We Should Have Listened to George
Hidden inside the much-hated Star Wars prequels lies the entire story of the 2016 election- and a lesson we’ve yet to learn.
Yes, I am about to use the Star Wars Prequels to discuss American Politics, and I’ll be doing so with a straight face- but first, a little history. Like most males of my generation, I was under the power of the Force for all of my childhood, having watched Star Wars at the impressionable young age of four. This event should have created an unabashed fanboy ecstatic at the news that Disney would let us all relive our childhoods over and over via an endless stream of sequels and spinoffs, but that is not the case. If The Force Awakens is any indication of the franchise’s future, the future is a lot like eating a McDonald’s Happy Meal: fun while it lasts, and then you’re on the toilet for twelve hours. I just don’t need that kind of junk food in my diet anymore.
George Lucas’ much-maligned prequels, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. At first, you notice all the imperfections- a combination of bad acting and even worse dialogue that makes you want to hurl. But if you can get past the idea that George single-handedly destroyed your childhood, you might start to notice that these three movies aren’t that bad. In fact, if you can mentally edit out the wooden love story, they’re actually quite good- thanks in part to the incredible three-film performance of Ewan McGregor, who shows us all what a great actor can do with campy dialogue.
But the hidden gem in the Star Wars prequels is, quite simply, the story. You know, that thing missing from every single reboot and summer blockbuster? Laugh if you will, but the prequels tell a great story. When you combine them with episodes IV through VI, you realize that the true narrative lies with Anakin (and not his dopey son) and that the overall theme is that of humanity’s eternal attempt at overcoming its base animal instincts (i.e. fear, anger, greed.) Yeah, it’s that simple, and the principle is specifically applied to politics in George’s prequels. Tyranny versus democracy; the desire to exploit versus the desire to live in harmony and equality. It’s a great story because it’s a true story, one that has happened several times, the most obvious being the rise of Hitler and his Nazi Party, and the most recent being the rise of Donald Trump and his… whatever you want to call that group of Insane & Shortsighted Buffoons.
While I highly doubt the name “Donald Trump” was weighing heavily in George’s head as he wrote these films, he clearly understood where we were headed as a nation, even if he didn’t have all the details. And so, his tale begins with a jeopardized Democratic Republic made up of thousands of races all trying to get along; if you think the U.S. is a volatile melting pot, just imagine managing all the clashing cultural points of view found in this federation. Which is why, even in outer space, people still require cops to enforce the rule of law: those hooded sword fighters we love so much called the Jedi.
Power is a double-edged sword, of course, and this is where the subtleties in Lucas’ space opera distinguish it from the simplistic “good versus evil” fare that most childish blockbusters embrace. A New Hope certainly seems to be just that: bad guys losing, good guys winning, stuff getting blown up. As the saga grows, however, we discover that Darth Vader isn’t just a walking trash can of pure evil- he’s a person with emotional depth, still struggling to overcome his anger issues. I mean, let’s not forget- this is a kids’ movie after all, something 45-year-old geeks don’t seem to be able to grasp. The target audience isn’t you, but your children- so we’re painting in broad dramatic strokes here. But Lucas treats his target audience with respect, and does a great job of infusing his simplistic dialogue with deeper issues that really do resonate. I still see this working with my own daughter, who, young and innocent as she is, never stops asking me questions about the Force and the Jedi- she, too, understands there’s something deeper at play here not found in My Little Pony. It really is philosophical food for kids.
Which is why, in Return of the Jedi, in between scenes of cute, fuzzy teddy bears with spears, Luke gets a dose of moral relativism when he realizes Ben Kenobi flat-up lied to him about what happened to his dad (“you told me Vader murdered my father, asshole!”) Kenobi’s response is similar to that of a parent who just got confronted with the truth about Santa Claus: he spins up a response worthy of the best political speechwriter. “Your father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I have told you was true… from a certain point of view.”
Uh… yeah, okay. That sounded like a bullshit argument the first time I heard it, too, but now I understand that the world of grown-ups is a hundred shades of grey, and they often justify their lies with supposedly good intentions. But what the scene also does is re-contextualize the entire Star Wars saga: this is not a world of Good Guys and Bad Guys- it’s a world of relativity, where the Sith struggle with their conscience and the Jedi flat-out lie. For a child, and hell, for adults, too, this kind of shit is heavy.
