Democrats’ views which favor progressive taxation and a liberal

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION



THE PROMPT

• COMPARISONS and possessives
We must compare similar things.
We should be comparing the views of Democrats with the views of Republicans.

Possessives can be confusing because we are not required to restate the noun under comparison.
→ Correct: The girls' grades were better than the boys' [grades].
For brevity's sake, we do not repeat the bracketed word grades.
If we want to be extremely formal or if using the possessive creates confusion, we can use "those of" (or that of).
→ Correct: The girls grades were better than those of the boys.
"Those" = grades
(And remember that to show possession, we use either "grades of Dmytro" or "Dmytro's grades" but not both at the same time, i.e., not grades of Dmytro's.)

THE OPTIONS

• The sentence correctly compares Democrats’ views to Republicans’ views
• I do not see any other errors
KEEP A


• Grammatical, but the meaning is silly.
The sentence is grammatical, but it does not compare the views of Democrats with the views of Republicans.
• Wrong meaning. The sentence means that Democrats' views are usually more revolutionary than those views are Republican.
Democrats' views are not capital-R Republican.
ELIMINATE B


• comparisons between two groups require the comparative more, not most. The superlative most requires at least three groups.

• the word "over" is at best unidiomatic and at worse nonsensical.
→ We do not say that something is deemed more or most X "OVER" something else.
Such phrasing is neither idiomatic nor comprehensible: the words most (or more) and over should not be linked in a comparison.
→ Nor should the words deem and over be linked in a comparison.
ELIMINATE C

• more ____ requires the word than: The Dems' views rare more XYZ than the Republicans' views.
• almost always, do not use both a comparative word such as more and some form of the word comparison.
→ the phrasing more ... in comparison to is redundant. More already implies comparison.
ELIMINATE D


• the comparison is not parallel because Republicans is missing an apostrophe at the end
→ Democrats' views are not being compared to Republicans' views.
• this sentence means: the Democrats' views are more revolutionary than the Democrats' views are Rebublicans.
Views are not Republicans. Republicans are people who belong to a political party.
ELIMINATE E

The best answer is A.

Notes

warrior1991 , you wrote:

I am not sure that I understand what you are asking.
Republicans' with an apostrophe at the end of the word means "Republicans' views." We don't have to repeat "views."
Republicans without an apostrophe at the end of the word means people who identify or are registered with the Republican political party.
See my analysis below about the word Republicans'.

I suspect that the plural possessive is confusing (and it is confusing!).
Examples teach better than words. Words in brackets are not written.

→ Correct, singular: The Indian's math training was deemed more thorough than the American's [math training].
→ Wrong, singular: The Indian's math training was deemed more thorough than the American.
(Now the Indian's math training is more thorough than the American person is thorough. Ridiculous. We cannot compare the Indian person's math training with an American person.)
→ Correct, plural: The Indians' math training was deemed more thorough than the Americans' [math training].
→ Wrong, plural: The Indians' math training was deemed more thorough than the Americans.
The Indians' math training was more thorough than the American people were thorough? No.

This stuff can start to get confusing when proper plural possessive nouns are involved.
→ A Republican is a person who belongs to the Republican party in the U.S.
→ Republicans are a group of people in a political party in the U.S.
→ The word Republicans' is an adjective that is about to describe something that Republicans possess: Republicans' philosophy; Republicans' minority status in the House of Representatives; Republicans' right-wing tendencies.
The word Republicans' cannot stand on its own as a subject and in order to be "shorthand" for something, the "something" must already have been mentioned (e.g. views)—Republicans' is an adjective, not a noun.

Nouns are italicized:
→ I know a Republican; he lives down the street.
→ I know many Republicans; they were vocal neoconservatives at HLS.
→ I do not respect Republicans' silence about other Republicans' violent statements directed at Dr. Fauci, Kris Krebs, and even other Republicans who are just doing their jobs as election workers. Someone is going to get hurt.

I hope that analysis helps.

COMMENTS

jessiemjx , welcome to SC Butler.

These answers are very good. Kudos to all.