Let's set aside the fact that the NRO publishes reviews in which they DEFEND the Imperial Structure.
Well, let's not, but take careful note of it and move on.
Most other VRWC outlets on-line, in an effort to obscure the whole political point of the prequels, claim that the Galactic Civil War in episodes II and III is the American Civil War. Emperor Palpatine is Lincoln, who is secretly in cahoots with Jefferson Davis (Count Dooku) to suspend all our civil liberties ... making the Rebel Alliance ... Rutherford B Hayes???? WTF? Okay, that's just totally screwy. Cause you know that Jeff Davis was really working to enact Reconstruction.
Jeebus. I believe in open deconstruction in the Yale mode, but these kooks are plainly retarded.
Empire is bad, and Emperor is not Lincoln.
Well Ptolemy, you say, how can the Emperor be Bush if W wasn't president when Episode I came out?
The Emperor isn't W per se either. It's neoconservatism mixed with authoritarian religion. Nixon and Billy Graham was the first taste of it, and Lucas drew on a lot of dystopian authoritarian images to construct the battle against overweening authority.
Then, with the rise of Gingrich and the persecution of Clinton, he began work on Episode I in earnest. Chancellor Valorum, a well-meaning but flawed leader, is brought low by cries of inefficiency and corruption. He is replaced by Palpatine, who always talks about how much he loves democracy and freedom, but whose advice to a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker appears to show that he has no real grasp (or respect) of those ideas. In secret, Palpatine is a Lord of the Sith, a dark form of the prevalent religious thread in the Galaxy, Jedi. Jedi represent mystical forms of world religion. Sith represents using those religious principles to spread fear, hate, and division.
So, we now find ourselves at the advent of the Clone Wars, where the Republic has taken unprecedented measures to fight Count Dooku and his separatists. Dooku is largely open about his split from the Jedi. He's clearly a Sith, like Bin Laden. But he serves Palpatine in secret.
So am I saying that christian neo-cons secretly meet with islamic terrorists? No. But, it is clear, using the metaphor for present day, that they serve the same ends. Theocratic anti-globalism. And some far right Xtians applaud Al Qaeda's work. Xtians who still acknowledge that Bush is their man. How effective is our fight against terrorists, if this can be true?
So, Bush is but one clone, one aspect of our Palpatine. But we still can remove him by democratic means. We have not yet hit Episode III. But time is running out.