Christopher Hurtado

The 2004 Democratic and Republican party platforms have a lot in common. In fact, they arguably have more commonalities than differences. Each party is apparently attempting to appeal to the middle. Nevertheless, each party’s leanings are still evident to the discerning reader. Each of the two platforms discusses many of the same issues, each using it’s own rhetoric to dance around them in a non-committal way. The similarities between the two parties’ platforms is evident from the start in the striking resemblance between the title of each party’s platform, both of which make reference to national security and foreign policy. Additionally, each platform deals with “the war on terror,” the economy, healthcare, community, family, and energy independence. There are, however, notable differences between the two parties’ platforms. These difference show up mainly in the way each party addresses the issues at hand.

Notable among the differences in each party’s rhetoric is their take on how to strengthen the economy. Although both parties speak of creating jobs to strengthen the economy, the Democratic party’s rhetoric regarding the economy focuses on job creation and retention from offshoring through tax reforms. The Democratic party emphasizes the worth of America’s working middle class and claims that it is underserved and overtaxed by the Republican party. This, they say, the Republican party does to inure to the benefit of America’s upper class and big businesses. Their solution: add tax cuts for the middle class and eliminate those for the wealthy and for big businesses. The Republican party speaks of tax reform also, but its rhetoric contradicts the Democratic party’s. The Republican party claims that it is already working on cutting taxes for the very same “hard-working Americans” the Democratic party claims it disdains.

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Hurricane Katrina “created an area of destruction that is 90,000 square miles, an area larger than the size of Great Britain.” (www.whitehouse.gov) President Bush has declared states of emergency in the affected states of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and also in Texas and Arkansas to help make federal assistance available to those who need it. “A vast coastline of towns and communities [in Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana] has been flattened; [New Orleans] is submerged.” (www.whitehouse.gov) “The [Louisiana] state secretary of environmental quality, Michael D. McDaniel, said that wildlife habitats along hundreds of miles of coastline had been destroyed and that the hurricane exacerbated the slow coastal erosion that had already made the coast more vulnerable to hurricanes.” (www.nytimes.com) The Mayor of New Orleans reports major fires and gas leaks throughout the city of New Orleans. Flood waters there are contaminated with sewage, bodies and chemicals. It will take months, or perhaps years, and billions of dollars to overcome the effects of this natural disaster.

As a result of Katrina’s destruction, tens of thousands have lost their homes and been displaced. Many have been separated from their families. Others suffer for lack of food, water, or medicine. Tens of thousands of lives have been lost. Sports facilities, convention centers, church meetinghouses and the homes of private citizens all over the country have provided shelter, showers, meals, water and medical assistance to the homeless. “After accepting more than 11,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees, officials said the Astrodome was full and at least temporarily halted the flow of evacuees into the shelter Thursday night.” (www.news.yahoo.com) Refugees are now being housed in the Reliant Stadium, the George R. Brown Convention Center, other shelters and churches throughout the Greater Houston Area.

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