Well, and, so… Lucas takes the heaviness to new depths with the Prequels. Yes, the whole political angle of the Trade Federation is convoluted and confusing, I agree. But if you ever saw Lucas’ brilliant debut feature, THX-1138, you wouldn’t be that surprised- that sucker is much more heady and convoluted, yet masterful; a thinking-person’s film about a dystopian future. In a way, THX-1138 is what happens to Star Wars if the good guys really do lose: an Orwellian, totalitarian nightmare. So just accept the fact that, though he may not write the best dialogue, there is still a method to George’s madness- and open your mind to what he was warning you about in 1999, because if we had listened the first time around, we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today.
So there’s this threat to Democracy, right? A bunch of greedy planets calling themselves The Trade Federation have a secret plan to destroy the Republic. In our universe, the parallel group would be Islamic Terrorists. The Federation goes from being a potential threat to an actual threat with the discovery of their secret droid army; in our world, it was 9–11. The motives are different, but both catalysts plunge relatively peaceful Republics into panic mode, which gives the leaders an opportunity to take over. In America, this would be George Bush and Dick Cheney not only invading Iraq, but stripping us all of our civil liberties with decrees like the Patriot Act. In Star Wars, the parallel is awarding Palpatine “emergency powers” which he accepts “with great reluctance” because he “so loves Democracy.”
In this vein, Palpatine represents the Republican Party- and, given the year Episode II was made, probably a specific fusion of Bush, Cheney and Karl Rove… and by extension, Donald Trump. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it fits pretty well, as does this one: the Jedi are both the Democratic Party and the “liberal elite”; self-proclaimed “good guys” that are supposed to be standing up for the common man. And Anakin? He’s the American Public itself- a non-insider with seemingly little political power, though he is ultimately the deciding factor in this saga. Palpatine can’t accomplish his nefarious goals without Anakin’s help, just like our government really can’t do anything without our compliance (even if it’s a mostly passive one, we’re still ultimately the ones who put Trump in power by voting.) As Anakin grows up, he starts to see things differently than he did at age nine. For one thing, Obi Wan may be a smart, educated guy, but he’s often condescending and arrogant, treating Anakin like a dumbass kid whose opinion doesn’t matter much. See any parallels there between Kenobi and the “cultural elite” so many Americans have grown tired of?
As Episode III drums up the intrigue, General Grievous, AKA Saddam Hussein, becomes the government’s scapegoat: give me the power to destroy him, and everything will go back to normal (claim both Senator Palpatine and G.W. Bush.) Of course, once Grievous / Hussein is killed, nothing goes back to normal, nor do those new executive powers revert back to the old. In our universe, sadly, these extra powers not only remained throughout Obama’s residence, they actually increased- and remained that way when they got passed down to our pal, Donny Trump. Not a smart move, people.
In Episode III, the Jedi ask Anakin to spy on Palpatine and report back. “You’re asking me to do something against the Jedi code…” Anakin objects- and all Obi Wan can really say is “you have to trust me,” because he knows Anakin is right- and he’s feeling pretty guilty about it. Back in our reality, the Democrats have been asking us to do the same thing. We were asked to trust Bill Clinton when he brokered NAFTA, a trade agreement that has served to enrich corporations while impoverishing people on both sides of the border. We were asked to trust him when he gave us the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which opened the door to media consolidation at unimagined levels, which has led directly into the creation of a sensationalist, ad-revenue-obsessed (and useless) news media that almost single-handedly transformed Donald Trump from cultural joke to bona-fide President. If we still had the journalistic infrastructure and standards that were in place in the 1970’s when Woodward & Bernstein exposed Watergate, Trump would not be president today. When Obama was in charge, it was the same story. We were asked to trust him as he passed control of the bailout to Tim Geithner and Larry Summers, two Wall Street fixtures that made sure the seven hundred billion bailout dollars we handed over were done so with almost no strings attached. The banks took the money and ran, while we sat there trusting and trusting. Obama also asked us to trust him with his new era of robotic terrorizing, sending his very Star Wars-like drones all over the world to spy- and shoot at- anyone at any time we deem necessary, keeping entire communities in round-the-clock peril. When Obi Wan admits that the Anakin Spy Program is to be carried out completely in secret, the Jedi’s lack of transparency is not unlike the kind of secret shenanigans exposed by both Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. The Jedi and the Democrats both are on very shaky moral ground, and that’s never a good position to be in if you‘re trying to convince someone you’re right.
