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By Ill flame
Posts
#630102
I stumbled across this relatively new parties platform the other day that I thought was interesting. They have conservative Christian views on most social issues differing on things like immigration and the environment that we usually see from the right. Their fiscal platform is left of center but has a "distributist" flavor of capitalism (bigger focus on worker co ops, small business, etc) that differs from the corporate focused economy both parties support.

As a pretty conservative guy myself I can't say I agree with their whole platform but they definitely have some policies I could get behind. I was curious what others on here thought (especially from a Christian viewpoint) as an alternative to the two current parties platforms. Is this the type of platform christians on both sides of the aisle could mostly unite on?


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/America ... rity_Party
By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#630118
It’s been a landing spot for the conservative Christians who have felt politically homeless with the way the GOP has moved over the past 5-6 years. I know of it mainly through Karen Swallow-Prior hyping them up, and her vouching for them has a lot of cachet among a certain cohort of not-quite-exvangelicals.

I did not know the distributism piece- I’m familiar with distributism because it’s the philosophy GK Chesterton championed a hundred years ago. A nice idealist philosophy but would probably be impossible to implement in the real world.
By lynchburgwildcats
Registration Days Posts
#630135
I read their platform on their website, the bullet points, not the summary paragraph for each category. This party seems to be lean much more to the left than the right. They may claim to be to the right on social issues but there are a WHOLE lot of social issues they very clearly lean left on. Thus, I largely agreed with their platform even as a non-religious person. I don't think Christianity is a bad thing, it just gets warped by many on the right for nefarious reasons.

What policies are they talking about that penalize couples for getting married? Never heard of any of those.

Education has some good bits, but allowing local jurisdictions to set standards for learning is going to lead to some real whackadoodle education standards when extremists comprise the school board.

Not a fan of basically abolishing the separation of church and state though.

Only other things I can remember off the top of my head that I didn't agree with were abortion and outlawing surogacy, gender transformation surgery for adults, and the sex worker economy.
User avatar
By Racenut
Registration Days Posts
#630137
Third party candidates are nothing but a pipe dream that typically will dilute the Republican vote. The answer is to get quality candidates that get in early and actually work hard to get their message out, and convincing grass roots supporters get behind the candidacy. I have actually become involved in the County Republican Party where I live this year for the first time in my 62 years. I was surprised to find a record number of precincts organized for the first time ever. And all this with the mid-terms 16 months away. Educating people on the issues without condescending and discussing without letting the conversation deteriorate to insults has been a hobby of mine as a shop owner for 27 years, so my experience so far with my toe in the political water has been pleasant so far. The Bible says to always be ready to give an account of why you believe what you believe, and I think that should apply to politics as well. Sadly, not many are willing to take the time to learn the issues well enough to have an intelligent discussion, or have the communication skills to persuade. The main issue that should draw Christians to the Republican Party is freedom. Christianity is inherently voluntary so the key component is the freedom to be able to worship and freedom to communicate the reason for the hope that is in us. If the Republican candidates in your area don't champion those causes or other causes that you find most important, get involved locally and change the candidates. It is said that all politics is local and without a doubt that is where it all begins.
User avatar
By Ill flame
Posts
#630138
I don't know if I agree that 3rd parties take away from the republicans. According to Gary Johnson during the 2016 election he was polling better from would be democrats than republicans and the green party usually does better than the constitution party. 3rd party candidates wont win anytime soon but history has shown that if their platform becomes popular enough one of the two major parties will steal it.

There are parts of this platform that I would like to see the republicans incorporate, primarily some of the distributist aspects. Enforcing a more strict anti trust standard primarily in the tech industry and making some changes to the tax code to encourage small business, worker co-ops and credit unions instead of major banks, maybe even supporting private sector unions again.

Also republicans really need to come up with a workable plan to fix health care and push it hard because the lefts "solutions" might be terrible but at least they have something to push for. I've always been an advocate for direct primary care as an effective free market model for healthcare and then having people choose between insurance or a government funded system for healthcare needs that primary doctors can't handle.
By paradox
Registration Days Posts
#630148
Stuff like this is an exercise in futility. It just a worthless protest vote. What we should be protesting is indoctrination in our public schools along with reckless fiscal and monetary policies.
By stokesjokes
Registration Days Posts
#630155
It’s been a long time since a 3rd party has taken over one of the main two for national elections. If we start seeing more adoption of ranked choice voting, then 3rd parties become more viable.

I do think smaller parties can succeed in more localized politics, maybe even up to the state level if they have enough push. What they can succeed in beyond winning elections is causing the main parties to reform and adopt some of their platforms.
Ill flame liked this
By paradox
Registration Days Posts
#630164
This one's going nowhere though. People aren't looking for religious parties. The old Reform Party was an impactful third party. Populist movement very similar to Trump. But dormant now.
User avatar
By Ill flame
Posts
#630171
I'm in Alaska where ranked choice voting passed through a referendum last year. I'll be voting third party just because i can without losing a vote now which is part of the reason I was looking at this party. I hope to see ranked choice or approval voting become more mainstream so third parties can at least have a better chance at the local and state elections. That's where election reform often need to happen the most anyway.
User avatar
By Purple Haize
Registration Days Posts
#630180
Racenut wrote: August 16th, 2021, 12:00 am Third party candidates are nothing but a pipe dream that typically will dilute the Republican vote. The answer is to get quality candidates that get in early and actually work hard to get their message out, and convincing grass roots supporters get behind the candidacy. I have actually become involved in the County Republican Party where I live this year for the first time in my 62 years. I was surprised to find a record number of precincts organized for the first time ever. And all this with the mid-terms 16 months away. Educating people on the issues without condescending and discussing without letting the conversation deteriorate to insults has been a hobby of mine as a shop owner for 27 years, so my experience so far with my toe in the political water has been pleasant so far. The Bible says to always be ready to give an account of why you believe what you believe, and I think that should apply to politics as well. Sadly, not many are willing to take the time to learn the issues well enough to have an intelligent discussion, or have the communication skills to persuade. The main issue that should draw Christians to the Republican Party is freedom. Christianity is inherently voluntary so the key component is the freedom to be able to worship and freedom to communicate the reason for the hope that is in us. If the Republican candidates in your area don't champion those causes or other causes that you find most important, get involved locally and change the candidates. It is said that all politics is local and without a doubt that is where it all begins.
We just experienced a Third Party President this past Administration
phoenix liked this
User avatar
By JDUB
Registration Days Posts
#630266
Ill flame wrote: August 16th, 2021, 1:31 am .....

Also republicans really need to come up with a workable plan to fix health care and push it hard because the lefts "solutions" might be terrible but at least they have something to push for. I've always been an advocate for direct primary care as an effective free market model for healthcare and then having people choose between insurance or a government funded system for healthcare needs that primary doctors can't handle.
Direct primary care has a major movement nationwide starting to build, with a new model with similarities of DPC but encompassing all specialties being launched in the Lynchburg market within the next year. Many local providers already in discussions or signed on, so keep an eye on that as it will be very interesting to see how that plays out.
Ill flame, flamehunter liked this
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