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Dear reader. This is a long and personal post, but I’ll try to keep it thought-provoking in an effort not to waste your time. I do not claim that my way is the right way nor the only way.I’m comfortable with keeping some distance to domestic politics. I try to stay informed about structural changes and shifting popular attitudes — the macro trends — and ignore the minutiae.The power games, the scandals, the daily headlines.Media has the power to sway popular opinion. The democratization of knowledge and access to information has brought about an undesirable side effect. The line between investigative journalism and downright propaganda has been blurred by social media, and I’m afraid too many lack the necessary skills for background research and source criticism.Questioning authority is good.Attacking experts of all kind however is counterintuitive. We’re dumbing ourselves down by choosing not to learn. It makes our job as members of the electorate more difficult, because informed decisions are that much more laborious to make.The difficulty in detecting trends is that they tend to be invisible to those who are currently living them. Can’t see the forest for the trees.Distance created by time or place helps us see how carried away we’ve gotten. Take populism, for instance. I’m convinced that the right-wing populist movement that swept across developed countries in the 2010’s emerged from similar issues. Studying them all helps gain perspective on what happened back home.Why are so many people dissatisfied when we are more safe and prosperous than ever? Could it be that people feel alarmed? Whose fault is that and what purpose does it serve?The Blue Reform (SIN) program is more moderate than the nationalist Finns Party (PS) program. Wikipedia calls Blue Reform ‘soft Euroscepticism’. They’re both extremely conservative on the libertarian—authoritarian scale however, fixated on immigration policy and heavy-handed with populist slogans. That’s a definite no for me.I vote for party programs. Finnish parties tend to follow programs quite meticulously. (They can say and promise whatever they want during campaigns. That’s a whole nother thing. When it comes to follow-through, it’s easier to stick to the program.)This is good if you happen to support those initiatives. It’s bad if you’re opposed to them or would like to see more compromise when conditions change.The people who voted for the Centre Party in 2015, and then felt betrayed by them when the austerity programs started, simply hadn’t read the party program.Personal anecdote: we had a mock presidential election in school in 1994. It was a village school in North Ostrobothnia. The votes we cast were supposed to be anonymous, but when the results were counted, my anonymity as a transfer student was lost.Everyone else had voted Paavo Väyrynen (KESK) for president. I was the only one who had voted for the Social Democrat candidate Martti Ahtisaari. The class, including the teacher, proceeded to laugh and point fingers at me for the rest of the day.I learned that the support for the Centre Party is passed along in breast milk, whereas I don’t have an inherited political stance. I’ve no doubt been influenced by my upbringing, but my parents rarely vote for the same parties or candidates.Furthermore, I think idolization of popular individuals is a telltale sign of intellectual immaturity. There has been a cult around Väyrynen, the founder of the new party Seven Star Movement (TL).Centre Party (KESK) is a mixed bag socially. They’re liberal by definition but also very popular in the über conservative Laestadian Lutheran community. The Bible belt of Finland.That alone is enough contradiction for me, but I’ve really grown to dislike their policies in the past term. They seem to be confusing household economics with macroeconomics. This is apparent in their approach to national debt. The so-called national emergency speech held by PM Sipilä, designed to stoke fear among the populace in order to pass undesirable public funding cuts, was one of the low points.In voting for individual politicians I try to make sure that the members of the parliament are not complete jackasses. Seems like an obvious statement, but it’s not.I have to admit, though, that pickings for credible candidates are slim in rural constituencies. Another reason for me to vote for parties over individuals.The people who vote for e.g. an ex-fitness star with an IQ of a dumbbell and no political training whatsoever, are idiots. I’m sorry but they are.That’s representative democracy. You cannot suppress opinions you don’t agree with. If you find everyone agreeing, the opposition dead and buried, you’ve likely entered totalitarianism.In retrospect I think it’s a net positive that the True Finns movement wasn’t forcibly quieted down. More censorship would have led to more radicalization and longer lived resistance. What we did instead was allow them proportionate power and representation, kept in check by the coalition government and the opposition. It was the government responsibility that led to internal conflict splitting them. Exposing their weaknesses for all to see.Where individual politicians and parties may fail me, I have confidence in the parliamentary system of Finland. It’s been tested by foreign and internal pressure over the past century. So far it’s been successful in curbing overkill.Another major topic on my mind right now is political extremism. I cannot believe the return to Cold War rhetoric that’s taking place right now, exhibited by (but not limited to) the U.K. and the U.S.The fall of the Iron Curtain had a huge impact on me as a preteen. I thought we were done with isolation, authoritarian regimes, walls and all that bull****. I thought that freedom had prevailed. That was something that my generation could all agree on, across party lines.I’ve been proved wrong over and over again by current events.I’m a democrat with a lowercase D. Moderately left-wing libertarian. I’m wary of extreme movements of all sorts. I absolutely despise fascism and communism. I’m not a fan of Marxist socialism or neoliberalism either.On the opposite end of the political compass we have… Donald J. Trump. He may well