Jar Jar Binks on the Crisis in American Democracy

Jar Jar Binks and the Crisis in American Democracy

I’m not planning to vote for Donald Trump, but I can understand his appeal, and not just to racists and idiots. To help me explain this, I’m going to draw upon the most intellectually rigorous source material I can: the Star Wars movies.

I’ve seen so many folks on the internet draw parallels between Trump and Senator Palpatine, and if you’re going to do that, I think you need to extend the metaphor to cover the entire setting of the films.

Let’s examine the lead-up to that fateful moment when everyone’s favorite gungan, Jar Jar Binks, singlehandedly destroys the Republic by calling for the emergency powers vote. Examine, if you will, the state of the Republic prior to that moment: It was a freaking mess.

There was so much political logjam in the Galactic Senate that when one member world actually launched a full-scale invasion and conquest of another, partisans in the Senate blocked the Chancellor’s attempt to even bring the issue to the floor. Think about it: Imagine the Texas National Guard invades Louisiana and takes it over, and the Republican Congress and its “deny Obama anything” stance keeps the President from doing anything about it.

We’re not THAT bad yet, but close to it - Congress and the President are at such loggerheads that there’s an open seat on the Supreme Court, which is a vital national institution, that not only can’t be filled, but no nomination for a justice can even get to the floor. Every time the federal budget needs passing, the government comes just shy of shutting down because no one can agree, and in the end all they ever do is kick the can forward with extensions. The power of lobbyists is so strong that despite 72% of Americans being in favor of some form of gun control, it ain’t ever gonna happen because the NRA won’t let it. We know that rich people control our elected representatives through SuperPACs.And so on and so on. Pick your own pet issue - immigration, healthcare reform, whatever - and then realistically assess its prospects for even coming up for a vote, let alone getting resolved.

Now imagine the people of Naboo. Their planet’s been freaking invaded, and their elected representatives are too busy squabbling to notice. In comes Palpatine who, with Amidala’s aid, challenges Velorum for the Chancellorship.

We never get to see that election, but I wonder if it looks like the one we’ve got now. Velorum argues for staying the course, incremental reform, democracy, and he’s probably super smart and has all sorts of well-thought out solutions. Then there’s Palpatine who says, “dude, elect me and I’ll get things done.”

True, he doesn’t say “I’ll get things done by turning the Republic into an Empire and oppressing everyone and killing Ewoks,” but honestly, even if he did, even if he said, “elect me and I’ll create Darth Vader,” can you blame the people of Naboo (and who knows where else, if their situation is typical) for wanting to throw in with ANYONE who promises change? “Maybe Darth Vader won’t be as bad as everyone fears. Maybe building the Death Star will create jobs. Maybe people will suffer, but it probably won’t be ME.”

Oh yes, and there’s fear - there are assassination attempts on a popular former senator (Queen Amidala), which include a bomb going off right in downtown Coruscant, and people die. There is this group of insurgents who are building a droid army, fighting under the banner that the Senate is secretly controlled by dark forces. And you know, they’re actually right. Of course, their whole revolution was also being manipulated  by those dark forces. No, I don’t buy Trump’s rhetoric that Hillary Clinton somehow created ISIS, but generations of our leaders kind of did.  Decades of war in Iraq - perpetrated by Democratic and Republican presidents alike - screwed up the Middle East so much that it gave rise to ISIS, and for pity’s sake, left tons of weapons and vehicles that Isis now uses to try and take over the region.

But here you are, average citizen of the Galactic Republic, and you hear there’s been this huge battle on Geonosis and that the droid foundries have been turned against us and, yeah, the government quashed that rebellion, but at a huge cost, and holy shit, this is scary. Can you blame them for wanting a Darth Vader type to impose some “law and order?”

Even Qui-gon Jin, a member of the freaking Jedi Council - i.e., supposedly a pretty wise man - is drawn to the fact that he can sense Anakin will bring about change and gets all behind him. Yoda, who’s wiser, senses that the change will be bad change…but what the hell is Yoda offering that’s different? When Naboo got invaded, where was Yoda with his better solution? During all those trade route debates, did Yoda come up with a way to break the impasse? If so, it clearly didn’t work.

The only thing Yoda winds up doing effectively is leading military strikes…and, as it turns out, playing right into Palpatine’s hands, because fighting that very battle on Geonosis is what leads our friend Jar Jar to vote in favor of Palpatine’s clone army, which provide him his power base.

Obviously there are important lessons here. Would Chancellor Velorum have created stormtroopers and death stars and TIE fighters? Likely not. Would he have been able to save the Republic from its own implosion? No way to tell, but prospects didn’t look good. If it wasn’t Palpatine, it would have been SOMEONE (maybe Grand Moff Tarkin in his Minor-Moff days?)  who would have stepped in, because face it - the people were demanding it.  Amidala admits that when Galactic democracy died, it died to thunderous applause.

When Trump gets all, well, Trump-y, and the Padme Amidalas of the Left wonder why people are applauding, well…look to Naboo. Even if things aren’t really as bad as the Trump Team paints it (no, immigrants are not roving our streets raping and killing people, despite what comes out of his campaign) -- hey, Palpatine was also inventing threats to help him out, ref: the droid rebellion – at the same time, there were plenty of huge problems that he had nothing to do with – he just added some extra spice to the soup, to push people over the edge.

That is why Trump appeals to many, and why I’m hoping tonight that Hillary stops trying to point out all of Trump’s (many, many, many) flaws  -- because seriously, how far did Yoda get saying, “hmmm, this boy, he’s full of fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering”…No. One. Gave. A. Shit. They wanted change. In the end, Palpatine went on national (er, galactic?) TV as a wrinkly-faced picture-of-evil, standing in the ruins of the Senate, and people STILL applauded him. Trump’s supporters know he’s an asshole, and they just don’t care. Yes, there are the loonies like Darth Maul out there who probably groove on the evil, but for the vast majority of Paplatine supporters, they just want someone to “make it all work again.”

Palpatine makes it all work, in a hideous way. Darth Vader DOES bring balance to the force. The Empire seems pretty freaking efficient (heck, they disband the Senate and the cosmos keeps on ticking just fine under local governors). Unless you’re absolutely anyone he doesn’t like (wookies, ewoks, Jedi, bothans, and others), of course.

Bottom line: In the words of Dr. Evil, “face it – freedom failed.” Nipping Palpatine in the bud would have required some a charismatic counterpoint. Maybe if Wookie Sanders had  made it past the primaries, we wouldn’t have had to endure decades of oppression and galactic war.  But Wookie Sanders is out of the running at this point.

Maybe tonight will finally be the moment when Hillary stands up and says, “I get it, you’re angry and afraid, our government’s kind of a mess right now – but here’s my vision of what it could be, and why you should follow hope and not fear. Here’s how I’m going to FIX things, and isn’t it better to rally behind possibility and promise than all the people you hate?”

Otherwise, we get PalpaTrump, and it isn’t because his supporters are just a bunch of fat ugly stupid Hutts. You can’t get 50% of the projected vote just based on the Hutts. It’s because ordinary people like Jar Jar – the everygungan – can tell things are screwed up, and there is this charismatic candidate claiming to offer them a lifeline. That the lifeline is attached to a rabid shark may be easy to forget if you’re on a sinking ship – why the hell not give it a try?

If we end up with Darth Trump in November, I won’t like it – I’ll be freaking terrified - but I’ll certainly understand how we got there.