Hypersensitive Conservatism

Let me begin by making it clear, I am a Star Wars fan. I am not one of those people that camp out to get tickets, or come dressed as a Storm Trooper. I just like the movies and will have seen them all, in a theater, after I see third chapter. (Which is the sixth and final installment in the George Lucas space opus. If that confuses you, welcome to the club.)

Secondly, I am a very conservative person, not a Republican, a conservative.

I am amazed these two interests have intersected. I speak of the pro-administration hyperactive reaction to the new the Revenge of the Sith.

If you are clueless to what I am discussing, be happy, and consider not reading this article. Many conservatives are up in arms over what they see as an anti-war, anti-Bush, message in some of the dialogue of the new film, according to today's issue of USA TODAY. I warned you, there is no going back now, I apologize for introducing this topic into your life.

The pseudo-controversy underscores the problem of being the dominant political power in an era. Power, or at least the allure of power, produces a blind following, with a petty preoccupation with defending the leader, in this case President Bush.

What do these people think? That the Bush inner circle has pushed nation building in Iraq to the back burner? That peace in the Arab world, nukes in Iran and Korea, Russia's struggle to keep democratic institutions functioning are all taking a secondary position to a sci-fi flick?

Or you could ponder a more frightening thought: how did Lucas, in the late seventies know, that the Iraqi war would happen? At the time he started his space opera, Lucas points out, "We were just starting to arm Saddam Hussein." How did he know all this? Could the force be real? Is he a latter day prophet who decried a generation ago that we would be in Iraq?

Let's rejoin reality, shall we?

One of the correctly used mantras of the right was the liberal obsession with political correctness. Starting in the sixties and seventies the left's hyperactive obsession with non-offensive labels and a non-offending society drove them closer and finally off of the deep end. The Republican Party should take a lesson from the Democrats departure from the main stream. Don't involve yourself in pettiness, it drives you toward irrelevance.

I have to go. It's my turn to hold our place in line at the movie theater.