quickly removed to another section of the facility this morning, the DIMIA spokesman said.

Residents of a home neighbouring the centre were also evacuated, he said.

"As far as I'm aware it is still burning at the moment," the spokesman said.

Some Australasian Correctional Management (ACM) staff were treated for minor smoke inhalation but there were no other reports of injuries, he said.

The extent of the damage at Port Hedland would be assessed at first light on Monday.

The fire cut power to the administration block, and fire authorities were still on the scene.

Meanwhile, police were questioning asylum seekers suspected of starting up to five separate fires which caused $2.25 million damage at the Baxter Detention Centre, opened only in September.

Attorney-General Daryl Williams warned anyone found to have started fires there would be charged and were later likely to be deported.

Hare Krishna!

P.S. I said the same thing twice.

Democrats and Libertarians are idealists, Republicans are realists.

But we know who "you" are, don't we? Hmmmmmm

kaleb and cody - separated at birth!

uhm, i dont like to put labels on people, groups, etc. i guess i put an idealist label on the librals, because i think they have their heads stuck way into the future. when i think of the left wing, i always think that they are like politicians from the future who have time traveled to the present. i swear, all (i guess make that most) the radical ideas of the past (like abolishion, everyone's right to vote, equal rights, pollution control, etc) which are now the current trend has come from the left. who knows, maybe one day we'll give animals most of the rights we have today. the problem with the dems is though that maybe they are a bit too much ahead of their time.

The concevatives on the other hand, i think that they are not only stuck in the present, but sometimes i get the impression that they want to go back in time. i guess i get this from the fact that they are trying to reverse roe vs wade desison, and keep trying to brink back "family values." I guess this is mostly because of the relgious right, but then again, all big bussenss are right leaning, and they are all foward looking. very forward looking if you ask me. i dont know what in the hell drives them and the relgious right to be on the same political spectrum.

the libertarins, idealist, definally. they;re like a cross between the extreme right and the extreme left. first, they wanna go back to the early 1800's where governemnt was very weak (especially big government), and at the same time they are looking forward into a dream disnay land world type where there is this big city and everyone just becomes disenchnated and everyone just minds their bussiness and lives by their own code of moraity. I sometimes wonder if any of them are on dope. hey, that reminds me of that qoute by -David Borenstein, On the politics of the 1990's.

Your comments about the dems is actually very thought provoking. Up until this moment, I had pretty much dismissed the dems as a bunch of freaks. If it is true that the dems pushed those ideas through (abolishion, everyone's right to vote, equal rights, pollution control, etc), then I owe them a big thank you.

Actually, you have given me another idea for a survey. thanks.

Everyone, you can blame southernyankee for my next survey.

Uh, I think you'll find that it was members of the Republican party who pushed through abolition and most of the equal rights laws.

A Democrat or Libertarian i would define as an idealist
A Republican i would define as a realist
Why isn't there three definitions or did i answer that is my response?

well, i didnt say that the dems caused all this, i have said that "librals" have caused this. you must keep in mind that Lincoln was the first "rep" president. except this was over a hundred years ago, and the party platform has changed over the years. overall though, the libral way of thinking tended to be progressive and forward looking and have tended to create change. however, sometimes it was way way too forward looking that it has lost its grip on reality. this is why our country needs a balance between them. right now we have too many concervatives in congress. i really hope that they lose more elections so that things even out. hey, nothing against them, but if things were the other way around, i would have wanted things to be the other way around too.

oh, i am looking forward to your new survey. yes i know, if it sucks, its partially my fault. and if it flourishes, it was all you man. i guess thats selective reasoning for you.

Just for your information, I give you credit in the poll. Good or bad, SY, you are now implicated, or guilty by association.

After poking around the net, I ended up with so much conflicting information about which group did what that I cannot even begin to work out who is responsible for what. Each group just focuses on what a member from his or her group accomplished and conveniently omits the input from others involved.

--
there are 3 sides to every story... my side, your side and the truth.
--

Because truth is a three-edged sword?

Koshisms....they tend to ring hollow.

actually, theres like infinity. there's my side, my side again after i have been "enlighened" about a day later, times that by 365 times that by how many years i care about isssues, then theres your side, then your side, then your side again, oh, did i mention your side. then theres the side of all the people who are trying to enlighen us. then of course theres the truth as experts know it, which modifies every few years.

Meep? How many sides is that all together?

um, infinity...

Compared to Dutch politics the American parties are so far right-wing, that we would call the Democrats ultra-Conservatives.
And Americans would call our Conservatives Communists.

Even by British standards, the Democrats are really right wing, by Dutch standards they must not even fit on the same scale!!!

So I guess we're all communists in Europe!

LIARS!

I don't like labeling people.

Personally, I like harekrishnadasa's comment the best.