Gör Sverige Bra Igen

Conservatives make major strides in…

…Sweden?

Sweden’s elections on Sunday carry the same lesson we should have already learned with Brexit and Donald Trump’s 2016 victory: Those whom political elites view as “deplorables” are going to have their say. The question now is whether elites will continue to ignore them and the lessons they bring.

Once a poster child for political consensus, Sweden is now deeply polarized. Parties on the traditional right and those on the traditional left wound up in a photo finish, each with about 41 percent of the vote. The remaining 18 percent of the vote was captured by Sweden Democrats (SD), a once obscure populist party with some roots in 1980s neofascism.It has since largely cleaned up its act and seen its support skyrocket as other parties have ignored its key issues of immigration and crime. The SD claims it now practices a “zero-tolerance” policy against members who make openly racist or anti-Semitic statements.

Sweden’s had a couple shots of Real World in recent years; conservative inroads should be expected.

But the “elites” never really do expect it.

8 thoughts on “Gör Sverige Bra Igen

  1. This is hopelessly pollyanna-ish. The elites fully expected this challenge and they beat back the worst of it: SD is not even the second largest party, it’s the third. And avoidable: it will not be part of any government.

    Note also, that like the Danish People’s Party that is *termed* right-wing, SD is not right-wing in any non-Swedish meaning of the word. But because the two question unrestricted immigration, they’re of the far-right. Also like DPP, they have moderated their platform to attract those in middle, the feckless feel-good types who are happy to lose (like so many of the Never Trumpers).

    This is no Trump election nor a Brexit result. This is, as Churchill put, “You were given the choice between war and dishonor. You chose dishonor and you will have war.”

  2. I cannot think of a single mode of European governance that would be a good fit for the US. Swiss federalism is attractive, but I doubt that it would work well on a continental scale.

  3. Politics was so much easier when the electorate were in the middle.

    Today’s inequality is so divisive.

  4. The problem with any individualized European country government is it at best deals with 25-30% of the population the US government does, plus they are (or at least were) more homogeneous than us. It is why we use the Electoral College and not the popular vote to elect pur Presidents among other things. And to Emerys point it was. Remember in the 60s JFK believed in the power of tax cuts and Nixon created the EPA. When you have 60-70% common ground with your opponent its easier to get things done than if you have 0-20% in common. As Dennis Prager so aptly put it “I didnt leave the Democratic party, it left me.” And that sentiment is growing now with the #walkaway movement.

  5. Pingback: Late Night With In The Mailbox: 09.10.18 : The Other McCain

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