US President Joe Biden’s primetime speech in Philadelphia has been divisive, to say the least – and many are comparing him to Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars as a result.
The 46th president of the United States called Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters a threat to American democracy and even waded into murky political waters in raising a call to some sections within the Republican Party to speak out against MAGA Americans, comparing their philosophy to “semi-fascism”.
Some Democrats cheered him on for taking the fight to former president Trump and MAGA supporters, two months before the nation heads to midterm polls, which could very well set a base for Trump’s 2024 presidential run.
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The Reds have already taken offence to the speech and pointed out that Biden was wrong to use Marine sentries and the Marine band. Some CNN journalists have also chipped in, noting it to be a break from presidential traditions and commenting on how the military shouldn’t be politicized. Biden’s speech at Independence Hall saw the 79-year-old speaking against a backdrop of red and blue lights on the brick facade of the building.
With two Marine sentries in the backdrop, the colour palette in the image already made some draw parallels to Nazi dictator, Adolf Hitler. These Republicans also made the point how Biden was marginalizing Trump and his supporters, which the POTUS is doing, after having avoided taking on his predecessor in the first 18 months he was in the Oval Office.
Some have gone to the extent of editing Biden’s speech and putting in Hitler’s, where Jews are replaced with MAGA Americans.
Young Americans for Liberty, a Texas-based conservative student activism organization tweeted “What did you think of Emperor Palpatine’s speech last night?”
Texas senator Ted Cruz, who had vacationed in Cancun while his state dealt with a water crisis, was also quick to draw the Palpatine comparison, saying “Palpatine looks good.”
Palpatine, or Darth Sidious, in the Star Wars movies, is a scheming and powerful individual who’s evil to the core. Palpatine, known as the Emperor, was responsible for restoring the Sith and destroying the Jedi Order.
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Democrats too had drawn parallels between Palpatine and Trump, when he was the 45th president of the US.
However, the comparison the Republicans have drawn isn’t exactly fair to the Star Wars canon, US politics aside. The colour palette is reminiscent of the red throne room, which belonged to Snoke, Supreme Leader of the First Order who uses the dark side of the Force, and not Palpatine.
One Star Wars fan and visibly not a Republican supporter, tweeted, “A bunch of right-wing dorks pretending to have watched Star Wars by making Palpatine jokes. It was Snoke that was in the red room. Go back to drinking wine coolers and cutting holes in sheets.”
The Palpatine parallel with Biden is off-key, even if one were to look beyond the obvious Stars Wars canonical errors. The Sith lord most infamously brought an end to intergalactic democracy by dismantling the Imperial Senate and declaring himself the emperor.
Biden, in all his speeches, championed democracy, warning against the threat Trump and his supporters pose. The former president, on the other hand, notoriously rejected the democratic results of the 2020 elections, saying that he should have won. He even tried to have his Vice President, Mike Pence, overturn the results so Trump could be president again.
Trump’s disregard for the electoral process makes him a much closer match to Palpatine than the forced comparison Republicans have drawn with Biden.
