Communitarian Conversations

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Taken from http://www.heinz.org/Interior.aspx?id=480&post=39

By Grant Oliphant

Silence

Lately I have found myself stupefied into virtual silence. And I know, from speaking with many colleagues and many of you reading this, that I am not alone.
But it is difficult for me to admit. I came up in the foundation world through a background in communications, journalism and public policy. For decades now I have argued for foundations to be more transparent in sharing information and more aggressive in their use of story-telling, persuasion and public voice. At times I have blasted our field for not being courageous enough in speaking out and putting its weight, knowledge and credibility behind the ideas and people we care about.
The last few weeks have battered my faith in that. In a deeply personal way I have felt overwhelmed by a media and communications landscape transformed by a maelstrom of fake news, misinformation, trolling, vilification and distraction. (Here, by the way, is the real “political correctness” that most threatens to corrode our public dialogue: the abject failure to call these behaviors what they really are—lying, indecency and abuse.) In this new world facts occupy no more privileged a position than opinion, science is treated as a matter of belief, and wild untruths are made “relevant” through the mere act of repetition.
The great Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who roamed the halls of the U.S. Senate when my giant of a boss John Heinz also did, famously liked to say, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not to his own facts.” Until recently that line was so self-evidently true it always drew a chuckle. Now, though, it feels faintly silly and quaint, because today it seems everyone really is entitled to their own facts.
The image that keeps coming to mind for me is the chaff that militaries use to throw off an attacker’s radar. Chaff is a burst of small pieces of aluminum or plastic that obscure a target in a confetti shower of decoys. It seems we all risk being lost now in a cloud of information chaff, where reality becomes whatever bit of tinsel, fake or real, we lock onto.
I believe profoundly in the power of voice, always have. And one of the great privileges of working at The Heinz Endowments is that this foundation shares that belief and did long before I came into this role. We believe that part of our responsibility is to speak – not as PR, but to advance the ideas and values we think are critical to our mission.
In his poem “September 1, 1939,” W.H. Auden lamented the world’s impotence as Hitler’s troops overran Poland. A couplet from that poem has given me much solace as I have watched our public dialogue degrade into puerile jabs and Orwellian doublespeak:
“All I have is a voice
To undo the folded lie.”
We have that, each of us: a voice to speak the truth and undo the insidious lies that divide us, make us turn on each other rather than reach out, in compassion and love. But lately I have been wondering: What is the power, what is the point anymore, of more voices whispering earnestly into a howling wind? How do our words, however sincere, however well considered, find purchase in a storm of fury and lies?
Sometimes the universe reaches out and smacks me in the side of the head with a wake-up call. It happened the other day at the gym of all places, as I was furiously working out my frustration over this question and the deep sense of powerlessness that accompanied it. A song called “The Silence” from the British indie group Bastille popped onto my Pandora feed. “It’s not enough to feel dumbstruck,” went its refrain. “Can you fill the silence?”
That stopped me midstride. It was both admonishment and license. Here I was, looking for assurance that our sector’s voice matters still in an atmosphere teeming with angry, partisan rhetoric. But none of us ever gets that assurance, in this era or any other. Our simple task is to refrain from falling mute anyway, to courageously fill the vacuum of our own stunned silence with the truth abiding in our own hearts.
The whole point of chaff is to confuse, to make us lose direction and divert us from our goals. Most of all, in this case it is meant to drive us into a kind of sputtering, shoulder-shrugging, what-difference-does-it-make silence. After all, in a world where every word is suspect, where shiny tinsel dresses up the ugliest and emptiest of lies, why speak? Especially when to speak is potentially to be seen as partisan, as taking sides, which is anathema in a field proscribed from politics and deeply fearful of controversy.
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote, “The cruelest lies are often told in silence.” History teaches us the price of allowing truth and our nobler selves to be muzzled. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by the Nazis for his defense of human rights, warned, “Not to speak is to speak.” Elie Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps, noted, “Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented,” and “the opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”
There are truths that need to be spoken now, spoken out loud and unapologetically by people who know them to be true. Spoken with love, yes, but also fierce conviction—truths about the validity of science, the perils of climate change, the nature and price of injustice, the insanity of racism and all the other isms creeping out from beneath their ill-concealed rocks, the importance of civil and human rights and why they matter for all of us, how worsening poverty hurts everyone, the opportunities before us to create and innovate our way to a better future.
These are not partisan truths but rather human truths. They belong to no political party and can be declared off limits by no lawmaker or grandstanding commentator. And they are where we as a sector, foundations that presume to offer a vision for the future, must find our voice, in holding them out not as criticism but as the True North we still must point towards, the star we still see and hold steady in our gaze despite attempts to obscure it in tawdry distraction.
Auden’s poem ends with this refrain:
Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.
That is my wish for all of us in foundations and the caring organizations and communities we support—that we will be that affirming flame, that we will fill any temptation to silence with the truths we hold most dear, the inspiration we take every day from the work we do and the people it brings into our lives. And may we speak with one bold voice the timeless truth that Auden captures in the line preceding his last stanza: “We must love one another or die.”