be the embodiment of everything I oppose.I’m for absolute separation of church and state. I would like to see this ideal extended to religion and politics as well.I’m for minimal government involvement on social issues. The state’s role is to protect those discriminated against with the rule of law, not take a moral stance on topics like LGBTQ+ issues or abortion.I think there’s a sore need for activists and ‘social justice warriors’ but I’d be happier if politics were kept free of populism of all kind. There’s just way too much focus on the vertical axis of the political compass these days.Religious congregations are free to moralize and condemn as much as they want… and hopefully eventually fade into oblivion as a result.I keep getting matches in vaalikone quizzes with some individual candidates of Christian Democrats (KD) over certain humanitarian issues. Regardless, this is a no for me for fundamental reasons listed above.Why I’m not an anarchist is due to my experience with regulations in the role of an architect. Guidelines are effective in protecting the interests of end-users.Personal anecdote: If I were to suggest that we need more green roofs to improve managing of storm water in urban areas, especially considering climate change, I would be laughed out of the room.However if the city council demands that a minimum of 10% of densely built urban sites have to have greenery, I have something more powerful than soft values to base my case on. The developers have to abide in order to attain a building permit.Personal anecdote: The minimum regulations for a living space are 7.0 m² and a window today. The window opening has to be >10% of the floor area. The apartment should not face north only. This is to ensure sufficient daylight in Subarctic conditions.If the minimum requirement were 2.0 m² and no window, or a window facing a brick wall, I’m sure that’s what consumers with limited choice would be offered next.The construction industry is extremely profit-driven when dealing with standard housing. I’ve often felt powerless in defending the future inhabitants. Lower income renters in particular. They have very limited power in voting with their wallets.Supporting financial and economic regulation makes me a leftist, but I’m also a business woman. I don’t find these mutually exclusive.I don’t subscribe to the belief system of hostility/benevolence of free markets. Capitalism has no morals. It’s not inherently good or bad. It’s a force. Planned economies haven’t stood the test of time or scale because they’re defying gravity in a way.Defying gravity is possible, but only in controlled and confined spaces…It would be nice if corporations took more social responsibility, but it’s pointless to accuse them of being greedy. As long as the number one goal for corporations is to make short-term profits for their shareholders, that’s what they’ll do. That’s the set of priorities we’ve outlined for them. Everything else, such as the preservation of natural resources, is secondary to that goal.You have to have some ground rules in place for fair play. I think that’s in essence what social democracy has set out to do.Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the welfare model are way overdue for a facelift, but voting for them is a definite possibility. In Finland, this is the conservative choice.Socialists oppose social democracy because they think it’s inadequate in addressing the fundamental flaws of capitalism. That’s venturing too far into the area of the above-mentioned belief system in my opinion.Bright-eyed and idealistic laissez-faire capitalists are no better. I’m much, much more pessimistic than them.What has been done to prevent another financial crisis from happening? Did Great Recession treat people equally? As wealth and income inequality keep increasing, do too many people feel left behind already?National Coalition Party (KOK) is the closest we have to right-wing neoliberalism. That’s a principled no for me. I cannot support policies that make our markets more opaque, allowing for less regulation and more speculation.Yes to promoting foreign investments. Yes to promoting growth, but at what cost?No to tax havens. No to the attack on labor unions and worker’s rights.A hard no to trickle-down economics and trying to pass it off as something that benefits people on fixed income. They try to brand themselves as ‘common sense folk’ and ‘a friend of the everyman’, but their policies don’t support this message.Their minister of education was instrumental in implementing public education funding cuts, essentially undermining the very subjects they were supposed to be standing for. Keeping an eye on PISA test results…↓Common ground can be found in the pro—EU stance and the support for the four fundamental freedoms.The National Coalition Party’s youth faction gives me the creeps. The party itself has had to dissociate itself from the youth at times. That’s the crux of being right-wing. You also get the toxic far-right candidates.The macro trend has been for privatization and deregulation all my life.Changing the course toward socialism would be like pushing a boulder uphill. It doesn’t happen overnight or by accident. The gravitational pull is the other way.Whereas social democrats have been criticized for being toothless against the continuous efforts to dismantle the welfare state, casting a vote for the eco-socialists, The Left Alliance (VAS), could be considered a vote in favor of the welfare model.A kind of reactionary vote against the centre—right-wing politics we’ve had as of late. I think the voice of the left is welcome in opposition. Government, I’m not so sure.Once sarcastically called ‘the park department of the National Coalition Party’ and a ‘one-topic party’, The Green League (VIHR) has matured over the years. They have a comprehensive program looking at a wide range of issues, keeping within the theme of sustainability.Environmental, economic and social sustainability. I have never voted for them before but that general approach earns a definite maybe from me.Incidentally, the Greens are the most popular party in my hometown.Swedish People’s Party (RKP) represents a too narrow field of interests for me. Same goes for most other small parties.