Re: Political evolution (Libertarianism)

On Sun, 26 Jan 2025, rbowman wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 11:44:28 +0100, D wrote:
>

There is no limit for starting a political party in sweden. Anyone can
do it. But in order to get automatically placed as an option by the
election booths you need to have reached at least 1% in the two previous
elections.
>
If you haven't reached that size, you have to travel around sweden and
hand out your election papers yourself. There are also blank papers
where you can manually fill in your party, that's always an option for
all parties regardless of size.

>
That's similar to the US except its on the state level. Then there are the
dirty tricks. One year the Libertarian candidate asked people not to vote
for him. The Democrats had been promoting him knowing that any votes for
him would come from Republican leaning voters.
>

Ahhh... yes, well, isn't politics the art of dirty tricks? ;) I can add that in sweden, once you hit 4% you get into the partliament (I think you get 15 or 20 seats at 4% level) and then the money starts to flow. Naturally all parties who make it take good care of themselves, so you get like a "parliament" grant or something once you get in.
Traditionally the socialists complemented their income by selling lottery tickets to people. It was a huge scandal a few months ago when it came out that the socialist party used highly aggressive sales tactics and foreign call centers to manipulate elderly into buying their lottery tickets.
They said they will give up the practice, but I'm uncertain. Too much money at stake. They will probably just wait for the media to go away and continue.