A true culture of life and Dylann Roof

This month millions will continue speak out against the 1973 Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade by using the anniversary of the decision to participate in Walk for Life and March for Life events across the nation. This incredible show of support for the dignity of human life is one that the American Solidarity is proud to take part in. As our members come together to honor the lives of the unborn, we must recommit to the fullness of our dedication to the dignity and value of Life.

On June 17, 2015 Dylann Roof entered the Emanuel African Methodist Church and, motivated by hate and prejudice, took the lives of nine people. Now, he has been sentenced to death, and we are forced to face the real implications of a genuine dedication to Life. The heinous, and heartbreaking act of Dylann Roof can only face a response of absolute rejection and abhorrence. This willful act of violence brings lasting pain to the local community, to individuals, and to families. It is the kind of terrible injustice that must be stridently renounced in the strongest terms, and which we as a society have an obligation to strive to end.

However, in order to truly honor the value of those lost lives, we must recognize the inherent dignity of all lives – including Dylann Roof’s. A true culture of life cannot pick and choose which lives are at the mercy of the government and which are safe. The death penalty is a terrible and unnecessary act that promotes a culture of death, and emphasizes the disposable nature of those who are seen as burdensome, unwanted, and dangerous. Like abortion, supporting the death penalty means relying on the argument that the “greater good” of society is helped through acts of death. Yet, in truth, every act of death is a wound in society. Surely, in our era of modern amenities and technology, we can find ways to isolate and contain those elements which truly threaten the peace of society. What we cannot afford to do is to treat these lives as though they are disposable, for when one life becomes disposable, they all do.

Let us firmly, for once and for all, make this our steadfast stance: We condemn the act of violence that took those nine lives, we condemn the act of violence that will take Dylann Roof’s life, and we stand together to restore an abundant culture of life to the American political and social landscape.

By 

Amy Anne Foster Munoz

Human rights “under unprecedented pressure” world-wide

Zeid calls on people to stand up for rights of others  HUMAN RIGHTS DAY, 10 DECEMBER 2016

GENEVA (8 December 2016) – “Unprecedented pressure on international human rights standards risks unravelling the unique set of protections set in place after the end of World War II,” according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein.

Speaking in the run-up to Human Rights Day on 10 December, Zeid also stressed it was within the power of every individual to play a role in pushing back against such pressures, and that many are already doing so.

“2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the globe, and if the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer,” Zeid said.

“Many of us are fearful about the way the world is heading,” he said. “Extremist movements subject people to horrific violence. Conflicts and deprivation are forcing families from their homes. Climate change darkens our horizons. Discrimination, yawning economic disparities and the ruthless desire to gain or maintain power at any cost are the principal drivers of current political and human rights crises. Humane values are under attack – and so many people feel overwhelmed, unsure what to do or where to turn.”

“Many leaders are failing to grapple effectively and honestly with these complex social and economic issues,” Zeid said. “So people are turning in desperation to the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfil.”

“But we have learned, through the bitter lessons of history, that humanity will only survive, and thrive, if we seek solutions together. Human rights were intended to be, and still are, the antidote to all of this: everyone has rights – economic and social rights, as well as civil and political rights and the right to development –  and it is time to stand up for those rights, not just for yourself but for everyone else.”

