Art imitating life

I guess this really encompasses all 6 films, but has anyone noticed the similarities between Senator Palpatine's rise to power and the rise to power of Governor George W. Bush??
The backstory of Palpatine is how he manipulated his way to becoming Chancellor of the Senate, through trickery (hanging chads) and deception (purging of voter rolls) and eventually declares himself Emperor (President, with the help of the Supreme Court) and disbands the Senate as well as the Jedi, along the way creating a "crisis" (Al-Queda) to give himself emergency powers (Patriot Act) that he will lay down after the crisis is over, because "...he loves democracy, and the Republic...".
It seems to me the United States of America is heading down that same dark path, and as we all know, "once you start down the dark side forever will it dominate your destiny...consume you it will!"
Get out and vote. The real "axis of evil" is not the Trade Federation and co, or even the Yankees, but Bush, Cheney, Powell and Rumsfeld.

 

you should post this in either The Saga Forum or The Senate Floor

 

Keep your political diatribes off of this message board.

 

"Get out and vote."

Thanks for the reminder. I'll be sure to remember to vote for Bush in November.

 

I see many flames coming your way. Godspeed!!!

 

Well, I'll have to disagree with you there. Not that I can vote anyways, yet, but if I could I would be voting for Bush(no I definitely do not think he's like Palpatine, and, yes, I consider tyranically ruled, terrorist-supporting nations evil, not America[which, while imperfect and flawed, I still consider a force of good]). And considering many people are able to continually bash Bush without getting killed by government agents or ran over by tanks, I still think we're a democracy and are not heading towards becoming tyrannicaly ruled nation.
And since Palpatine is basically modeled after all dictators in general, and since history repeats itself, we might see some dictators in the future whose rise to power may indeed parallel Palpatines. But, I don't believe Bush is one of those "Parallels."

 

Keep in mind the Republic didn't see it coming until it was too late.

 

Oh, and one more thing. Bush did NOT steal the Florida election. And the Supreme Court DID not give him the presidency. I'm going to quote Orson Scott Card right now: "...it was the leftist, activist Florida state supreme court that attempted, by overturning settled law and making up new election rules after the fact, to massage the recount until the desired outcome was achieved. This activist court was prevented from throwing a presidential election through blatant disregard for law only by the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, which blocked the Florida Court's manipulative actions. But those who almost got away with using the courts to steal a presidential election are incessant in their charge that it was the U.S. Supreme Court that stole the election.

This is like the burglar accusing the homeowner of theft for having snatched the sack into which the burglar had stuffed the homeowner's valuables."

Basically, it was the Florida Supreme Court, by unconstitutionally changing laws at the last minute, that tried to steal the election. The Supreme Court simply PREVENTED them from doing this, and therefore, did not steal the election for Bush.

 

people will see parallels in what they want to see... besides, this would be life imitating art, since the movies came out before the whole election debacle...

why are we talking about this here...

 

True, the republic didn't see it coming, but still, I find these conspiracy theories quite far-fetched. Yes, Bush has increased security measures since the 9-11 attacks; what would you expect him to do, decrease security measures or leave them as they were. I'm not saying all of it's ok; neither am I saying it's all bad. But in doing this I think Bush is merely trying to fix a security problem, not so that he can increase his power and hold of America so that he can turn it into something akin to the Galactic Empire. I think he honestly is trying to protect our society from terrorist threats. Anyways, I think the Supreme Court are looking into a lot of this stuff and there are many people like you, including those in the government, who are in opposition of the Patriot Act and stuff like that, so I doubt Bush is going to be allowed to do anything that is REALLY tyrannical(and I'm not saying that he has done anything tyrannical or is planning to). Really, I'm much more worried about activist courts right now(there are ways keep the congress and president in check, but who's going to stop all the courts if they start[and I think many already are] over-stepping their bounds) than anybody in the executive branch, me thinks.

 

Well, I think this topic is ok to be here. Palpatine was in the Classic Trilogy as Emperor, so it loosely fits, I think, though it would be more fitting in the SW Saga forum or one of the Prequels forums. Anyways, at least I don't think anyone's gone flaming yet.

 

However George became president, IT WAS STOLEN!! The people voted for Al Gore and we ended up with George W. Bush for president.

 

Forcebe, GWB did not "steal the election". We do not popularly elect the president of the US. The president is elected by the electoral college, not the people. Bush won the majority of the electoral votes in 2000. End of story.

Every recount of Florida, since the SC decision, under all standards, showed Bush carrying the state. Bush won Florida.

Were there dirty conduct going on in Florida, such as purging voters from rolls, yes. But there is dirty conduct in almost all states in every election. Gore supporters were bribing homeless people in Philadelphia and Pittsburg w/ cigarretes to go in and vote for Gore. Politics, unfortunately, is a dirty ugly business. But all sides have dirt on their hands.

 

Bush is in because the electoral college is a very stupid outdated system. It definitely saved our bacon this time, though.

On the other hand, I did vote for him and I will again, but the system is still badly in need of remodeling.

 

Oh, so "of the people, by the people, for the people" means nothing anymore????

 

Palpatine orgainzed the Clone Wars for his own porpuses of staying in power and getting more power. Are you suggesting that Bush is responisble for the 9/11 attack? The WTC was attacked when Clinton first came into power, to. I betcha if we change presidents now, there will be another major attack a few months later.

I don't think that this is life imitating art or art imitating life. Remember this: Lucas had the story planned before ANH was made, all he had to do was flush out some details.