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Several Internet memesters and commentators have drawn parallels between Trump’s rise, fall, and return to the original Star Wars trilogy: his first term was A New Hope (1977); his stolen re-election bid was The Empire Strikes Back (1980); and his triumphant return (in just two days!) is Return of the Jedi (1983).
I’m not one to reduce all of human experience and history to pop culture touchstones—it drives me crazy when people reduce their entire understanding of the world to Harry Potter references—but I think the comparison is apt here. Trump won election in 2016 against all odds, taking on an Establishment that at first dismissed him as a political sideshow (myself included), then came to fear him. Much like the scrappy group of Rebel X-wing fighters blowing up the massive Death Star—a symbol of the Establishment’s massive, overwhelming power and reach—Trump and his allies blew up the Clinton regime, to the point that the juggernaut of the Clinton machine was utterly destroyed.
2020 saw the Establishment wise up, pulling out every crooked tactic at their disposal to assure Trump would not see a second term. Just as Lando Calrissian betrayed our heroes to Darth Vader to save his own skin, many fair-weather Trump supporters abandoned him in his hour of need, and even supported lesser “alternatives” in a morally compromised bid for relevance. This era would last well into the 2024 Republican primaries.
Then came 5 November 2024, the best Guy Fawkes Day in modern history. It was The Return of the Jedi, with Trump boldly marching directly into the wicked, venal, degenerate palace of the Establishment to free the J-6 political prisoners—and America—just as Luke strode confidently into Jabba’s Palace to confront the lugubrious crime lord over the capture of Han Solo.
We’re at the beginning of that flick now. The momentum is on Trump’s side. He’s already redeemed the fallen Tech Bros, just as Luke led his father to redemption. More machine than men, the tech oligarchs have fallen dutifully behind Trump.
Now: can they destroy the Emperor?
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The Portly Politico 
On Monday, while American eyes are glued to the screens, Tina and I will be taking some much needed time off to celebrate her birthday and have a little fun. Which reminds me – do Americans get the day off for inaugurations?
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Happy Birthday to Tina! What fun!
Typically, we do not get Inauguration Day off. However, this year it falls on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, which I find particularly toothsome. MLK Day is a national holiday, so I am off and free to watch the Inauguration!
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I’d like to say enjoy your day off but as I remember from my short stint teaching, you only really get days off during the big holidays.
I was talking to Tina earlier about the reverence Americans have for their presidents. I tend to think of politicians as corrupt, lying scumbags but America reveres these people, even having national holidays to celebrate and remember them. Weird. If we had a PM day where we celebrated psychopaths like Blair and Johnson, I’d move to a small and quiet island. 🙄
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Quick question. In this country, when parliament was voted on, at the start, it was pretty much the gentry. Commoners weren’t extended the vote here until the mid 19th century and even then, it wasn’t fully extended until the 20th.
When were Americans, by and large, given the vote? I’ve looked at the figures and it appears that until 1804, only a small amount of people were allowed to vote.
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You have to understand, we’re more honoring the Office of the President, rather than particular individuals who held that office. Also, Presidents[‘] Day was a way to consolidate two earlier national holidays, Washington’s Birthday and Lincoln’s Birthday, into one.
Remember, too, that our President is both head of government and head of state, whereas y’all have that office split between the Prime Minister (former) and the King/Queen (latter). So for us, the President does function, in a way, as a symbolic “monarch” in that he is the head of state and, therefore, represents the nation as a whole (at least in theory and/or symbolically).
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Tina said as much when I talked to her about. Still, you must see the paradox – the office and the president. One to be revered, one to serve the people. It’s an odd blend.
Do you know when Americans were allowed the vote?
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It is, but life is full of such paradoxes (paradices?).
I’m not sure I understand your question re: when Americans were allowed to vote. Could you clarify, old chap?
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When parliament was first established in this country, only a small amount of people were allowed to vote. It took many years before the common man was allowed to vote.
From the figures I checked online, it looks like that’s how it started in America. The first 3/4 elections, Presidents were elected on mere 5 figure numbers before the totals inexplicably jump in the early 1800s which I presume is when the commoner was finally allowed the vote. I just wondered at what date people like your ancestors were allowed to partake in democracy.
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I see what you mean now. Yes, in the very early days of our nation, voting was restricted to white, landowning males. I am a bit fuzzy on early presidential elections, but the impression I get is that participation was quite limited. Technically, that is still the case, and that the election is ultimately decided by the electors from each state casting their respective States’ votes in the Electoral College. In theory, those electors could cast their votes for candidates, other than the one that won the majority in a given state, and that has happened a number of times, but that is a topic for another time.
You are correct that suffrage expanded in the early 19th century. The landowning qualifications for office were gradually dropped as early industrialization developed. Men who had formerly worked as farmers now were working as craftsman and in other specialist positions, so did not necessarily own land. State legislatures began expanding the suffrage to include all white men to reflect the changing economic reality of the country. Consider: a man who had once owned a farm and sold it to become a full-time blacksmith, would technically lose the right to vote.
That change coincided with the rise of Andrew Jackson, the closest figure to Donald Trump in 19th century American history, at least until William Jennings Bryan. Jackson was the first president who is not from either Virginia or Massachusetts, and he was the first president from the “West”—Tennessee, which was very much the frontier in those days. Jackson held to a very Jeffersonian ideal that argued that any man could hold public office, and therefore should be able to vote.
At that time, Americans just voted for their local councils, state legislatures, US congressmen to the House, and President. Americans did not vote for our senators until the passage of the 17th Amendment. Until that point, Senators were elected by the State legislatures. Not long after (1919-1920) came the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. All men, regardless of race, had the vote with the 15th Amendment, which had been ratified in 1870 in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
My understanding is that England followed a similar timeline, although a bit different in the details. We never had congressional districts, for example, in which no one lived. In theory, our congressmen and women are supposed to live in the district they represent, although they sometimes find ways around that (keeping a residence in one district while living in another).
I hope that quick primer helps! Apologies for any grammatical errors; I am on the app and using voice-to-text, haha.
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When I read this last night, I swore all it said was, “when could Americans vote?” 😂 I must have been knackered, as you would say. 😂
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