After the 2016 presidential primaries, Lucy Moye was less than enamored with her choices. The professor emeritus of history at Hillsdale College began to search for other political parties to support. After a bit of searching, she stumbled upon the American Solidarity Party.
The American Solidarity Party, officially incorporated in 2016, is founded on the principles of Christian democracy. This election cycle, the ASP is running former junior high teacher Brian Carroll and Amar Patel as their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.
Caroll is a certified write-in candidate in the state of Michigan. Moye, who helps run the Carroll campaign in Michigan, said that it is virtually impossible to get on the ballot as a third-party candidate.
“ASP does not have a state organization in Michigan. There is no chance of getting on the ballot. You have to get 42,000 signatures in 6 months. For a minor party, that’s pretty much impossible,” Moye said.
Just because the ASP can’t get on the ballot, doesn’t mean they won’t get votes. The ASP candidate in 2016 received about 6,500 votes in the presidential election. This year, Carroll anticipates that number to increase 10-15 times.
“Both parties are shedding members,” Carroll said. “We’re going to have a reorganization of our parties. We want to be in a position that if people want to give up on their parties, we’re available.”
Carroll is in an uphill battle to win the presidency. But, he believes that a win for the ASP doesn’t necessarily mean a presidential victory.
“We can force the major parties to adjust their platforms,” Caroll said. “In 1996, Ross Perro ran on a balanced budget. Both parties adopted their platforms to run on that policy. We would like to see both the democrats and the republicans stop taking pro-life voters granted.”
Carroll and Moye were both attracted to the ASP because they didn’t have to pick and choose their social justice beliefs from the major parties. The ASP believes strongly in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death and the importance of human dignity in all aspects of government.
“Philosophically, our view is that man is not just an atomized individual,” Moye said. “Our view tends to be rooted in the notion of every human being as an image-bearer of God. Every human being is precious and equal.”
For the ASP, that view lends itself to small, localized markets and a primarily family-focused society. There’s no question that the party’s platform is rather different from the current societal structure in the United States. But, Carroll believes that enacting the policy would be doable.
“If I was to be elected, my first task would be to put together a bi-partisan cabinet. I’d make it heavy on pro-life democrats and add republicans that been more in favor of immigration justice and environmental justice,” Carroll said. “Hopefully, in pulling together a bipartisan administration, we would be able to break the log-jam in congress that has long plagued our country.”
As for why he’s qualified to run the country, Carroll said that most current US politicians are not as qualified as they’d like voters to think.
“Trump may know how to run a business, but he has no idea how to run a country. Biden has spent all of his life in government and is out of touch with the regular man on the street. We need to fill our leadership with people who understand the struggles of ordinary people,” Carroll said.
Carroll also believes that most people who vote for him aren’t voting for him specifically, they’re voting for policy.
“People who are voting for me this year are not voting for me because I was the most amazing junior high teacher that has ever lived. They’re voting or me because we have, far and away, the best platform of any political party in the United States.”
