On Monday, October 21, The Saint Thomas More Society hosted Vice Presidential candidate Lauren Onak of the American Solidarity party for its weekly talk at BC. The American Solidarity party is founded on Catholic Social Teaching and presents itself as an option for voters, especially Catholics, who are dissatisfied with increased political polarization and the present Republican and Democrat nominees.
Their main platforms include the sanctity of life, the principle of subsidiarity, the centrality of natural marriage and family, social justice, universal healthcare, and environmental stewardship—all through the lens of a traditional “Christian democracy.”
Onak began by pointing out how the practical implementation of Catholic Social Teaching has already proven successful, such as when the Church had a large hand in rebuilding Europe after WWII. She quoted Pope Saint John Paul II, who stated that, “the duty of the Church is social order,” she furthered that the the main thing people need to realize is that “I belong only to myself” is a lie; no man is an island and everything an individual does affects others. More concisely, there is, “no such thing as private sin.”
Lauren Onak urged all who attended her talk to remember that “peace is indivisible–either for all, or none.” Unfortunately, many social issues are split between red and blue lines: for instance helping the poor or migrants seems mainly a liberal cause, whereas protecting the unborn and elderly has mostly conservative support. This makes it very difficult to choose a presidential candidate who fulfills the entire Catholic principle of human dignity. That is the gap the American Solidarity Party hopes to fill.
Onak attended Barnard College in NYC, where she worked with the Sisters of Life and was converted to the pro-life cause. After voting mostly Republican, she cast her vote for an Independent for the first time in 2016 because she was so disappointed with the rhetoric on both sides of the main political aisle.
Additionally, she noticed that many of her friends who married young right out of college needed welfare to support their families. When she herself married a Polish immigrant and visited there often, the differences between their system and culture were stark and made America’s way seem ridiculous in some realms. For instance, education in Poland costs nowhere near the astounding $95K/year that universities like Boston College charge, paternity leave policies in Poland are generous, and Catholicism and inter-generational households are much more common.
In 2020, she shifted even more toward the American Solidarity Party after witnessing the storming of the Capitol on January 6, and seeing her friends becoming more divisive and dehumanizing those with whom they politically disagreed.
A hugely formative experience in Onak’s life and political career was her first child. While she was pregnant with her, the doctors measured a certain fold of skin on the baby’s neck that, if too large, could indicate the presence of Down Syndrome. After further testing confirmed that the child may have some type of special needs, the doctors began pressuring for abortion (which in NYC is legal up to and even past birth) and one member of the medical staff began referring to “the pregnancy” instead of calling her daughter “munchkin” like she had done for months before.
This scared Onak when she realized no one was there to advocate for her daughter’s life except her. Once her baby was born, however, all the doctors began planning for Early Intervention programming and other ways to support, enhance, and create opportunities for her child. The fact that they only valued her after birth but disregarded her life previously infuriated the new mother.
This ordeal served to strengthen Onak’s convictions that pro-life and family issues are being tabled by the mainstream (especially by the GOP due to their perceived unpopularity), but the American Solidarity Party wants to ensure such concerns still have a spotlight in the larger political landscape.
However, it’s obviously highly unlikely that Peter Sonski, the party’s presidential candidate, will actually win the election. So, one of the audience members inquired, “[W]ouldn’t voting for him be throwing away your vote, or worse, “stealing the vote” from the lesser of two evils (of the main presidential nominees), thereby risking the victory of the greater evil?”
Onak responded in two ways: firstly, voting for a third party is an effective way to get the attention of the major party candidates, since often the number of votes for this third party is more than the gap between the two. So they would be more willing to cater to your goals in order to secure your vote, and that could change the party’s stances. It could also encourage more faithful people of goodwill to enter politics.
Secondly, she believes it depends on your own conscience when you leave the voting booth. Onak doesn’t believe we “owe” our vote to anyone, and so we should simply vote for whoever on the ticket we believe is the lesser evil, especially in non-swing states.
As for withholding your vote when there is no candidate you fully support, Onak says she doesn’t “believe in an opt-out mentality when it comes to politics, unless you are in religious life” and that we shouldn’t just vote against a candidate we dislike, but for the candidate we genuinely support the most.
According to Onak, voting for the American Solidarity Party is the most effective way to call for a U.S. leader who will more consistently work for the common good and spread Catholic values in our nation, whether that be Sonski or someone on a future ballot.
Liana Winans is a lifelong Bostonian studying Biology as a freshman in MCAS. While not working on Torch articles or practicing pro-life apologetics, she will often be found playing basketball in the Rec, reading at the Res, playing piano, or watching old action movies. Her go-to prayer is the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
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