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  • I am not sure how much usefulness there is in the adage that you quote. On the one hand, political parties nearly invariably portray themselves as the democratic party of the people that supports freedom and prosperity, no matter how little their leaders may actually believe in any of those things, and thus rarely market themselves in such a crude manner (e.g. a dictator is likely to start by saying that it's the will of the people that they be elected, whatever the fake election result may say, not run under the banner of the Tyranny Party). Commented Oct 26, 2025 at 6:00
  • Conversely, almost everyone believes in some kind of "necessary evil" (the existence of criminal penalties in the first place, defensive wars, or whatever), and nearly every political party supports some such "necessary evil," so it is thoroughly unsurprising that people might vote for a party that supports some type of sanction that they would rather not happen to them, and there isn't much that one can conclude from that. Commented Oct 26, 2025 at 6:02
  • If I want the executives of companies that cause pollution to be liable for million-dollar fines or lawsuits and vote accordingly, someone might accuse me of voting for the "Massive Fines Party," and suggest that I should have expected that I would be subject to a million-dollar parking ticket because, after all, I voted for the Massive Fines Party and was foolish enough to believe them when they said that they only cared about polluters. But of course, there is no reason I should only support penalties that I would desire for myself, nor that I should expect all sanctions to apply to me. Commented Oct 26, 2025 at 6:07