The UN human rights chief urged people everywhere to defend a system that was designed precisely with the aim of making the world a better place for everyone.

“A world where people focus only on the needs of their narrow social, national or religious group, and ignore or attack the equal needs of others, is a world which can very quickly descend into misery and chaos,” Zeid said.

“Human rights are the basis of effective policy, in societies where people know they can trust government and rely on the law. Tearing up the laws and institutions that were so painstakingly built up over the last half of the 20th century – designed to protect all individuals, as well as promote stability and economic well-being – is shortsighted and dangerous. These are not trifles to be tossed aside for personal or political gain,” he added.

“Syria is the starkest example of failure across the board. A conflict that was totally avoidable, had President Assad chosen to listen to the voices of those protesting peacefully and legitimately against human rights violations. Then, instead of working together to stop the fighting and restore order, individual States stoked the conflict, supported the murderers, provided arms, encouraged extremists – in short, collectively, threw international humanitarian law and human rights law out of the window.”

“The results? The strengthening of Da’esh and other extreme groups, who then stimulated another war and massive abuses -- very probably including genocide -- in Iraq. The repeated use of chemical weapons. A vast movement of Syrian refugees, which overran the capacity and goodwill of neighbouring countries, and spilled into Europe – where the suddenness and scale of the influx provoked fears which blended with existing economic strains and anti-foreigner sentiment and led to political upheaval.”

“In some parts of Europe, and in the United States, anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred, is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged. The rhetoric of fascism is no longer confined to a secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the ‘Deep Net.’ It is becoming part of normal daily discourse.”

“And that is just one set of problems facing one part of the planet,” Zeid said. “In South Sudan, Myanmar and potentially Burundi, ethnic or religious tensions and violence risk billowing out of control. In Yemen, the rules of war with regard to the protection of civilians have routinely been flouted, and the humanitarian crisis is so great children are starving. In the Philippines, drug users and dealers are routinely being killed in the streets, with the not-so-tacit encouragement of the authorities. Other countries are bringing back the death penalty. Elsewhere civil society organizations are being bullied and banned, human rights and political activists and investigative journalists who try to speak truth to power, or stand up for human rights, are being jailed, or killed. And what are we doing about it?”

“It is time to change course.”

Zeid announced that on Human Rights Day, the UN Human Rights Office will launch a campaign entitled “Stand up for someone’s rights today.”

“At a time of enormous turmoil and rapid change, the values which uphold peace across the world are too important to be left to international institutions and governments alone. It is within the power of every woman, man and child to stand up for respect and tolerance and push back the violence and hatred which threaten our world.”

“In the coming years, the protections provided by international and national human rights laws and systems will be of the utmost importance, not just for those who have yet to fully enjoy them, but also for those who currently take them for granted,” the UN human rights chief said. “Ultimately, human rights are for everyone, and everyone will be affected if we do not fight to preserve them. They took decades of tireless effort by countless committed individuals to establish, but – as we have seen all too clearly in recent months -- they are fragile. If we do not defend them, we will lose them.”

“We don’t have to stand by while the haters drive wedges of hostility between communities – we can build bridges. As well as understanding our own rights, we can make a real difference by supporting others. In the street, in school, at work, in public transport; in the voting booth, on social media, at home and on the sports field. Wherever there is discrimination, we can step forward to help safeguard someone's right to live free from fear and abuse. We can all lobby for better leadership, better laws and greater respect for human dignity.”

“The time for this is now. ‘We the peoples’ can take a stand for rights. Local actions can add up to a global movement to save the rights that a global movement, composed of countless committed individuals and some inspired leaders, created in the first place.

Taken from: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=21002&LangID=E

More Good press for the ASP

https://www.osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Article/TabId/535/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/20947/The-search-for-a-third-way-in-US-politics.aspx
The search for a third way in U.S. politics American Solidarity Party seeks to offer consistent life ethic as alternative for dissatisfied voters Mariann Hughes OSV Newsweekly

10/18/2016

Shutterstock

Voters disillusioned with the major party presidential possibilities for 2016 have an option that will not compromise consciences, according to Mike Maturen and Matthew Bartko, presidential candidate and chairman, respectively, of the American Solidarity Party (ASP).

