“Fear is the path to the dark side … fear leads to anger … anger leads to hate … hate leads to suffering.”

Image from MauricioC

For roughly two decades, Al Qaeda and similarly motivated organizations have tried to draw the modern world into a global insurgency. Their purpose has always been rather clear: spread chaos so that a band of violent lunatics with medieval sensibilities can tell ever larger numbers of people how to live their lives. They have sown discord where there has been unity, they have brought violence where there is peace.

But, for their purposes to be realized, they require that the innocents they target give in to the fear they are trying to provoke. The terrorists repeatedly have attempted to undermine the greatest threat to their existence: civil harmony. They want division, conflict, closed borders, and hostile rhetoric or worse. One man in the United States has leapt at the chance to use fear and anger for his own purposes. Our generation has its Joseph McCarthy, or to use a fictional example, its Senator Palpatine.

Polling data may be declining in precision (New York Times), but it is difficult to ignore that recent polls of the Republican electorate have supported a temporary ban on the entry of noncitizen Muslims to the United States (Washington Post). And indications are that this stance advocated by Darth Trump have increased his likelihood of electoral success. I’m not the first to see the similarity by any stretch either.

Trump is not the first politician to use fear and hatred to gain power. However, our best political leaders have united people during times of adversity. Tonight, the leading candidates in the Republican field can distance themselves from his rhetoric (with the added benefit of not being compared to Joe McCarthy or Emperor Palpatine). That may not be the popular choice with the electorate that they confront, but it is the presidential one.