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Important thread about the American Solidarity Party (posted with permission from the author Toby D'Anna, with first person experience).
I saw and heard much of this first and secondhand as well in 2016. Thread to follow.
I saw and heard much of this first and secondhand as well in 2016. Thread to follow.
"Because the American Solidarity Party is going into heavy recruiting mode again and has gotten a free pass from Catholic media outlets like Crux and the Jesuit periodical America who have published enthusiastic pieces on the party.
I figure it’s as good a time as any to give a warning about this theocratic political cult claiming to support a whole life ethic. The ASP is four years removed from removing a platform plank calling for the decriminalization of possession of child pornography.
The ASP is four years removed from nominating a professional magician with a penchant for sharing fake news and photoshopped images of Obama as an armed black panther with race baiting alarmism.
The ASP is four years removed from that same magician nominee opening the party to anti-vaxxers by suggesting there was good science on both sides in the debate.
The ASP is nine years removed from its founding by a man who was booted from Catholic writer Mark Shea’s timeline for his advocacy of violence against women and gays. This same founder is conveniently booted from any mention in the ASP’s Wikipedia profile.
The ASP is just a couple of years removed from a turnover in party leadership that happened because the majority of ASP activists saw the national and several state chairs who were repudiating Christofascist, monarchist, misogynistic, and racist factions in the group as divisive.
I’m not familiar with their candidate for President this year, and I have no need to bother with this lunatic fringe political cult’s propaganda. It does not matter how improved their candidate’s presentation may be.
I do feel an obligation to my friends with political views shaped by Catholic Social Teaching and consistent ethics of life philosophies who are purple voters frustrated with both major parties and don’t fit any of the established minor parties of note.
I hate to see you drink the ASP Kool Aid and waste your time and credibility on a party that seems destined to be bottom dwellers of LaRouchian proportions.
But I am more worried that the ASP will become strong enough to be noticed by a wider audience, that its history will be publicly scrutinized, and that the values of a more authentic movement of whole lifers will be forever tainted with the sick extremities...
tolerated by the party which frequently fly below the radar. They are not the politically pure party you hoped for. They are a poisoned well from which you ought not drink."
Me speaking now:
Early on, I thought the ASP seemed cool and worth exploring but I left before it went totally nuts because it smelled funny to me and I have developed a decent nose for that, so I ran and fast. I do not regret that.
Early on, I thought the ASP seemed cool and worth exploring but I left before it went totally nuts because it smelled funny to me and I have developed a decent nose for that, so I ran and fast. I do not regret that.
An element of the Catholic Church I have long found deeply disturbing is how its worst capacities often emerge from the best motivations. Coruptio optimi pessima est and all that. When I hear "Viva Cristo Rey!", I do not think of the Cristiada or the brave priests who died.
I wish I could only think of that. But instead I think of Fr. Maciel and how he used that religious zeal and fervour to abuse people and how to this day there are Mexican devotees who say "todos somos hijas de Maciel!" ("We are all daughters of Maciel!").
I have also seen fringe Canadian Catholics who are members of the Christian Heritage Party, a similar kooky side party of Christians, who have told me the most racist things I have ever heard in Canadian politics about their own parish priests.
So, once again, if you must use your vote to express yourself privately instead of politically, then please write in Gloria La Riva or Kanye West instead of Brian Carroll.
But, as I have done very publicly and will continue to do until the election, "Vote for Joe," I say! https://osvnews.com/2020/09/29/the-catholic-case-for-joe-biden/
Appendix I: Former MD committee member, Matthew Jenkins, has confirmed D'Anna's post here and given me permission to say that here.
Appendix II: I have been given permission to share tyhe folliwing testimonial from Mark Dominesey:
"I was there from the very beginning- one of the first half dozen members (late 2011) and an original national board of directors member.
"I was there from the very beginning- one of the first half dozen members (late 2011) and an original national board of directors member.
What Toby writes is 
correct. The ASP had good intentions with original vision being the American Political party that advocated a consistent life ethic that was also pro-worker and expressly pro-union.
correct. The ASP had good intentions with original vision being the American Political party that advocated a consistent life ethic that was also pro-worker and expressly pro-union.
Unfortunately, the magician and the guy that predated him (Amir) brought with them many extremists which included Christo-fascists, monarchists, integralists, and the worse - people who support the confederate cause and glorify a racist slave holding past.
No, the ASP should not receive the support of people of conscience, it’s a black hole of extremists and a welcome place for them to exist."
Dominesey continues, "...the takeover coup folks scrubbed the websites and the forums. Good luck finding this sordid history. You will invariably have more folks than just me and Toby validating our words and our experiences."
Dominesey adds this example, "I mean, there was a prominent state chair from Mississippi who was flaunting the racist offensive Mississippi state flag and he regularly flaunted that he and the majority of the racist White people in Mississippi chose to keep the flag of genocide.
This racist weirdo was welcomed and protected. One example."
Appendix III: Two screenshots as evidence for some of the claims made above. THESE ARE EVIDENCE OF CLAIMS ONLY, THEY ARE NOT INTENDED TO BE VIEW EXCEPT IN LIGHT OF THE ABOVE THREAD CLAIMS. Two will follow.
Appendix IV: (HT @HellmerMitzi) https://www.patheos.com/blogs/steelmagnificat/2018/07/lilian-vogl-declares-independence-from-the-american-solidarity-party/
Appendix V: (HT @HellmerMitzi)
http://ninthstation.blogspot.com/2018/06/goodbye-american-solidarity-party.html
http://ninthstation.blogspot.com/2018/06/goodbye-american-solidarity-party.html
Appendix VI: This added detail from D’Anna: “In the month leading up to the 2016 ASP convention, the eventual nominee was advocating for the party to endorse Trump.”
Appendix VII: I have been given permission to share this from Ephrem Hugh Bensusan:
"This is a timely warning about the American Solidarity Party, from my friend Toby D'Anna.
"This is a timely warning about the American Solidarity Party, from my friend Toby D'Anna.
I'm not going to dwell on it - I moved on long ago. This is just to let what friends I have that might be inclined toward a party that advertises itself as being in the Catholic Social Teaching orbit know that it, in even the most charitable assessment, really doesn't...
...live up to the hype.
I'll add that I was Kentucky Chair and National Committee member, and that our state released a statement calling for the removal of Confederate monuments which brought the neo-Confederates in the party crawling out from under their rocks to protest."
I'll add that I was Kentucky Chair and National Committee member, and that our state released a statement calling for the removal of Confederate monuments which brought the neo-Confederates in the party crawling out from under their rocks to protest."
