A correction was added to this article Oct. 20.

Due to an editing error, the Oct. 19 article ‘Students face off over political parties’ used the word ‘God’ instead of ‘GOP’ in one instance. The sentence should have read, ‘Kishkunas said the GOP is traditionally a party that has based its ideology on self-motivated individuals.’ The Daily regrets this error.Representatives from both major political parties lined up to argue the policy decisions of their state and federal counterparts Monday during a debate in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

The debate, organized by the ISU Political Science Club and co-sponsored by the Committee on Lectures and the Student Union Board, hinged on differences in what interests the parties were meant to represent. The debate could have been scored a technical tie, but it did help to highlight ideological differences between the parties.

“One thing I kept hearing from the other side that we are the party of me,” said ISU College Republicans President Louis Kishkunas. “I agree with that. This is the party of individuals.”

Kishkunas said the GOP is traditionally a party that has based its ideology on self-motivated individuals.

Drew Larson, a representative for the Democratic side and Campaign 2004 co-chairman, said the Democratic Party believed in being the party of the people and represented the interests of society as a whole.

“This government is for all of us; it’s for the people,” Larson said. “It’s not for individual interests.”

From that broad distinction, the two parties worked hard to create distance from each other across an array of policy questions posed to them by members of the political science club, ISU students and one another.

With a Republican administration hoping to get re-elected, Republican representatives found themselves defending many of President Bush’s policies, including the war in Iraq.

Kishkunas said the president has worked hard to maintain a coalition of nations that included Poland and Lithuania to protect international interests, while other nations, such as France and Germany, have worked to undermine that work. He said building such coalitions and Bush’s work at rallying the world around U.N. Resolution 1441, which would force Iraq to allow weapons inspections, has shown Bush’s skill as a statesman.

“That shows something very fundamental to Bush the politician, Bush the statesman,” Kishkunas said.

Drew Miller, a representative for the Democrats and a member of the Iowa State Daily editorial board, said the coalition isn’t a sign of strength for Bush or Republicans.

“This is a coalition that isn’t building; it’s falling apart,” Miller said.

Larson said Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry had plans to solicit allies for Iraq by putting forth a good-faith effort.

Other key policy debates included controversial tax cuts the president passed in hopes of stimulating the economy.

Jonathan Bracewell, a Republican representative, said the tax cuts have led to record Dow Jones averages and rescued the economy from a recession.

Bracewell said the tax cuts have led to more people with more money, which has helped the economy grow.

“It’s our money, folks; why shouldn’t we keep it?” he said.

Despite the claims, Miller said the money hasn’t helped many people who are in lower tax brackets and that it has only helped to increase the federal deficit.

Alan Thompson, freshman in pre-architecture, said the debate was pretty evenly drawn. Thompson said the representatives said many things that were interesting to him, but felt the Democrats had many stronger points.

Both sides agreed that the main goal of the debate was to encourage more students to interact and discuss political topics.

“This civil discourse is important to working together in a bipartisan manner,” Larson said.