Lesson from Sweden | IJN
An appeal to politicians this election season
As we look forward to October and the election season in full swing, we have a plea to lawmakers and civil society – stop making every issue political and remember that your job is to serve the people.
This may seem like a silly plea, as our split times make it something of a pipe dream, but we are moved to do so in light of the election results from across the pond. In Sweden, the once marginalized right-wing Sweden Democrats have won an astonishing number of seats and are poised to play a central role in a centre-right government. Its victory shocked and appalled many outside Sweden, but no one, it seems, in Sweden itself.
Over the past decade, specifically starting in 2015, Sweden has seen an increase in almost every type of deadly violence, from knife attacks, gun violence, bombings, even the use of hand grenades! Sexual assault has skyrocketed and Sweden is now the leader in Europe in gun-related murders. Gang activity has grown, and poverty-stricken suburbs are now ringing the city centers of European cities – but often conceal more complex socio-economic dynamics.
The Sweden Democrats took advantage of this shift to violence, pinning it largely on the flow of migrants to Sweden. There is certainly a strong xenophobic thread to the Sweden Democrats’ political ideology, with no small amount of racism on display among some of its most vocal supporters. They claim that Sweden is not a place for Middle Eastern religions or clothing. As Jews, we know first hand the danger of such rhetoric and we strongly condemn the suggestion that people of a non-Christian faith or non-white skin color have no place in a European country.
At the same time, the concerns of the Swedish people are very real — and cross typical right-left political boundaries.
We do not claim to be experts on Sweden, but when IJN senior writer Andrea Jacobs visited Sweden in 2015, at the height of the country’s welcoming of Syrian refugees, she reported that even then Swedes were concerned about how the migrant flow could strain its welfare state institutions, such as pensions and healthcare, and worried about how the country would promote social integration.
The question we ask ourselves now is where has the Social Democrat-led coalition been for the past seven years?
Often the governing coalition simply pretended that the problems were not as serious as they really were. The coalition simplistically labeled those who raised concerns about the high influx of migrants as racist or bigoted, even though over three-quarters of violent crime is committed by first- or second-generation migrants per Today’s news. But pointing this out was considered “politically incorrect”; concern about rising crime became a political rather than a humanitarian issue, a genuine political focus.
The folly of this approach was finally recognized by the last two leaders of the Social Democrats.
Both admitted that the increase in violent crime in the last two years was a serious issue for Swedish society.
This was apparently too little too late for many Swedish voters.
When politicians ignore the concerns of their people, they will either face an apathetic citizenry or force their constituents to vote for a party that appears to be listening. In the case of Sweden, this was the Sweden Democrats.
There’s a lesson here for U.S. — and Colorado — lawmakers as we face our own massive disruptions.
Soaring crime, skyrocketing drug overdoses and drug use, skyrocketing inflation, skyrocketing affordable housing stock. All of these are deeply felt here in Colorado, which has the unworthy honor of holding number one in the nation for auto theft. Par for the course these days, as much of our political leadership – both national and local – falls into strict “right” or “left” camps, with little understanding between the two or interest in compromise. Much of politics has become an exercise in branding and scoring. The price of gas is just one example. Joe Biden’s fault? The Republicans? The Russians? One month Joe Biden doesn’t control gas prices and the next month he is credited with lowering them. Lost in all this boring political football is that for most Americans, the cost of gas is causing financial stress. It is the part politicians should focus on — the American people.
If America’s politicians ignore the concerns of the people, they should not be surprised if the same people either stop participating in politics altogether or are driven to extremes. For American Jews, extremists on both sides of the aisle are never good news.
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