More Publicity for Texas GOP Platform

Houston Chronicle:

Declarations that the United States is a "Christian nation," that "American English" should be the country's official language and that the U.S. Department of Education should be abolished wouldn't play well with large numbers of American voters.

You won't find those provisions in the platform, or statement of principles, that was crafted by the White House and formally adopted Monday by the Republican National Convention. But they are standard fare in the platform of the Texas Republican Party.

Delegates in New York called for increased funding of grants, low-interest loans and tax breaks for working families to "ensure that college is affordable and accessible for America's low- and middle-income families."

Texas Republicans, however, are on record asking the state Legislature to "end all state funding of higher-education grants and scholarships."

The state GOP platform not only "affirms that the United States of America is a Christian nation," it also opposes any governmental efforts to remove displays of the Ten Commandments from public property.

Although Bush has tried to improve the GOP's appeal to Hispanics and occasionally speaks Spanish on the campaign trail, Texas Republicans want "immediate adoption of American English as the official language of Texas and of the United States." They also discourage the publication of governmental documents in other languages.

In advocating the abolition of the Department of Education, Texas Republicans said the federal government "has no constitutional jurisdiction over education." The national Republican platform, on the other hand, commends Bush for winning congressional passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, calling it "a promise kept to parents, students, teachers and every American."