The ASP was first formed in 2011 as the Christian Democracy Party by predominantly Catholic intellectuals. The party was inspired by similar movements that started after World War II in Europe, especially the efforts of President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and the Solidarity movement in Poland to help destroy Communism in the 1980s.

“For the next several years, [the now-ASP] cobbled together a platform and started working on a party identity,” said Bartko, 34. 

That identity — rooted in solidarity, subsidiarity and distributionism, three key components of Catholic social teaching — offers a consistent life ethic not found in either of the two current major parties.

Social fabric

Maturen

Maturen, 52, told Our Sunday Visitor that true pro-life solutions are multi-pronged, and not only reduce abortions through legislation, but also address the circumstances surrounding a woman’s decision to have an abortion in the first place.

“There are always two sides to every coin,” Maturen said.

That “respect from womb-to-tomb” mentality is mirrored in the affirmation statement to which members of the party must ascribe: “Recognition of the sanctity of human life, the necessity of social justice, our responsibility for the environment, and the possibility of a more peaceful world.”

Because for the ASP, true pro-life activism is more than anti-abortion. It’s also anti-death penalty and anti-physician-assisted suicide. “Then there are also social safety nets so we don’t have people dying of hunger on the streets,” said Bartko. “All that funnels into pro-life for us.”

Maturen credits his own passion for the cause to his return to Catholicism in 2002 after having left the Church for 18 years. As he delved back into his faith, he began reading Catholic social teaching in depth and realized his political beliefs and his faith life weren’t matching up. Nor was he at peace with the current political climate. “I’ve seen diplomacy disappear, statesmanship disappear, and morals disappear,” he said.

Maturen emphasizes that although the platform has heavy roots in Catholic social teaching, many Protestants and Evangelicals are also part of their organization. The ASP is a “ladder and a map to live out your Christian faith,” Maturen said, one that is attractive to secular society as well as religious groups.

Growing demand

Maturen cited a CNN story published on Oct. 13 that said Google searches for third-party “write-in” candidates surged over the last week by more than 2,800 percent, hitting a record high since 2004. 

Even the ASP is seeing evidence of apparent voter dissatisfaction with the status quo. For example, the ASP’s Facebook statistics rose 235 percent from Sept. 18-Oct. 15. Throughout the past month, official members of the ASP rose from a few hundred to more than 1,200. Not to mention, there are members in each of the 50 states and in Puerto Rico, as well as member chapters in about 35 states.

ASP Platform Includes
◗ Right to life from conception to natural death ◗ Faith in the public square ◗ Environmental stewardship ◗ Decentralized single-payer health care system

Originally, Maturen received the nod for the vice president slot during their June convention, but became the presidential candidate when the first nominee had to step down. Slowly but steadily, the party began receiving national attention, said Maturen, including coverage from a variety of news outlets.

Maturen says some have questioned the ASP’s strategy of rushing head-first into elections with a presidential platform versus a “start small and build up” approach first in the states.

“Our tactic was, because we’re small, and because the field is so muddied with so many people out there, that we felt it was best to have a national ticket to … make that big national splash to get that publicity nationwide,” explained Maturen. “Moving forward after this election cycle, we’ll have a little bit of name recognition and a little bit of credibility, and then we can start recruiting those state and local candidates.”

Past and future

Bartko is not surprised by the surge of interest in third parties and points back to the Civil War as proof that history repeats itself.

“If you look at the political history of the United States, a political party has never risen to prominence without two things,” said Bartko. “One is an issue that people are passionate about that they can coalesce around, and the other is the death of another political party.”

Two dominant political parties, the Whigs and the Democrats, led politics in the early-to-mid-1800s. As tensions proceeding the Civil War bubbled up, constituents became disillusioned by the two main parties’ inability to make any meaningful contribution toward the abolition of slavery, the hot-button pro-life issue of its day and the crux of much animosity and debate.

