Our Values
Solidarians envision a world that focuses on the flourishing and overall well-being of individuals, families, and communities rather than one that merely reinforces the power of the two-party system. We hold to seven key values that shape our outlook and inform our policy proposals:
1. The Value of Human Life
Most people aren’t anarchists who want to watch the world burn. Most people intuitively realize that human life is valuable and precious. We must work to defend and uphold the value of all human lives, regardless of their perceived value to society. Only when all lives are protected and valued equally can society make progress and be truly just.
2. Protection of the Vulnerable
Both Left and Right agree that some people are more vulnerable than others, and deserve protection from people who would take advantage of them or harm them. Unfortunately, both sides of the debate are wildly inconsistent when it comes to deciding who deserves protection and who doesn’t, and what such protection entails. The government should play a proactive role in defending the vulnerable, while not falling prey to the divisiveness of identity politics.
3. Community-First Society
Raw individualism and faceless collectivism are both dangerous to society. People thrive best when they participate in community—a place where they both have a role as an individual and are able to serve for the good of others. Humans weren’t meant to live alone or online. Nor were they meant to be faceless drones in the greater business world. We must support measures to strengthen concrete, local communities, and oppose all forces that destroy or weaken them.
4. Family Values
Like it or not, we all have families in some form or another. We all came from parents, and the future belongs to those who become parents. Shouldn’t society be oriented towards helping forge better families, instead of embracing policies that weaken or even tear families apart? Too many people have grown up in families that were dysfunctional or broken; we need to work towards building families that will last a lifetime.
5. Economic Security
It’s not rocket science—everyone wants a place to live and food to eat. No one wants to sleep in the streets or worry about where their next meal is coming from. Unfortunately, the economic policies of both Left- and Right-Wing politicians have created an economy where many people live paycheck to paycheck or live off government handouts. We must enable people to become owners of their own means of making a living, so that they don’t have to live at the whims of the government or big business, and can build the lives they dream of.
6. Good Stewardship of the Environment
We’ve only got one home. Unfortunately, it seems like too many people don’t care that nature is increasingly being destroyed and consumed for profit. To live well and flourish, we need to take care of the world around us. By careful management and stewardship of our natural resources, we will ensure that we pass a world worth living in to our children and grandchildren, ensuring they are able to live a healthy and happy life for a long time to come!
7. Global Peace and Security
Wars make for good movies and stories, but nobody really wants a war-torn world. The United States should work to be on good terms with as many countries as possible, and help build a constructive global environment characterized by cooperation more than confrontation. Diplomacy and nonviolent means should receive the top priority when achieving international peace. Learning to work together with other nations as far as possible on common interests should be more important that rash domination of others through military force. War should only be used as a last resort and for self-defense against immediate and direct threat.
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These seven values are the common ground upon which Solidarians hope to build the future. They are common values, since most Americans realize on some level or another that they are good things. These values provide the meeting place upon which people from vastly different political backgrounds can meet in order to think about what’s really important—building a society in which human life prospers.