Should America abandon the 2 party system in favor of 6 parties?
Fed up with the 2 party system? How about 6! Take the quiz and find out where you would fit.
For example:
Patriot Party: Donald Trump, Josh Hawley, Tom Cotton and Tucker Carlson
Christian Conservative Party: Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Mike Pompeo
Growth and Opportunity Party: Larry Hogan, Charlie Baker, Mitt Romney, John Kasich and Michael Bloomberg
New Liberal Party: Pete Buttigieg, Cory Booker, Eric Garcetti and Beto O’Rourke
American Labor Party: Sherrod Brown, Jon Tester and Tim Ryan
Progressive party: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Elizabeth Warren or Julián Castro
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/9/8/2051050/-Fed-up-with-the-two-party-system-How-about-6-Take-the-quiz-and-find-out-where-you-would-fit
I agree with the notion that America should have more than two political parties. We are too diverse of a nation to pigeonhole everyone into either Democratic or Republican parties.
Personally, I'm offended that they label the far right conservatives as the Patriot Party. I'm as much of a patriot as anyone, as I'm sure you all are too. That that name has been commandeered by conservatives is a travesty.
FWIW, I took the quiz and they said I was closest to the Progressive Party, though it looked like I was halfway between the Progressives and the American Labor Party.
= new reply since forum marked as read
So much disinformation about Sweden out there, especially in the US media, some of it just flat out lies. The worst thing that happened to us, framing wise, was when bad faith actors (with ZERO knowledge of what was actually going on) on the RW started trying to use us as a cudgel to beat their enemies in the US over the head with.
I have posted so so many updates over the past 18 plus months, but it often gets lost in the fog, and also many take an a priori hostile stance in terms of anything to do with Sweden and COVID-19. We are NOT America's political football to kick about and spin up whatever false narrative people there wish to create.
Herd immunity was never the primary goal here in Sweden. I keep seeing this posted over and over last year and it is simply incorrect. It has come up over and over again because some officials in April 2020 started talking about Stockholm (where we live) possibly reaching this level by the end of May 2020 (which of course, we did not). That has been misconstrued by so many to think that the drive for herd immunity is the principal core strategy, when it is not.
Swedish PM Stefan Löfven: Herd immunity ‘never ever’ part of coronavirus strategy
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven was quizzed about the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic in a parliament hearing on Monday.
https://www.thelocal.com/20210426/today-swedish-pm-stefan-lofven-to-face-questions-over-coronavirus-strategy/
“Never, never ever,” Löfven told the Committee on the Constitution when asked whether herd immunity was part of the Swedish government’s strategy.
Allegations that Swedish decision-makers deliberately allowed the virus to spread slowly through the population in order to achieve herd immunity have repeatedly been denied, but have emerged and reemerged on several occasions in the past year, including in emails between health officials. Löfven insisted that the strategy was always to limit the spread of infection to protect people’s lives and health, and make sure that the Swedish healthcare sector could cope.
The Social Democrat leader’s appearance before the Committee on the Constitution comes as part of an inquiry launched by an opposition politician to investigate the Swedish pandemic strategy and crisis management, and several key figures have already been questioned, among others the heads of the Public Health Agency, National Board of Health and Welfare, and the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions.
Health Minister Lena Hallengren and Home Affairs Minister Mikael Damberg have also appeared before the committee in recent weeks, and have been questioned about the speed and timing of Sweden’s measures, and the government’s responsibility for a shortage of protective equipment in the early weeks of the pandemic. Much of the inquiry has focused on whether or not a formal government decision regarding Sweden’s coronavirus strategy was ever made, and if not, why not. Löfven reiterated that there was no such decision, although he said the government did choose a strategic direction.
snip
Hallengren: Sweden Not Pursuing Herd Immunity
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/audio/2020-04-29/hallengren-sweden-not-pursuing-herd-immunity
Sweden’s Minister for Health and Social Affairs, Lena Hallengren, explains the country is not pursuing a policy of ’herd immunity’ when it comes to coronavirus and that looser restrictions in Sweden are being used because of how long they may have to stay in place. She tells Daybreak Europe’s Caroline Hepker and Roger Hearing it is too early to make comparisons about which countries have made the right policy choices in addressing the pandemic.
Running time 11:20
(Audio at the link.)
Another huge myth, pushed by cheap, shoddy journalism is that it is the Wild West here, and basically the entire country is running around like banshees with zero mitigation actions. This is utter tosh.
see this article for further drilling down:
'The biggest myth about Sweden is that life is going on as normal'
https://www.thelocal.se/20200424/interview-isabella-lovin-coronavirus-the-biggest-myth-about-sweden-is-that-life-is-going-on-as-normal
also
Sweden to shut bars and restaurants that ignore coronavirus restrictions
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-sweden-stockholm/sweden-to-shut-bars-and-restaurants-that-ignore-coronavirus-restrictions-idUSKCN2262AX
Now I shall deal again with the very bad aspects of what happened, as I am in no way try to sugarcoat anything
Our large fail, a horrid tragedy (and the main reason we are so badly off in terms of deaths per million compared to Denmark, Norway, and Finland) was our nursing homes and our scattered site elderly care. They account for as much as 70% (there is a shedload of argument here atm, some say it is even higher, some say it is lower, around 55-60%, but certainly it is higher than our neighbour Nordic nations) of our deaths en toto. We (unfortunately) had a FAR more lax system in terms of visitation/protocols and in terms of higher staff turnover than the other Nordics do with their elderly-care homes. Those arguments and finger-pointings are now (and have been for months, even as the deaths has basically slowed to a drip) the hottest topic in the whole country atm. They fucked up bad.
