American Solidarity Party

The American Solidarity Party, also known as Solidarism and formerly as the Christian Democratic Party USA, is an economically center-left to left-wing, culturally center-right political party in the USA.

Economic
The ASP encourages social development along the lines of subsidiarity and sphere sovereignty, with a stated emphasis on "the importance of strong families, local communities, and voluntary associations". The American Solidarity Party favors a social market economy with a distributist flavor, and seeks "widespread economic participation and ownership" through supporting small business. They also call for providing a safety net.

The American Solidarity Party believes that political economy is a branch of ethics, and as such, rejects models of economic behavior that undermine human dignity with greed and self-interest. They advocate for an economic system based off of a society of wide spread ownership (or in other words, )

They wish to do the following:


 * Create conditions which allow single-income families to support themselves with dignity.


 * Support policies that encourage the formation and strengthening of labor unions. Any attempt to prevent unions from rising should be countered


 * Repeal ocorporate welfare policies, for shifting the tax system to target unearned income and reckless financiers, and for changing regulations to benefit small and locally-owned businesses rather than multinational corporations.


 * Restore the requirement that corporations must serve a public good in order to be granted the benefit of limited liability, and support the prohibition of corporate bylaws and the repeal of state legislation requiring shareholder profit to trump considerations such as employee wellbeing and environmental protection.


 * Order The Department of Labor to investigate all cases of wage theft and fraud in a swift manner.


 * Support mechanisms that allow workers to share in the ownership and management of their production, such as trade guilds, cooperatives, and employee stock ownership programs.


 * Require industrial policy and economic incentives to place human dignity first and to recognize that the family is the basic unit of economic production, and support policies that emphasize local production, family-owned businesses, and cooperative ownership structures.


 * Reduce the monopolistic power of corporations


 * Support and encourage measures which allow local communities to limit the power of outside interests in managing their land. Tenant unions, community land trusts, and community-oriented development are to be supported in the effort to ensure the availability of affordable and inclusive housing.


 * Build social safety nets that adequately provide for the material needs of the most vulnerable in society.


 * End the FICA Tax Cap


 * Allow beneficiaries to take their benefits in the form of start-up capital to start or purchase businesses or create cooperative enterprises that help them to escape poverty on their own terms as means of unemployment benefits


 * Implement policies that deliver citizens their fair share of our common wealth and inheritance of natural resources


 * End predatory practices which care more for stockholder value than human life


 * Make student loans dischargeable in bankruptcy

Life
The American Solidarity Party is founded on an unwavering commitment to defend life and to promote policies that safeguard the intrinsic dignity of the human person from conception until natural death. They advocate legal protections for vulnerable persons, as well as laws that facilitate authentic human freedom and ensure that all people have access to everything they need to thrive. The party’s whole-life approach guides the entire platform below, including subsequent segments on the right to a social safety net, criminal justice, and foreign policy.

They wish to implement the following measures:


 * Laws that would ban or restrict abortion, on either the federal or state, as they believe that life begins at conception and ends at natural death. In addition they wish to cut funding to abortion clinics


 * Abolish the death penalty


 * Prevent suicide and ban euthanasia


 * Establish universal healthcare by diverse means, including single-payer initiatives, direct subsidization of provider networks, subsidized education for medical professionals willing to work in rural areas, support for cost-sharing programs and mutual aid societies, home care grants, simplified regulation, and the easing of restrictions on the importation of prescription drugs. They also wish to give protections to those with pre-existing conditions.

Family
They believe that the family structure - a union between a man and a woman - is the fundamental unit and basis of every human society, and see family breakdown as a cause of widespread social problems. They believe that it’s in the interest of the state to support marriage recognized exclusively as a union between one man and one woman, although they recognize that the state must support the needs of people—especially children, as well as the elderly and disabled—in families of all kinds.

They wish to implement the following policies:


 * Repeal policies that give married couples a disadvantage, although not at the cost of single parents


 * Repeal no-fault divorce laws, although continue efforts to prevent and prosecute domestic violence


 * Ban gestational surrogacy contracts and sperm banks


 * Encourage adoption as a redemptive alternative, although understanding that the separation of children from their biological parents is never the primary goal.


 * Publicly fund services that promote stable, healthy marriages and the flourishing of children, even when such services are provided by religious institutions with religious values.


 * Cover pregnancy, child birth, and neonatalism with all healthcare plans so no family will have to worry about brining a child to the world


 * Implement accommodations for parents, such as paid parental leave, flexible scheduling, and affordable child care, and believe that no family should need to have two jobs just to survive.


 * Implement policies that subsidize child care and support for the elderly, with methods such as preferential housing options, tax credits, and respite care.


