Enad Röst presenterar Ryli Middendorff från Feministerna, nr 29 på riksdagslistan:
I grew up in Oklahoma in the US during the ‘90s and ‘00s. I had a front row seat to the last death throes of meaningful resistance in the mainstream left in the US.
It terrifies me how much the rhetoric in Sweden has come to resemble the things I heard in my childhood and adolescence. The political parties throw around direct translations of MAGA slogans now. “Gör Sverige starkt igen.” “Sverige först.”
But the thing that scares me the most is the rhetoric around “splitting the left”.
I wonder all the time what would have happened in the US if every radical leftist who settled for the Democratic party had come together in a party that they actually believed in instead. What if we’d had a better choice than Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden versus Donald Trump?
When I moved to Sweden in 2011, I thought I’d found sanctuary. No more worrying about university tuition, private health insurance, needing a car for transit, or a proud culture of rampant xenophobia and nationalism.
I could finally breathe after years of wondering if my disabilities would eventually keep me from making a living. My needs would be met. I was safe.
But all those promises rang more and more hollow with every year that passed, and they continue to crumble before my eyes. It hasn’t mattered whether the current government has been red or blue. The result has been the same: university has become the same school-to-job pipeline as in the US; free healthcare doesn’t matter when you can’t get an appointment– and isn’t free anyway; public transit is prohibitively expensive and doesn’t get me where I need to go when I need to get there; hating immigrants is not only acceptable but encouraged; welfare is denied on a whim, and isn’t enough for a dignified life even if you get it.
So, why does this keep happening, regardless of if S or M or SD grows or shrinks? Because just like in the US, the Swedish parliamentary left keeps caving over and over and over. The right doesn’t even have to grow to push their politics if there’s no resistance. The red-green parties keep compromising their ideals to chase votes in the center, while blue-brown parties keep pushing harder and harder right. Just like the Democrats and Republicans did for years before it culminated in Trump taking power.
It’s time for real resistance on the Swedish left. Don’t settle for senseless militarism. Don’t settle for money ruling our lives. Don’t settle for surviving instead of living. Take the resistance of the streets to parliament. Vote Enad Röst.