I like to think about things. I also like to question things – sometimes just for the sake of it.
I nerd myself into some things. Other things I am extremely uninterested in.
I have also become a climate change aunt, despite mine so far, in the context, young age.
On this blog you can read most of what fits in my world of thought. From social criticism to beauty 40+ to embarrassing stories to…
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When Jan Björklund resigned as party leader a few years ago, I would have liked to have seen Erik Ullenhag take over. Unfortunately, that did not happen, and Nyamko Sabuni took over the liberal baton instead. To those who wonder, my own political abode is liberal, but far more social liberal than anything else. Unlike Nyamko Sabuni.
It is difficult to refrain from seeing this new choice on the part of the Liberals as much more than a desperate attempt to save the party, now that they are so low in all measurements. Nyamko Sabuni is certainly a good and nice person, but for me she lacks the obvious, the self-confidence and the compassionate trait that at least I thought was nice in Jan Björklund. Don't get me wrong, Björklund was and is far from perfect, but my view is that he was a far more obvious party leader than Sabuni will ever be.
For me is the idea of liberalism as actually right-wing alien. Certainly, the idea that it would be left is also foreign. For me, liberalism is at the center, and there it should stay. Collaborations can be quite good, as well as wanting to work for a certain party leader to become prime minister in the next election – although in this case I do not agree at all. But to enter into a so far loose cooperation where one of the parties is called the Sweden Democrats, it's so incredibly stupid that I get really dull. To do it together with the Moderates and the Christian Democrats also paves the way for a traditional and conservative society in the making – in as many ways as liberalism would reasonably be opposed from every possible perspective.
I really understand not how Sabuni and all those who voted for this shift see that liberal values fit into the right-wing policies that will be presented by this cooperation in the future. I really do not understand that. For the thing is – at least for me as a social liberal, that money is not everything. Money is only a small part of a functioning society. Most of it is made up of people. Individuals. Liberalism should reasonably be inclusive and count on everyone, but by choosing to go to the right, it becomes a huge exclusion of very, very many people.
Am I biased?
Of course I am. I am for the individual's right to his own choices. I do not like to be placed in a compartment because of this or that. I do not like anyone to tell me what I may or may not do because of this or that. Unfortunately, that is the case, and it is certainly perhaps more the fault of the Social Democrats than any right-wing party. But the Social Democrats have in any case had the sense to think of us who for one reason or another are or have become ill and are unable to contribute to society in a way that belongs to the norm. I may think that system needs to be adjusted, but it gives people like me some kind of freedom of choice, although the margins are extremely small and unforgiving. But a right-wing government will most likely make life worse for people like me, and there I get angry. Especially on the Liberals who claim to work for the freedom of the individual – but obviously not everyone's freedom.
By choosing right instead of center (or left) Sabuni and the Liberals have decided that exclusion is better than inclusion. And by that I do not mean just sick, but also women, cultural practitioners, immigrants / new Swedes, pensioners, and so many more. If you merge the Moderates, The Christian Democrats and the Sweden Democrats get a society that at least I do not want to live in. A society where all that matters is how much money you make, what country and what culture you were born into, that you are a white middle-aged privileged man, that you have the right opinions, but not much more. It will be, if we are unlucky, a top-down guardianship where the individual does not have much to say about, and it scares me.
Some day will I take and write together a probably long and critical post about what I think about the western lifestyle and why I think it is so incomparably wrong. On the whole, I think that party politics has the completely wrong focus, no matter which party you are talking about.
Now I am not entirely sure that the Sweden Democrats will be super big. Certainly, they are quite large now, but I'm not entirely sure they will necessarily get bigger. Will they have more influence? And, perhaps. It depends on how the election goes, and I happily and willingly admit that I'm nervous. My hope is that many who will vote in the next election got a scare shot of Donald Trump's year as president, but on the other hand – there are insanely many who are really blown away, so maybe I should not hope for too much.
That, however is surprising is in fact the Liberals' choice of path. As I wrote at the beginning of the post, it mostly feels like a desperate way to get attention and in a way maybe raise the numbers in all measurements. But to seriously believe that one should get through more liberal politics together with two (three) conservative, non-liberal parties, feels naive and uneducated. My view is more about Sabuni wanting to save himself in his party leadership role, and think this is the way to go. Much like my experience was when Anna Kinberg-Batra wanted to do the same thing. And it's done; The Liberals may see the game of imitation as a safe bet to join a government. Perhaps. Personally, I strongly doubt that they will benefit from it. But of course I can be wrong.
My voices in Elections have alternated between the Liberals and the Center Party for many years. But if this is what will become of the Liberals, they lose my voice. Guaranteed. I do not intend to stand behind such an incredibly stupid decision as this. And I think that, in the long run, the Liberals will be ashamed of this – if they do not already do so.