“The Republicans came to power because the Whigs died out. And their big issue, their catalyst, was the issue of slavery. And for the Republicans, that was being anti-slavery, whereas the Whig party was split on that issue,” explained Bartko. “And all the divisiveness in the Whig party meant that these new Republicans, with their focus on an issue that many people were passionate about, were able to seize the day. And that is why we have the Republicans and the Democrats, as opposed to the Democrats and the Whigs.”

To Bartko, the dissatisfaction with the gridlock status quo on slavery back in the 1800s bears a striking resemblance to the dissatisfaction of pro-lifers today who feel the answer to a consistent life ethic lies in neither party, creating a state of despair he calls “political homelessness.”

“I think the time is coming ripe for one or both of [the current] parties to fall into history,” he said. “And for other parties, with their issues and passions behind them, to take the forefront.”

After the presidential election, the party will step back and reevaluate. Win or lose — “and we know how that will pan out,” Maturen added wryly — the party will build relationships with the existing parties, both in Congress and the White House, to find common ground, and put legislation in at a national level. And he doesn’t care whose name is on the bill. “However it gets done, that’s fine,” he said. “We just want to get it done.”

To learn more about the American Solidarity Party and its platform, visit www.solidarity-party.org.

Mariann Hughes writes from Maryland.

American Solidarity Party Presidential Ticket Achieves Ballot Access in Colorado

From the website http://www.solidarity-party.org/#!colorado-ballot-access/w187d 

The American Solidarity Party has successfully placed its presidential candidate, Mike Maturen and his running mate Juan Munoz of Texas on the ballot in Colorado. Todd Lowman, the chair of the American Solidarity Party of Colorado, praised the Colorado Secretary of State’s office for its responsiveness, allowing the party to finish raising funds for the filing fee, recruit a slate of presidential electors, and turn in the necessary paperwork hours before the state’s deadline on August 10. Lowman invites potential campaign volunteers to join the American Solidarity Party of Colorado’s Facebook group or contact him at coloradoasp@yahoo.com. The ASP sees opportunities in Colorado, where the Republican Party is widely dissatisfied with presidential candidate Donald Trump’s polarizing rhetoric and unclear policy positions, while many voters of all political identifications are uncomfortable with the Democratic Party’s views on abortion and growing centralization of authority in the Federal government, among other issues.

​

     The ASP also hopes to achieve ballot access this month in Louisiana and Florida, as these states also give third parties a greater chance to succeed. Chris Reed, the chair of the American Solidarity Party of Louisiana, who expressed excitement about the possibility of voting for a “whole life party”, notes that the party does not yet have a member willing to serve as a presidential elector from the fourth congressional district, centered near Shreveport, and must raise $500 by August 19. In Florida, the ASP is filing paperwork to be officially incorporated as a state political party, and must have 29 presidential electors officially registered with the party by the end of August. The ASP state chapters in Louisiana and Florida each have active Facebook groups. The ASP is also exploring possibilities for presidential ballot access in several other states, is actively working to register the presidential ticket as a write-in campaign in over 30 states, plans to join efforts by other minor parties to overturn difficult ballot access laws, and is preparing to build local organizations which will run candidates for a variety of offices in the 2018 elections.

​

     The party’s platform, which can be found here, is inspired by Catholic social teaching and the ideas of Christian Democratic parties in Europe. In contrast to its socially conservative views, it is center-left on most issues related to economics, immigration, the environment, and foreign policy, while arguing for local government control of policy when practical and significant reforms in taxation. Its members are aware that running a primarily write-in campaign for President in most states is a difficult task, but presidential candidate Mike Maturen has argued that current partisan polarization has made the development of alternatives necessary. The ASP has also determined that the Libertarian Party, Green Party and other minor parties do not hold to the values present in the American Solidarity Party’s platform, and that they, along with the Democrats and Republicans, leave a significant segment of the electorate unrepresented. By most measures (registered members and social media followers), the party has doubled in size since the nomination of the presidential ticket last month. Its public Facebook page comes in slightly ahead of the Reform Party and only slightly behind Better for America, two more well-known centrist parties running similar presidential campaigns, which will have ballot access in only a few states while running write-in campaigns in most others.

