Category talk:Republicans (United States)

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Politics: American / Political parties

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Conservatism

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Biography

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I believe this category should be merged with Category:Republican Party (United States) politicians. I recognize that this category could conceivably contain people who are not politicians, but I'd say that's a distinction that Wikipedia shouldn't bother to maintain.

According to the Politician article, a person need not hold public office in order to be a politician, but merely seek to influence policy or politics or public opinion. I'd contend that if somebody isn't seeking to be influential in that way, then it's not worth categorizing them as a member of a political party. On the flip side, it doesn't really do any harm to categorize them as a politician even if, technically, their influence on public opinion is only marginal.

Maintaining two categories that are almost identical though, though, just invites confusion and miscategorization.

I don't really have an opinion on which of the two should be kept if merged. -Pete (talk) 02:21, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]