Palpatine starts buttering Anakin up, pointing out all the flaws easily found within the Jedi, and tapping into the growing frustrations and suspicions Anakin already has. If this doesn’t remind you of Trump playing America’s heartland in much the same way, I don’t know what will. Both craftily point out truths, and then spin them with choppy logic into some very twisted conclusions. Palpatine points out the legitimate breech of ethics the Jedi are in the midst of, just like Trump points out the corruption of the Democratic Party- while offering an alternative that is a zillion times worse. “The Jedi are selfless,” Anakin tries to argue… but you can see in his face that he doesn’t really believe it- and thus begins his real entry into the Dark Side.
If the Jedi hadn’t been so goddamn arrogant and, instead, a little more humble, maybe they would have had the perspective to figure out what seemed obvious to those of us watching in the theater: the Sith are right under your noses, dumbasses! How could these Jedi be so blind? And yet, what always seemed like poor writing on Lucas’ part is now, after 2016, a pretty dead-on step-by-step explanation of how to steal yourself a country. When Trump rallies against the intellectual elite, he’s tapping into the same anger Anakin feels against the glass ceiling that prevents him from ever becoming a Jedi Master. We, the educated who went to college and call ourselves liberals are that Jedi elite. We’re the ones telling the rest of the country “We know better than you; trust us. You may not think you’re a racist, but you are. What you call jokes we call invading safe spaces. Life isn’t so bad for you because you have white privilege- so shut the fuck up and vote for the person we think is best for you.” Is it any wonder that both Anakin and half of our country responded with a gigantic fuck you?
Maybe we are educated and smart, but we’re not that smart- not smart enough to understand some basic human nature at any rate. Just like the Jedi, we’ve arrogantly allowed a cultural rift to fester and grow, making fun of Christians and their Bible-Belts while we allow science, which was once an American Value embraced by everyone, to become a divisive symbol between plain folk and urbanites. I’m not saying we caused it- obviously, there has been a conscious movement by right-wing groups to create this divide- but instead of noticing this cultural coup early on and nipping it at the bud by reaching out in solidarity with Middle America, we simply added fuel to the fire by making them the butt of our jokes. Watch any episode of Bill Maher if you don’t understand what I’m saying. Imagine seeing yourself ridiculed year after year while you’re also getting laid off, losing your house, and struggling to feed your family something more than McDonald’s every night- so much for your white privilege. Who are you going to listen to when it’s time to cast a vote? More Jedi bullshit? Or Palpatine Trump?
If this analogy is starting to make sense, consider the final showdown between Mace “Sam Jackson” Windu and Soon-To-Be-Emperor Palpatine, because it speaks to both our political Present and Future. Windu bursts into the Oval Office ready to arrest Palpatine, having finally realized that the guy is a Sith Lord. Anakin runs in behind him, conflicted about what is happening: on the one hand, Palpatine has promised me that he- and only he- can prevent Padmé from dying (Anakin’s deepest fear.) On the other hand, the guy is a Sith Lord… but a Sith Lord who can relieve me of my greatest fear? Maybe he deserves a chance. While America- I mean, Anakin- deliberates, Trump- I mean, Palpatine- instantly spins Windu’s arrest into a grab for power: “Anakin! I told you it would come to this. I was right! The corrupt Jedi are taking over!” (Insert Hillary Clinton email server story here.)
Windu tries to call Palpatine on his bullshit, assuming no one could be stupid enough to buy into it. But that’s because Windu hasn’t been paying attention to Anakin’s growing anger with the Jedi, the pain he felt after losing his mom, or the fear he has of losing his wife. “You old fool,” Windu boasts to Palpatine in his best Hillary Clinton voice. “Your plot to regain control of the Republic is over . . . you have lost . . .” and with that he assumes the fight with Palpatine is in the bag. Which it should have been, except that Palpatine has preyed on Anakin’s fears so well, the young hot-head kills Windu instead- a move as shocking to Mace Windu as November 8, 2016 was to Hillary Clinton.
But wait… the analogy is not over, because now Anakin expects Palpatine to deliver the goods, as promised. And here’s the zinger: Palpatine actually admits he can’t save Padmé, “but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret.” Wait a minute… what? I just killed a Jedi because of a promise you are now telling me was bullshit? And yet, rather than turning on him, a defeated and spent Anakin kneels before his new master. What choice does he have?
