PODCAST: How do we dismantle the Death Star level threat of politics?
"Divided We Fall" author David French on federalism, Star Wars and balance
This episode is really something special. I’ve been helming Beltway Banthas since 2016 under several different phases of the show, different sounds, co-hosts and styles. Nothing to this point has been as good as this. I really hope you enjoy it and that this conversation with David French gives you something to think about as we head into election week.
Below I want to share with you some excerpts of the essay I wrote to put this episode together. Tweet me @Stephen_Kent89 and tell me what you think.
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And don’t be a NERFHERDER! Buy David’s new book. He writes with passion and sensitivity to the left & right in this fascinating book on our growing divide. Left or right, he is speaking to you (and with respect). David also takes the middle portion of the book to spin some fiction and paint a picture of two different 21st-century secession crisis’. They’re scary stories and honestly feel too possible.

"I wanna talk to you today about our American Death Star problem. There’s a great new book out right now by David French, formerly of the National Review and now a Senior Editor at The Dispatch, French served in the armed forces in Iraq and is also one of the most prolific 1st Amendment lawyers in the country. He’s sued a ton of institutions in the US for abridgments of freedom of speech, religion, association..you name it. His new book is titled Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation. It’s about the urgency he feels for American politics to lower the temperature of our national conflicts. He feels that polarization, media echo chambers and increasing physical clustering of like-minded people nationwide has us on a path toward ruin and I happen to agree with him.”
The core analogy of this episode is that Donald Trump has made plain as day the threat the White House poses to Americans living the kinds of lives that align with their values and their communities values. We are a big and diverse country. What used to be a narrowly conservative argument, that we should focus on states’ rights and avoid the nationalization of every issue…Trump changed that for some. I look to lessons from Rogue One on the formation of the rebellion, and to the Jedi prophecy of balance to think about the stakes of our politics as they exist today. David French’s book aligns perfectly with where my head was at on this.
“Following the rise of the Empire, Emperor Palpatine had a unique challenge in trying to coral thousands of star systems into one reunited government. Remember, they had just witnessed years of civil war (The Clone Wars) and it was that very disorder, with a monumental death toll topped off by allegations of a Jedi coup that allowed Palpatine to seize total power in the name of order.
You have to imagine there was a bit of a honeymoon period for the Empire where at first everyone loved the idea, thus the “thunderous applause” and then realized a few days or weeks later that their galactic senators had pulled the equivalent of a Las Vegas shotgun wedding performed by an Elvis impersonator. As soon as that warm fuzzy feeling, or total intoxication, wears off...you have a major problem. This is more or less where the Death Star comes into play.
Grand Moff Tarkin fully explains the logic of the Death Star project in the original Star Wars, Episode IV: A New Hope, when he posits to the Imperial hierarchy that “fear will keep the local systems in line - fear of this battle station.” The idea was simple. Make it so that worlds within the Empire couldn’t even think about things such as secession or insurrection without the looming threat of total and instant annihilation. If the senate agreeing to Palpatine’s Empire was akin to a Vegas wedding, the Death Star was a blanket ban on getting an annulment.
But did the Death Star end up crippling the galaxy with fear to the point where the Emperor could govern as he pleased? While we know the Rebel Alliance eventually breaks the Empire in Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, the answer to this question really lies within Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The rebellion at this point in the Star Wars tale is fledgling, disorganized and fractious. There’s discontent about the Empire, but very little unity on what to do about it. That’s why you have the Rebel Alliance we recognize, led by the white-robed Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, pitted against a more chaotic and violent anti-Imperial force named Saw Gerrera. Some in the Alliance think that the democratic process can still save them. If just enough senators voted to dismantle Palpatine’s authority, surely things could go back to the way they once were?! Others are keenly aware that the Empire is a life or death level crisis, and that not launching a full-scale armed rebellion is tantamount to walking oneself to the guillotine.
Remember, the galaxy does not know about the Death Star project at this point. The test conducted in Rogue One that wiped out an entire city was explained to the Senate as a “mining disaster.” When our reluctant hero Jyn Erso comes to the Rebel Alliance with intel on the Death Star and how to destroy it, many in the room don’t even believe her that the Death Star exists.
One rebel posits, “If the Empire has this kind of power, what chance do we have?”
Erso responds, “What chance do we have? The question is what choice.”
Jyn Erso is right, and the majority of the wayward Rebellion agreed with her. In that moment, the Rebel Alliance became more than an organization, it blossomed into a movement and cascaded toward revolution.”
Friends. We need to understand this lesson ourselves. The contant question to dominate our political opponents isn’t working. It is causing constant escalation. Where do we think this is headed? Not anywhere good.
