The Dangers of Being the Party of No: What the GOP can Learn from Star Wars

In the fictional universe of Star Wars, the battle between good and evil takes quite the prominent role. The portrayal of this battle is pretty clearly exhibited, what with the naming of the two sides of the force being “light” and “dark”. Those who use the dark side of the force, generally speaking, draw upon their raw emotions, such as pride, hate, anger, and passion, to gain and use power over others. In contrast, the wielders of the light side rely upon more positive aspects of humanity, such as reason, compassion, honesty, and mercy. Though this entire concept of “the force” was created by George Lucas, its ideas can be used for kinds of things. One arena in which the principles of Star Wars can and should be applied is politics, specifically American politics.

It has become increasingly clearer over the past several months, ever since it became obvious that Barack Obama had a great chance at becoming the next president, that the opposition party has begun using more and more often the type of tactics and strategies that you could associate with the dark side of the force, if it existed. There are so many examples of this that it would be a bit impossible to show them all, but here are some:

• casting Barack Obama as a “terrorist”

• frequent assertions that the President is a socialist, a Marxist, or an Arab sleeper agent
  

• claiming that health care reform would create “death panels”, or “kill Grandma”, or even be “Armageddon”

• calling the President the “anti-Christ”

• equating gay marriage to legalizing incest

• proclaiming the President hates America and is purposefully trying to ruin it

• indulging in wild, unfounded, completely untrue conspiracy theories despite overwhelming evidence against such claims

The list could go on (and on, and on, and on) but the general idea gets through. The GOP, and the conservative right-wing that affiliates with the Republican Party, is using fear as a tactic to gain political influence and power at the expense of their opponents. By doing so, they are abandoning reason, logic, and clear, empirical evidence solely to advance their own agenda at the expense of the good of the people for whom they are supposed to be working.

Could this man really be the Anti-Christ?

Republicans and conservatives who are going along with these tactics, not to mention embracing them (looking at you, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin) should take some advice from Jedi Master Yoda, whose words of wisdom ring true, even in this galaxy:

Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.

The truth of what Yoda said can already be seen. The GOP has played on people's most basic, deeply-held, instinctual fear of things that are not like them (Barack Obama is un-American; Barack Obama is a foreigner; Barack Obama is a socialist; Barack Obama is a black man; etc). This, in turn, has helped create such an entity as the so-called Tea Party, whose members are, as we are constantly reminded, very angry.

The Tea Party, who has noble intentions, no doubt, also seems to have attracted a bit of a fringe group, who aren't ashamed to resort to racist overtones or threats. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate. The GOP's use of fear to cow citizens into falsely believing lies and slander may produce the desired effect of gaining votes in future elections, but it could also possibly have a negative aspect of alienating those who are turned off by the constant rhetoric and insane ramblings. As it is, the amount of people hailing allegiance to the Republican Party lags quite a bit behind that of the Democrats. With this type of strategy, giving up reason for madness, the GOP becomes more and more a fringe party with radical beliefs and supporters, which will eventually lead to its downfall as a major player on the American political scene.

The GOP could learn a lot from Yoda

Anakin Skywalker was once a great Jedi knight, upholding the virtues of the light side of the force as he righted wrongs and performed the morally correct action throughout the galaxy. However, his pride and passion got in the way of this, ultimately leading him down the path to the dark side, and with it, led directly to his own destruction. The Republican Party stands at a precipice: they can renounce the tactics of fear and hate, and return to a stature of prominence and honor, or continue with the route they've chosen to go down since Barack Obama entered the scene, which will sooner or later result in the opposite of what they are attempting to achieve. Though they may be loud, they do not have right on their side, and their refusal to use logic, facts, or reason can only lead to bad things. Fear, hate, and anger may work in the short term, but the use of such tactics can only take one so far.