 * Ban all forms of gender reassignment surgery or hormonal surgery on children.


 * Make public spaces child-friendly, encourage outdoor play, and reform legal and administrative practices that unfairly penalize parents for giving children a reasonable degree of independence.

Education
The ASP believes that education is vital for the formation of the human person and the good of society, and advocates for affordable, diverse, and well-rounded educational options.


 * Responsibility for the education of children resides primarily in the family. Families should be free to home-school their children or send them to public or private schools.


 * Call for public support of both public and private schools, with a preferential option for economically disadvantaged students and an emphasis on making teaching a well-paying occupation.


 * Teachers would be free to design their own curricula within general parameters set by local authorities. Standardized testing should not be the most significant factor in measuring the success of students and schools.


 * Have local school systems reconsider the overuse of technology in the classroom.


 * Encourage local school systems to undertake initiatives that expand education beyond reading, writing, mathematics, science, social studies, and the arts. Additional subjects should include virtue and citizenship, understanding of the natural world, agriculture, trades, life skills, and useful crafts.


 * Have state governments increase public investment in higher education, resulting in a reduction of tuition at public institutions. To improve the consistent quality of higher education, for-profit educational enterprises must be more strictly regulated. The government should consider proposals for partial forgiveness of student loans, along with more opportunities to work off debt.


 * Have sex education classes, when offered, be required to include accurate information on prenatal development, the risks of hormonal contraceptives, and the scientific evidence that abortion takes a human life.

Religious Liberty and Civil Rights
The American Solidarity Party calls upon all levels of government to live out the God-given ideals of human dignity, equality, and fraternity. The Bill of Rights and later constitutional amendments have recognized rights stemming from these ideals, including the free exercise of religion, freedom of conscience and expression, a fair justice system, equal protection under the law, and advocate for the following:


 * Laws that allow people of all faiths to practice their religion without intimidation, and opposition to secularism that seeks to remove religion from the public sphere. They are committed to the “free exercise of religion” guaranteed by the First Amendment, which should not be limited to “freedom of worship” that merely exists in private and within a house of worship. Faith is a public expression.


 * Safeguard laws that protect religious institutions, small businesses, and private individuals from civil or criminal liability for choosing to follow their conscience in matters regarding life, healthcare, morality, sexuality, and marriage.


 * Safeguard conscience protections for employers and charities in health, education, and welfare that do not wish to participate in activities that contradict their sincerely-held convictions. In particular, they support religiously-affiliated institutions such as colleges, adoption agencies, and hospitals, which are facing pressure in some states to compromise on principles central to their doctrines.


 * Ensure that communities have the freedom to celebrate religious events and express religious values, without artificial distinctions that force religious believers to check their faith at the public door.


 * All levels of government must defend the rights of public assembly, freedom of speech, and freedom of the press, understood through the tradition of ordered liberty.


 * Support laws favoring equal access to the polls, the courts, housing, and education regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, and sex.


 * Address injustices through reparative and restorative means, such as economic grants and policies which incentivize investment, job-training, and hiring in minority communities, and by continuing dialogue between communities and local governments regarding minority concerns.


 * Pass a law which makes it so that government agencies working with the disabled must ensure that financial benefits are applied fairly and consistently. They must also make more efforts to incorporate the disabled into work or volunteer programs, depending on individual circumstances.


 * Implement legal protection for occupational safety and compensation, good faith in hiring and retention, and paid leave for illness and child-rearing. And end employment discrimination and poor working conditions


 * Oppose conscription and end mandatory registration for Selective Service for women.


 * Repeal the Patriot Act and reinstate basic civil rights, including the right of citizens to a speedy trial in civilian courts.


 * Abolish secret tribunals


 * Return military courts to their proper role


 * Ban foreign non-combatants from being detained in American facilities

Criminal Justice
The American Solidarity Party believes that public peace and order is a fundamental responsibility of government and that in too many cases our justice system is both harsh and ineffective. They believe that the US government has failed to make communities safe or adequately address economic and racial disparities in arrests, convictions, and sentencing. They support reforms to simultaneously ensure public safety, secure individual justice, and reduce the excessively penal nature of the system. They wish to do the following:


 * Make it so that federal and state governments must seek to address the causes as well as the effects of criminal behavior.


 * Oppose privatization of law enforcement and penal institutions


 * Support strict accountability for the use of lethal force.


 * Institute measures that will increase transparency and trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve, including the use of body cameras, civilian review boards, and expansion of community policing.


 * Overturn mandatory sentencing requirements, especially for non-violent criminals


 * Oppose the imprisonment of those who are simply mentally ill, homeless, or too poor to pay fines.