Corny soap opera in space? Or Holy-Shit-We-Are-Living-This-Right-Now ? In case you missed the parallels, here they are: Trump acting like he’s a victim of the media the way Palpatine acts like a victim of the Jedi? Check. Trump promising he’ll “drain the swamp” and then filling his administration with rich people? Check. If you’re still struggling to understand how Trump got elected, watch Episode III again. Anakin’s anger with the Jedi = Poor & White America’s anger with the liberal elite. The pain of Anakin’s mother’s death = the combined pains of 9–11, the housing crisis, the lack of affordable health care, criminally-high student loans, you name it. The fear of losing pregnant Padmé = the fear of not being able to provide for your family. Those Americans, like Anakin, are in it too deep now, both emotionally and psychologically, to turn their backs on the one guy they hung their hopes on. If the Democrats move to impeach Trump, there’s a good chance things will play out just like the above scene, with half the country defending a criminal going “wait- we NEED him!” and fighting back. The whole scenario is utterly ridiculous, and yet utterly frightening at the same time.
The takeaway here is still one many of us aren’t grasping. No one held the Jedi accountable. No one held the Democrats accountable. The “bad guys” could never have gotten where they did if the “good guys” had actually been doing their job. Every time a Bush was ousted, we relaxed and allowed corruption to keep growing for 8 long years. It’s great to see people marching and protesting Trump’s inauguration, but it begs the question: where was everyone these past 36 years? How many of the angry white women storming DC on January 21st, 2017 were also down at Zuccotti Park occupying Wall Street in 2011? How many of the millions who marched nationwide had ever marched at all? There have been plenty of opportunities- Black Lives Matter marches, the WTO Seattle Protests, The marches against the Iraq War, and countless others, some local, some national. And forget about marching- how about the real work of speaking out when our leaders do the wrong thing? Have we been calling our Congresspeople, writing letters to editors, and protesting as loud as possible on social media every time politicians from both parties systematically sold us out to a very small, but rich, minority? These are not rhetorical questions.
How many people took to the streets when solid evidence came out that Jeb Bush’s Florida government used a customized software program to systematically eliminate 94,000 people from voting, 80% of which were African-American, thereby illegally handing the 2000 election to his brother? Because this lack of action is precisely what allowed the Republicans to get away with in again, in 2016, using a software called Crosscheck. Let me repeat that: if we had all spoken up in December of 2000, when our Supreme Court voted 7–2 to allow Florida’s highly suspect recount to stand (using a ridiculous interpretation of the Equal Protection Clause to do so) maybe Al Gore and the Democrats would have done more than nothing and contested the decision; maybe our useless media would have paid attention, and given the cause due attention; maybe George Bush would not have been president on September 11, 2001; maybe the Patriot Act and the Iraq War wouldn’t have happened; maybe the Republicans wouldn’t have tried the same strategy (again, with success) in 2016, handing Trump an illegal victory. But we’ll never know, because we never tried.
And it’s not just the Republicans. As I’ve noted previously, both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama did their fair share of damage to Democracy- between NAFTA, the Personal Responsibility Act, the Tough On Crime Act, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, The Bailout of Wall Street, the continued allowance of Oil Companies’ stranglehold on our environment, the deployment of a immoral and terrifying Drone Program, and a ramped-up, neverending war that’s been spreading throughout the Middle East- all with our passive acceptance. When Edward Snowden revealed just how deep and illegal the president’s powers now run, did we march or protest? No, and now those over-extended powers are in the hands of Donald Trump. “Oops,” say the Jedi. “Oops” say us.
In Jedi, it took watching his own son almost die at the hand of the Emperor for Darth Vader to break his allegiance with the Dark Side. What’s it going to take for half this country to break theirs? Muslims in internment camps? Trump’s personal guards opening fire on protestors? An out-and-out nuclear exchange between any number of nuclear powers? Or quite simply a bankrupt country with no jobs, no health care, horrible schools, and a crumbling infrastructure? Just like blowing up the Death Star in A New Hope didn’t actually oust the Emperor, so will it take many battles and small victories before this country can actually call itself a Democracy again. The fact is, corruption has been running rampant in our Galaxy for some time now, and only now at our 11th hour are many of us finally joining the Rebel Alliance. I’ll stop with the metaphors now if you’d like, but just check out these deleted Star Wars scenes that sound like contemporary CNN newsclips and chew on just how on point George Lucas’ radar was. If you can’t stomach watching the Prequels again, fine- at least make sure your kids do, and pray they take George’s lessons to heart. If we’re lucky, they might avoid making the same mistakes our last two generations have done, in a future not-so-far-away.
