What does the Democratic party stand for?
Same answer as always, same thing any political party stands for any time --- consolidating political power. What that means ideologically depends on what sells in that time and place, and shifts with that wind. It is impossible for a political party to pick an ideology and stay there as a unit, at least in this country. It's way too big a stage -- requiring a hydraheaded rhetoric that attempts to tell multiple interest groups what each wants to hear, ultimately satisfying none of them; the extreme example being the first half of the last century when the DP simultaneously engaged the conservative South and the liberal North.
Of course, the general public also gravitates to a political party, if they do, for pragmatic reasons rather than ideological ones. The sheriff in my town ran for and won his last election as a Republican; the election before that he ran and won as a Democrat. Same guy, same office. It's just a matter of which local organization works more efficiently for that election in that year. Frank Rizzo and Ray Nagin ran for mayor as Democrats for the same reason --- the Republican machine in those times and places would not have delivered. Westboro Batshit patriarch Fred Phelps was a Democrat. Trent Lott, Richard Shelby, Jesse Helms, Arlen Specter, David Duke, Joe McCarthy, Jim Justice and Strom Thurmond have been both Democrats and Republicans depending on the time and place. Zell MIller and Billy Graham are Democrats to this day, and that has more to do with personal tradition. So the idea that a political party stands for some kind of ideology is roundly met with myriad examples to the contrary.
Lotta people on this forum need to catch up, as the general public has, to the realization that a political party does not mean some sort of "character" or "ideology". It means an organizational structure to amass power so that it can multiply that power as a bloc. That's the only function it has as a constant. And to that end it will entertain any ideology or policy that works.
It's basically the same as the question, if I'm driving from Minneapolis to Philadelphia, do I take the Toyota or the Ford? Either car will get you there but perhaps one is in better shape or more comfortable, and ultimately you get there because you drove there, not because you drove a Toyota.