A Brief Word on the American Solidarity Party

I am not a member of the American Solidarity Party. 

I greatly respect my hardworking and principled friends who are members of the American Solidarity Party. I stand with them on any number of issues. It’s just not my jam.

I’ve been pretty shocked at the sparring between the different factions, excuse me I mean caucuses, of the American Solidarity Party lately.

Just recently, for example, I accidentally started a public Facebook brawl between the particularly misogynistic he-man “family values” caucus of the ASP and the particularly libertarian caucus, by mixing up which one was inexplicably named after Dorothy Day. It went on for hours while I watched. I’ve also exchanged words with former presidential candidate Mike Maturen, who doesn’t act very mature.

I have noticed that the ASP members brawling and acting foolish in public have one thing in common: they’re all men. Exclusively. I know several mature, intelligent and capable women who are members of the ASP, and they’re never involved in publicly making the party look like a circus sideshow.  Some male members of the ASP are also mature, intelligent and capable, but the fact remains it’s always male members who misbehave and bicker in public in front of me. Always. When they do, they make the party look even sillier than the two major political parties which dominate our nation’s politics– and that’s sure saying something.

Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to make Steel Magnificat’s first ever political endorsement. Remember, I insisted on not telling anyone who to vote for in 2016, only that Trump was the worst choice. I’m breaking my personal rule here and naming a candidate that I do support.

I am all in favor of having many different political parties all across the spectrum. The two-party system is a mistake. My only stipulation is that roughly half of those parties ought to be run by strong, capable, qualified, compassionate, intelligent WOMEN, since half of the humans in the world are women.

I am not a member of the American Solidarity Party. I never hope to be one. But I can tell you anyhow: if I were a member of the American Solidarity Party, I would vote for my friend Lillian Vogl every time, and I would refuse to vote or have commerce with anyone giving her grief. She ought to remain chairperson, and she ought to someday hold office if any of the ASP members ought.

Men who lean socially conservative but who wish to distance themselves from the GOP have an excellent opportunity to show us once and for all that they’re not really misogynists. Men  who want to bring Catholic values to the political sphere have an opportunity to show the world that Catholics aren’t just stuff-shirt Evangelicals with sacraments. All they have to do is stand back and let capable women lead. Because, at this juncture, the men in question have proven themselves incapable and silly.

(image via Pixabay)