​

     The party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidates are available for print, radio and television interviews, and the national and state parties are running an active social media campaign. Vice-presidential candidate, Juan Munoz, in a statement for this press release, thanked supporters in Colorado and across the nation; “I'm excited to hear the ticket will be on the ballot in Colorado. More than that, I'm humbled to be part of a movement that would inspire people to volunteer their time, talent, and treasure in order to give themselves the best choice for the future of our country.”



For further information, please visit our other pages, like us on Facebook, orcontact Christopher Keller, Campaign Media Manager:          americansolidaritypartyasp@gmail.com(Please address correspondence to Christopher by name)

The American Solidarity Party was featured in an article by the Madera Tribune

http://www.maderatribune.com/single-post/2016/08/06/New-party-boosted-by-election-frustrations

New party boosted by election frustrations

August 6, 2016

|

John Rieping

In 2011, a handful of U.S. college professors and a few others began to build a political platform for a new party, but it wasn’t until the end of 2015 that it began to truly grow.

“Many people feel like political orphans in this particular election cycle. We seem to be experiencing an extraordinary amount of ugliness this time around,” said Mike Maturen, presidential candidate for the American Solidarity Party and Michigan resident. “The ASP provides a party through which these folks can vote with a clean conscience, rather than voting for what they see as the lesser of two evils.”

The fledgling party attempts to bring a political movement common in Europe and Latin America to the U.S. — Christian democratic parties. Such parties attempt to apply Christian principles, often Catholic, to public policy. In practice, the increasingly secular parties tend to be center-right on social issues and center-left on economic matters, according to Wikipedia.

“They take their historical roots in that (Western) Christian tradition but they’re not limited to or necessarily connected with Christianity, specifically,” said ASP media manager Christopher Keller, who himself is an Orthodox Christian in Minnesota. “We see there to be a lot of similarities to the approach of the founders (of the U.S.) and how they rooted their conception of human rights in the dignity of the human person as created by some sort of deity, but they did not specify a particular religious approach beyond that.”

Keller sees a need for government to be grounded in respect for the human person. “With the Republican Party, there’s been greater and greater departures from the interests of the average person, the middle class, (and) maintaining some sense of social responsibility for each other,” he said. “Yet on the Democratic side there’s been a detachment from social values that” reveals a vision of society that is “both incomplete” and “inconsistent.”

ASP’s national committee chairman Matthew Bartko, a Protestant in Pennsylvania, shared similar thoughts. “Neither party seems to be consistent with their respect for the dignity of human life from conception to natural death,” he said. “I found the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) in Germany to most represent where I was politically but was disappointed that there wasn’t something like that in the U.S. Once I found out about the existence of ASP … I was excited and readily volunteered.”

The party’s slogan is “Common good. Common ground. Common sense.” Those who join the party must affirm “the sanctity of human life, the necessity of social justice, our responsibility for the environment, and the possibility of a more peaceful world,” Bartko said.

The party’s platform includes support for the rights of labor unions, a reform of election and intellectual property laws, more local say in how tax revenues are distributed, marriage as a union between a man and a woman, local control of education, immigration reform, net neutrality, jury selection reforms, the public exercise of religion, and decriminalizing but not legalizing recreational drugs. It includes opposition to the Patriot Act, capital punishment, assisted suicide, surrogate motherhood contracts, abortion, pre-emptive military strikes, torture, privatizing Social Security and public pensions, subsidies that encourage urban sprawl and hurt farming, and discrimination due to race, ethnicity, religion or gender.

The fledgling party, which held its first national convention in July with 70 participants, now has members in 45 states, with strongest support in California and Texas. Most registered members are Catholics, Orthodox Christians or Protestants, though the party is open to all regardless of creed or a lack of any.

The American Solidarity Party skews young, with members largely in their 20s and 30s. This echoes a new GenForward poll released Friday. It found only 28 percent of those aged 18-30 believe the two major parties do a good job representing the U.S. Only 38 percent had a favorable view of presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and only 21 percent liked her rival Donald Trump. Sixty-three percent believe Clinton broke the law in using a private email server while secretary of state.

“There’s been a lot of growth,” said Keller. “We have doubled our numbers in the last two months alone, and that doesn’t take into account those who have been active in our discussion but haven’t enrolled in our membership … According to the person handling this, we would be probably around the 5,000-person mark come November.”

