Assassination. The word sends cold chills up and down the spines of civilized people. For more than six decades, ever since the gruesome spectacle of President John F. Kennedy being gunned down in broad daylight, it was unthinkable that such a thing would ever in any way become palatable. But we have now reached the point where the polling results conducted on whether assassinating public figures can be justified are turning heads.
Shocking, yet somehow unsurprising, would be the best description of the responses in a recent survey of more than 1,200 Americans by Rutgers University. Forty-one percent (41%) of respondents who self-described as left of center – and 29% who described themselves as right of center – believe the generalized proposition that the murder of a “powerful political leader” is “at least somewhat justified.” But when the…
