The Politics of Battlestar Galactica
A lot of people seem to think that Battlestar Galactica got quite political in the third season. This is true, but not in the way people think. Rather than being a thinly veiled critique of the Bush administration's handling of Iraq, the show is actually a cogent attack on the Democrats. As a Democrat, I find this galling - plenty of people will derive real-world lessons from the show, and vote Republican as a result.
A quick warning - don't read further if you don't want to know some of the plot of season three. The basic idea is that the humans, seeking refuge from the cylons, land on a habitable planet and build a city. The cylons show up and conquer them, occupying the planet. The occupation goes poorly for everyone, and a lot of people take this as a statement about Iraq.
Think about it for a minute, though. Laura Roslin is no Democrat - she's pro-life, pro-military, and is a strong, forceful leader who tells the truth. She recognizes the enemy and has no sympathy for their desire to destroy the human race. Sound familiar? Just substitute "Muslim" for "cylon" and Laura Roslin's story is the story of George W. Bush. It goes without saying that Gaius Baltar, the quisling leader of the humans, has every mark of a Democrat. He's pro-choice, promiscuous, looks down on common working people, and his intelligence is his only positive attribute.
The really political part of the show, then, is its depiction of the consequences of Democratic versus Republican leadership. The show basically recapitulates the elections of 2000 and 2004 - do we want a rich, intelligent Ivy League Democrat who can't tell the truth, has no character, hates the military, and loves the enemy - or do we want a slightly less intelligent but entirely praiseworthy Republican? In other words, is mere intelligence enough to overcome a complete deficit of all other positive attributes? As the show demonstrates, the consequences of trusting the Ivy League to be the final arbiter of leadership is disastrous - both Kerry and Gore would have led our country to ruin, just like Gaius Baltar. By rejecting the Ivy League candidate, though, we got someone who might at first not appear to be presidential material (remember that Roslin was the Secretary of Education) but who rises to the challenge and exceeds all expectations.
Now, none of this is unfair - you can't blame Battlestar Galactica for telling the truth about the choice Americans face. As a Democrat, though, I wish people would just consume the lies of the liberal mainstream media (NPR, New York Times, Communist News Network) and vote mindlessly for the party of unions, baby-killing, and surrender, because I believe in those things. My fear is that a lot of voters will watch Battlestar Galactica and decide to vote for the party of military strength, moral resolve, and freedom - the GOP.
A quick warning - don't read further if you don't want to know some of the plot of season three. The basic idea is that the humans, seeking refuge from the cylons, land on a habitable planet and build a city. The cylons show up and conquer them, occupying the planet. The occupation goes poorly for everyone, and a lot of people take this as a statement about Iraq.
Think about it for a minute, though. Laura Roslin is no Democrat - she's pro-life, pro-military, and is a strong, forceful leader who tells the truth. She recognizes the enemy and has no sympathy for their desire to destroy the human race. Sound familiar? Just substitute "Muslim" for "cylon" and Laura Roslin's story is the story of George W. Bush. It goes without saying that Gaius Baltar, the quisling leader of the humans, has every mark of a Democrat. He's pro-choice, promiscuous, looks down on common working people, and his intelligence is his only positive attribute.
The really political part of the show, then, is its depiction of the consequences of Democratic versus Republican leadership. The show basically recapitulates the elections of 2000 and 2004 - do we want a rich, intelligent Ivy League Democrat who can't tell the truth, has no character, hates the military, and loves the enemy - or do we want a slightly less intelligent but entirely praiseworthy Republican? In other words, is mere intelligence enough to overcome a complete deficit of all other positive attributes? As the show demonstrates, the consequences of trusting the Ivy League to be the final arbiter of leadership is disastrous - both Kerry and Gore would have led our country to ruin, just like Gaius Baltar. By rejecting the Ivy League candidate, though, we got someone who might at first not appear to be presidential material (remember that Roslin was the Secretary of Education) but who rises to the challenge and exceeds all expectations.
Now, none of this is unfair - you can't blame Battlestar Galactica for telling the truth about the choice Americans face. As a Democrat, though, I wish people would just consume the lies of the liberal mainstream media (NPR, New York Times, Communist News Network) and vote mindlessly for the party of unions, baby-killing, and surrender, because I believe in those things. My fear is that a lot of voters will watch Battlestar Galactica and decide to vote for the party of military strength, moral resolve, and freedom - the GOP.
posted by James | 5:24 AM
5 Comments:
Yeah so I like your point about the leadership of Baltar vs. Roslyn; it's true that Roslyn is a hard-core, take-no-prisoners warmonger (as well as a religious nut), a bit like W. But I thought the Iraq parallels of the Occupation were pretty inescapable, and it was portrayed in ways that tended to make our occupation of Iraq look bad (while allowing that it might be well-intentioned). Of course, I think the writers had more complex motivations about all of these choices.
(Or I just can't figure out quite who serious you are, embarrassingly.)
Yeah, not very serious. I do hate the religious crap though, it makes me like Roslyn a lot less.
The show was about democrats, by democrats, and full of democrats. At one point, the question was asked of if the humans deserved to survive. Based on that sample, no. There wasn't a single person they featured who wasn't a detriment to society. The humans had no positive character traits. They made the cylons look good. Baltar wasn't smart--he was led around like a trained monkey! Bill Adama was incompetent, oblivious, and undeserving. Roslyn was a well-meaning nightmare. Lee Adama was the only marginally respectable character, however immature. He actually made a good president, but a bad officer. Personally, I would've executed each of the soldiers who disobeyed orders, Baltar, Roslyn, Gaida, Dee, Helo, Adm. Whats-her-face, Boomer, and several others. Starbuck was a typical pilot, but the pilots were out of control. Whomever scripted the show was obviously ignorant of many things, especially the military.
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