That total seems tiny compared to the two major U.S. parties, even if their popularity has neared historic lows according to Gallup. Only 26 percent of citizens identified as Republicans and 29 percent as Democrats at the end of 2015. But that still amounts to about 84 million in the GOP and 94 million Democrats by U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

“While we will not pretend that we think we will win, we do provide an opportunity for Americans to send a clear message to elected officials that things need to change,” said Maturen. “A vote for the ASP can send a message that our platform is what mainstream America is looking for. A vote for us can change the face of American politics over time.”

Don’t expect to find Maturen and his running mate Juan Munoz on the ballot in Madera County or even the state of California. The filing deadline to petition to be added to the ballot is Friday, and the state requires signatures equaling at least one percent of total registered voters, which would be more than 179,000 signatures — a tough hurdle to leap. The American Solidarity Party does intend to file with the state for its presidential ticket to be recognized as a legitimate write-in option.

“A presidential run can accomplish a couple of things,” explained Maturen. “First, it gains us visibility. The amount of media interest has been astounding! This visibility gives us the momentum necessary to help build the grassroots of the party. As we build our infrastructure and move forward, we will hopefully be able to field candidates at the local and state level.”

Party members hope to remain in the public eye long after November.

“We’re making sure we’re incorporated and complying with all the rules of the FEC (Federal Election Commission) and the IRS,” said Bartko, who later added, “We have work in place not to just be a blip on the screen for the presidential election but to actually have congressional candidates to put forward for 2018 and 2020. So very exciting but a lot of tedious (infrastructure) work behind the scenes.”

Information on the American Solidarity Party can be found online at www.solidarity-party.org.

***PLATFORM REVISION CONTEST***

This is an exciting time of growth and outreach for the American Solidarity Party, leading us to attract the attention of thousands and to be published in several online and print publications.

Part of growing our Party is improving the presentation of our Platform and Principles to ensure an approachable yet informative document is available for those interested in joining with us.

***For that purpose, the ASP has launched a campaign to elaborate, organize, and in some places simplify our Platform.***

 Find our current platform here http://www.solidarity-party.org

While the content of the planks must remain the same in concept, the words, style, and organization are all on the table. Ideally the format would be chapter, discriptive subject heading, and then a longer explanation of the plank.

We encourage all writers, philosophers, politicians and anyone else to submit their entries as soon as complete, and yes, we are looking for a complete platform, so we can reply with comments and suggestions. The final submissions are due by September 30, to allow for time to review all submissions. By October 14th, the National Committee will present the top 3 submissions to the membership for a final decision.

Please contact the Party via email (americansolidaritypartyasp@gmail.com ) if you have questions. We’re excited to review the submissions!

American Solidarity Party

If you are out there and still interested in these topics please check out the American Solidarity Party @ https://sites.google.com/site/americansolidarityparty/

Change

The International Center Democratic Party was founded in 1961 under the name of World Union of Christian Democrats (WUCD). It was created by the New International Teams, predecessor organization to the European Union of Christian Democrats (EUCD), the Christian Democrat Organization of America (CDOA) and the Christian Democratic Union of Central Europe (CDUCE). In 1999 it adopted its present name, Centrist Democrat International.

What else has changed besides the name?

for more reading:

http://www.idc-cdi.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrist_Democrat_International

A White Board on Capitalism and its Critique

First I watched this.

Then i watched this.

what do you guys think?

On the Issues

OnTheIssues.org is a great site (if you are in the US) for picking candidates not parties. Please find out where you stand and vote. We need your voice.

Looking back at change

This is now 5 years old how much do you think things have changed?

this was taken form http://www.gwu.edu/~ccps/etzioni/B471.html

471. “Red State, Blue State, Light Meat, Dark Meat.” Forward (November 26, 2004).

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As my students were packing to go home for Thanksgiving, I asked them what effect "Post-Election Stress Syndrome" was going to have on their holidays. Only two expected any troubles.

One explained that his parents were dyed-in-the-wool Republicans and that they would tease him mercilessly for having worked his tail off as a volunteer for the Kerry campaign in Pennsylvania. He, in turn, would resent their support of a president who was making him consider moving to Canada for the next four years, if not longer. "It's going to be a rough Thanksgiving," he concluded.