Early in summer 2020, on SVT (our state TV,) a group of doctors and healthcare experts (these fall into the group that say it was around 70% of all deaths) said we if had similar nursing home deaths and overall elderly deaths per million rates that Denmark has, our deaths per million OVERALL (for all age cohorts) would only be a wee bit higher than the Danes. They also said that if you adjusted for the vastly increased level of COVID-19 in the immigrant/refugee saturated areas of Sweden, and make their percentages of population the same as Denmark or Norway (let alone Finland which has by far the fewest number of immigrants and refugees as a percentage of the population in all of the Nordics, most who go there are only going to immediately flood over the Finnish/Swedish border, as Denmark cut them off down south at the Öresund) that our overall death (when combined with a similar elderly care death rate as discussed above) would not only be lower than Denmark, but would possibly be approaching Norway levels.
They also said that other Nordics were being far more conservative than Sweden has been with their COVID-19 death attributions so all the other Nordics have higher death rates than they are letting on (that war of words was going on for months in 2020, and has gotten REALLY nasty at times, especially with Denmark versus Sweden, quelle surprise).
All the other Nordics (especially Denmark) have a very hostile stance in regards to Sweden in terms of our refugee/immigration policy. That group (the refugees/immigrants) have also be really hard hit here as well, as they do not practice social distancing to a level anywhere near to what the native Swedes do, plus they are less well-off income wise, and also health wise (for a number of reasons.)
That is the reason for the lowered death rates when adjustments are made for an apples-to-apples comparison, as opposed to the chalk and cheese raw numbers that are rammed in our face far too often. I do, however have to add, that ANY discussion, as I said above, of immigration/refugee here is Sweden has been a minefield for ages, although the Syrian conflict several years back finally broke the silence (at peak, we were taking in the US equivalent of 3 to 5 MILLION a month and the far RW white nationalist Sweden Democrats (SD, in Swedish Sverigedemokraterna) were surging towards a historic, terrifying victory, until some of the other parties finally caved in and slowed the inflows and changed the laws (to a point).
(A bit of an aside, SD, whilst hardcore white nationalists, are also pretty much VERY anti-Russian as well, for centuries-long historical reasons that are almost never talked about in the foreign press as well. We do have some hardcore, actual neo nazi parties who DO love Russia, but they are microscopic in size. The biggest, Alternativ för Sverige, has only around 1200 members, most other have less than 100)
more on the false charge of herd immunity being our basic strategy
Sweden hits back at Trump's 'herd immunity' criticism
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/sweden-hits-back-at-trump-s-herd-immunity-criticism-1.1419502
Sweden’s foreign minister Ann Linde has dismissed criticism by U.S. president Donald Trump concerning the country’s outlier strategy to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. “He has used a factual error,” the minister said in an interview on broadcaster TV4 on Wednesday. Her comments follow Trump’s remarks a day earlier when he told reporters that Sweden is trying to achieve “herd immunity” and “is suffering greatly” from not doing enough.
The Nordic country is under intense scrutiny as it continues to experiment with a laxer policy response to the virus despite an accelerating death toll. Restaurants, shopping centres and primary schools all remain open in Scandinavia’s biggest economy. “Some countries seem to think that we aren’t doing anything, but we’re doing a lot of things that suit Sweden,” Linde said.
President Trump’s comments have also drawn the ire of Sweden’s top epidemiologist. “If you compare the situation to New York, where I have a relative working, things here are working well,” Anders Tegnell said in an interview with state broadcaster SVT. Meanwhile Sweden’s prime minister Stefan Lofven has said he sees no reason to respond to Trump, according to Swedish newspaper Expressen. “I have spoken lately to about 10 heads of state and I note that we are all following the same lead strategy,” Lofven said.
snip
Finally, to reiterate, many of the stories I have seen pushed also erroneously try and paint a picture that there are no restrictions (or very little) in place at all (my 'Wild West' analogy above), and certainly do not do any sort of deep, nuanced dive into what actually happened, why it happened, and what's happening at present, here on the ground.
MSNBC had so much made up bullshit that we never shut down, in any way, that all restos, clubs, bars, and large events were open for business as usual, which was just another lie.
Here is a flyer from an online clubbing event from March 2020 (because all the main clubs were closed). I actually posted this event and streamed it here on DU.
As for the number of deaths from the very start to now, here are the latest numbers from Folkhälsomyndigheten (our state health agency)
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/09f821667ce64bf7be6f9f87457ed9aa
since the beginning of the pandemic:
Ages 0-9 years old death totals: 9 deaths (4 deaths ages 5-9yo, 5 deaths from birth to 4 years old, almost all had massive comorbidities)
Ages 10-19 years old death totals: 4 deaths
(so total school-age (5 years to 19 years of age) children's deaths are 8, despite our schools never really closing, other than the majority of high schools for a period in 2020)
Ages 20-29 years old death totals: 22 deaths
Ages 30-39 years old death totals: 47 deaths
Total deaths for youngest 50% of the Swedish population: 82 out of over 5 million people (around 2,706 US population adjected equivalent deaths for 166,500,000 people). The total deaths for all people under 30 years old is 35
99% of deaths here were 50 years and older, 96% of deaths were 60 years old and over, 89% 70 years of age and older
Deaths by age group (Avlidna per åldersgrupp) totals from the start of the pandemic
Deaths per day (Avlidna per dag)
Over the last 3 months
Over the entire duration of the pandemic
We don't need multiple parties - the opposition does. What I didn't see on that was Stand Up America - that's the one Evan McMullin is pushing out there. I follow them on Facebook and on their site directly . . . I could see those voters getting fed up entirely with the GOP and joining us IF we have measurable, quantitative changes we can show them - benefit them.
