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Honestly, when was America's last actual referendum? Usually, on federal issues, passing a law and never repealing it is as close as you get no?
This argument seems to do too much. It easily just collapses into a criticism of liberal democracies and how such polities choose anything. Which...I'm not inherently against but if you want to say that "America/Sweden/Whoever" didn't decide on this it can be applied to everything.
America especially was designed to have anti-populist mechanics. That's the foundational bargain of the country. It's a bit late to argue choices aren't legitimate cause they weren't done by plebiscite.
Getting a referendum is also a sign of commitment. The Brexit referendum happened cause Brexiteers were a loud and annoying enough constituency. If the Swedish people don't have the will to push such a thing on their government...that's on them no?
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