Another student said that his parents were even more liberal than he was and that the whole family was sure to spend the holiday despondent, bemoaning the fate of the nation and wondering — in the inimical words of the British tabloid The Daily Mirror — "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" Above all, he both resented and was more than a bit envious of the few Republican students he knew who were oozing a deep sense of satisfaction as they prepared to go home and sit down to a meal of profound and all-around thanksgiving.

The other students demurred. One scoffed at the notion that politics were that important: "This holiday season isn't going to be any different from any other. We'll stuff our faces and watch football games until we're bleary-eyed. Stupid little lights will appear all over the place, mixed with plastic Santa Clauses, as we start the shop-till-you-drop Christmas season. The malls will be as full as they were last year, and the elevators will play the same tired tunes all over again. It all will be as familiar and comfortable as a well-worn pair of shoes."

No wonder, I said to myself, she is the best sociology student I have had in years.

I, too, believe that the holiday season will allow the healing to begin, to remind most Americans — all but the diehard liberals, of which there are surprisingly few outside of Manhattan, San Francisco and elite college campuses — that we are one nation, after all, and that we have much for which to be thankful. Most Americans will have an ample meal to sit down to, a roof over their head and the warmth of a properly heated home and of family members assembled from near and far — even if there are going to be the inevitable squabbles that mark such relationships.

Some families will avoid discussing politics altogether. Others will count it as a blessing that the elections were, by and large, fair and clean, recalling how concerned they were just a few weeks ago that the nation would face the trials of weeks of contested decisions, lawsuits, "Six Floridas," a loss of legitimacy of the democratic process and the possibility of becoming the world's laughingstock — all of which we were spared, for which much thanksgiving is due.

Indeed, the holiday season will serve well the partial reconciliation that has already begun. I say "partial" because not all Americans will be reconciled to four more years of President Bush or to the idea that they will have to share the same nation with 50 million people they consider religious bigots. Nor will the reconciliation of those who will calm down be complete. And Bush's next moves, both foreign and domestic, are likely to feed their remaining resentment.

However, despite all the rhetoric to the contrary, nobody I know is packing. Most are pondering where the Democrats should go next, rather than giving up on politics or talking about supporting some kind of Ralph Nader next time around. The very fact that for the weeks to come, most Americans will be absorbed in doing the same things they having been doing for years during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season should remind us that the American society is a resilient one and that there is a full and rich life — even after an important election loss.

Reconciliation will be greatly eased by the fact that the divisions, the often repeated claims of polarization, were overblown to begin with. The notion that liberals occupy the two coasts and that the rest of nation is GOP land, or that there are states whose citizens hold to blue or red views, is a media artifact. Most blue states have many red citizens, and vice versa. True, in a winner-takes-all election, it looks as if New York has no upstate; as if New York City has no Staten Island; as if Orange County is not in California, or as if there are only Republicans in the Midwest and Mountain states.

However, a closer look shows that although many states were eventually called red or blue, Bush and John Kerry actually ran neck and neck in them, within a few percentage points of each other. Take Ohio, for example, which was called red with roughly 51% of the votes going to Bush and around 48.5%to Kerry; or New Hampshire, hailed blue with Kerry receiving about 50% of the votes and Bush 49%.

Moreover, most "red" people have some blue views and beliefs, and most "blue" people are far from fully blue. Elections, which force them to reduce all subtleties and nuances to one vote, make them look like one-dimensional creatures. A quick read of Morris Fiorina's "Culture War? The Myth of a Polarized America" or of Alan Wolfe's "One Nation, After All," however, makes it clear that Americans are much more complex. It turns out that there are gay conservatives, pro-life Democrats, and so on and so on.

I do not seek to make light of the bitterness of the last election, fueled by, among other things, the injection of religious absolutes into politics. It is much easier to reach compromises on tax rates and expenditures for various social programs than on abortion, school prayer and litmus tests for Supreme Court judges. However, one should not make light either of the resiliency of the American society or of the legitimacy of its democratic polity — nor of the healing power of holidays we all share.

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