 * End usage of prisoners as slaves


 * Have law enforcement focus on distribution and production of drugs. Funds currently expended on the “war on drugs” would be directed toward prevention, treatment, and rehabilitation.


 * Ban prostitution and mandate penalties primarily on those who participate in the cycle of exploitation, buy sex, or arrange for its purchase. Closely tied to this is the need to aggressively combat human trafficking.


 * Criminalize the production and sale of pornography and deny categorically that pornography is protected speech, as it is inseparable from human trafficking, the promotion of pedophilia, and rape.

Foreign
The American Solidarity Party is committed to policies which will bring about a more peaceful world through international cooperation and prudent restraint in the use of military force. Peace is not just an absence of war, but the positive presence of justice and charity among people and among nations. The United States should use its diplomatic influence and soft power to promote an international order that respects the dignity of the human person. They believe that both parties have pursued a policy of reckless overreach, at great cost to both America and other nations, and that through its military, political, and economic interventions, the United States has exacerbated social and environmental instability in Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. They call for a foreign policy with both a realistic appreciation of our country’s interests and a steadfast adherence to its values, and wish to make the following changes:


 * Make it so that war should always serve as a last resort against grave acts of aggression and must be undertaken with clear goals and due regard for unintended consequences, and that the conduct of war must be governed by norms of proportionality and respect for human life


 * End unilateral military intervention in foreign countries except as a response to an actual or imminent attack on the United States or to a catastrophic threat to international security for which there is no multilateral response


 * Implement a non-interventionist foreign policy


 * End drone strikes against civilians and in neutral countries


 * Have congress reassert its war-making powers granted by the Constitution and the War Powers Act


 * Begin a reduction in military bases as a transition to a non-interventionist foreign policy except for those required to protect diplomatic missions or to meet explicit treaty obligations.


 * Deliver more resources to veterans and their families


 * Encourage and hopefully begin denuclearization, as nuclear weapons are a threat to humanity as a whole


 * Have America rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and should negotiate an update to the lapsed Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty with Russia. Further, as a nation we should reject first use of nuclear weapons and should not seek first-strike capabilities


 * Have the United States should seek peaceful resolution of global environmental problems through cooperation with foreign nations, including maintaining participation in current treaties. In addition they wish to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement in order to protect the environment and encourage other nations to do the same


 * Have the United States avoid or seek to renegotiate trade agreements that privilege corporate interests over labor rights and environmental protections or that encourage the hollowing-out of domestic industries


 * Have the United States seek whenever possible to remedy the human and environmental consequences of American intervention, both past and present


 * Avoid actions which sustain corrupt governments or exploitative practices by American corporations


 * Have the United States focus on long-term economic development aid to produce self-sufficient local communities


 * End participation in international agreements and regulatory frameworks which favor international corporations over local producers. This effort includes the banning of lending practices that put smaller nations into financial stress, and of the use of international financial pressure to restructure the economies of debtor nations. It further includes the reform of intellectual property laws that allow corporations to control seed life, and thus monopolize a disproportionate amount of food sources, especially in developing countries. International economic institutions such as the WTO, World Bank, and IMF should be reformed or replaced in the interest of transparency, accountability, and fairness to all nations.

Immigration
ASP’s obligations as part of the family of nations also encompass migrants and refugees seeking entry to our country. Mindful of the Biblical admonition to welcome the stranger and the importance of immigrants to our national fabric, we must enact policies that reconcile the legitimate interest of Americans in secure borders with a core commitment to human dignity. This effort will require not only addressing the crisis at our borders, but also the root causes of migration, many of which concern our country’s use of its military, political, and economic power abroad. They wish to do the following:


 * Implement reforms to protect migrants and to respond to unplanned refugee influxes with humane facilities adequate to house people and families in distress, although making our border areas safer for those who patrol them, live near them, or desire to cross them by aggressively targeting the trafficking of humans and narcotics


 * Close private for-profit immigration detention centers, provise sufficient resources for immigration courts, and expand monitoring programs that minimize the need for detention while asylum or immigration claims are processed


 * Begin a path to citizenship for “Dreamers” brought to the United States as children and advocate reasonable accommodations for unauthorized immigrants without a criminal record who seek permanent residency


 * Create bridge-building efforts between communities and newly-arriving immigrants, including offering lessons in civics and English for immigrants


 * Implement generous policy of asylum for refugees from religious, political, racial, and other forms of persecution. Asylum claims should be evaluated with a view to integrating refugees into American communities


 * Enforce fair labor practices and solidarity between workers of all backgrounds


 * Reform temporary visa programs to prevent companies from exploiting temporary workers and disadvantaging their American counterparts in skilled occupations


 * Negotiate equitable trade agreements that will help to make immigration a choice, rather than a necessity, by addressing economic deprivation in developing countries