I think it was an attempt to normalise the killing of political opponents. Such violence is already normal and legitimised in America, the land of school-shootings and capital punishment.

As of 2023, only 2 out of 38 OECD member countries (the United States and Japan) allow capital punishment.

Such murder needs to remain behind closed doors as to be polite in American society. Please enjoy the following entertainment-products:

I seriously question the idea that death is inherently traumatic. History is littered with public-executions, ceremonial killings and death for entertainment. People are eager to pay for and play GTA 6: a murder- and crime-simulator. People love violence. People are unfazed by death when the victims belong to an out-group–those that are deemed not to be people.

“Oh that’s just an actor. The character died, not the actor.”

“They’re not real; it’s a video-game.”

“They’re jews.”

“He was a pedophile.”

“She’s a nazi.”

“He’s a murderer; it’s comeuppance.”

It’s the government’s money, not republican’s money. A different party inherits the government and therefore can do what you’re proposing. They’d be in the same situation.

Much destruction and waste for… nothing. Can everyone agree that neoliberalism was a grift that now needs to end? (I already see one commenter defending it as something else.) I don’t live in the U.K., but I’ve heard of councils turning streetlights off and reducing their services because they have ‘no money’. From the outside looking in it looks bleak.