not exactly going in the best direction

Sweden! The bastion and exemplar of social democracy:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/14/sweden-democrats-election/

The simple truth is that the electorate in almost all democracies tends to swing back and forth in a narrow ideological range around the center. Like: the British kicked out the governing Labor Party about five years ago but now the governing Conservative Party is behind in the polls and Labor likely will be voted back in when the next election is held.

Back and forth, moderate Left, moderate Right, dissatisfaction with the one, try the other, dissatisfaction with the other. People don’t much understand the dissatisfaction, they’re unwilling to try anything too alternative, so the world is stuck in a rut.

Our job is to patiently and incrementally build the new world within the shell of the old. Demonstrate the better alternative.

Don’t despair. Keep your expectations low. Try not to try too hard. Model simple, ecological, sustainable enjoyment of life.

* * * *

A tiny bit of good news is that the Green Party gained a little. In 2018 they got 16 seats in the parliament based on a 4.4% overall vote percentage; this time they have 18 seats based on a 5.1% vote percentage.

Surely by the end of the millennium we’ll be able to say we’re getting 5% of the vote in the United States of America.