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In the United Kingdom, there’s a tradition of letting the political party of any lawmaker assassinated in an act of political violence run unopposed in the by-election. (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by to c/mildlyinteresting@lemmy.world
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Batley_and_Spen_by-election

It lets people know violence cannot change the balance of power.

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[–] 19 points 1 year ago (4 children)

... Isn't wanting to kill someone with vastly different views more common than wanting to kill someone with only slightly different views?

Like, sure someone could kill someone in the party they like for the chance to get someone they like better in power. But realistically it won't change much (they're still bound by the same whip) and it's not worth the risk of going to jail.

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  • [–] 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    … Isn’t wanting to kill someone with vastly different views more common than wanting to kill someone with only slightly different views?

    Literally two Republicans tried to kill the Republican presidential candidate in the last year...

    You really can't imagine a world where someone believes the candidate from their party is either too extreme or not extreme enough on a wedge issue that they'd try to kill them to guarantee someone else from the same party wins?

    Like...

    I overestimate people, I can admit that

    But do you legitimately just not understand why this is bad?

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  • [–] 11 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Don’t forget the Republican mob that wanted to hang the VP on January 6.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago

    Even just a primary...

    Your pick comes in second place, if you get the one from your own party that made it to the general, your first pick is now guaranteed the office.

    Like, great sentiment, but I think the reason it works in the UK, is 99.99% of the population can't get a high powered rifle in an afternoon.

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  • [–] 3 points 1 year ago

    Firstly, the Prime Minister and an MP are very different, so it's not really a fair comparison. Replacing an MP with one of the same party might result in what? Your bins being taken out on a different day?

    Anyway, I think this is a "don't let perfect be the enemy of good situation". Without any safeguards, an assassination is most likely to come from someone across the political spectrum than someone next to them. So it makes sense to focus on preventing that even if it does open a potential (risky to execute) exploit.

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