Political change

I was talking with a friend about politics recently, and we started speculating about what we would do if we had a time machine. I was a bit stunned when he said one politician in our nation should have been assassinated before he came into power. I should have explained why I disagreed then, but was a bit too stunned to do so, but I want to explain why such violence is never justified:

• two wrongs - and such a murder, as all assassinations are, is inherently WRONG - don't make a right. If that event had happened, everything that happened after that would have been tainted - the means shape the end; 
• killing someone like that turns them into a martyr, and thus further entrenches their hardline supporters - which just splits society further; and 
• quite apart from their hardline supporters, such people come into power in a democracy because people vote for them: if you prevent the situation happening, you just hide the underlying flaws until some future time. Better to deal with the underlying problems - and that includes educating everyone so they are not duped by fake news or biased/misleading news outlets.

One of my biggest fears is that some utter moron will try to physically harm POTUS45. Even an unsuccessful attempt would be enough to make at least the first two points above major problems in the USA, and would give the next president following that a poisoned chalice to deal with.

As the great Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. expressed it:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral. Returning violence with violence only multiplies violence, add deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.

Achieving change through democratic means is hard work - and work that has to be repeated or maintained for at least three generations, in some cases, but, in the long term, is the only way to make changes for decency that are lasting.