Originally posted by Herlock Sholmes
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In American politics, running mates in one political party often represent very different factions or forces within that party. The theory behind these odd "marriages of convenience" is to appeal to a broader political base. The 'party' might also find it wise to have a candidate pick a running mate whose beliefs, world view, etc., will contrast with the candidate's own beliefs---either as a sort of balance, or to appeal to a specific region of the country that the party needs to win in order to secure the White House. Thus, these political 'marriages' can be complicated and counterintuitive.
Perhaps this isn't the best example, but look no further than Donald John Trump, a hedonist and playboy from Queens, New York who teamed up with Mike Pence, an Evangelical Christian from the Midwest. The two men have little or nothing in common in world view or otherwise, which is precisely why Pence was chosen--because he was Trump's opposite and could bring in a certain faction within the larger party. In the end, this proved unnecessary for the Evangelicals strangely and unexpectedly embraced the hedonist from Queens as one of their own.
So, in theory, an assassination even in American politics could be seen as a 'regime change' to someone with an extreme or specific political ideology or agenda, whether he be a lone nutjob or a member of a broader conspiracy.
Whether you think this would apply to Kennedy and Johnson I'll leave up to you. My own family in the 1960s were red necked Republicans from a deeply rural state, and as a part of cultural history let me just point out that it was widely assumed by these folks (who were Republicans almost to a man or to a woman) that Johnson had Kennedy killed.
I'm not suggesting that they were correct, but that's what many people back then believed. To these folks, the idea that the opposing political party was entirely made up of self-serving and treacherous people, capable of killing their own, was entirely plausible.
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