Political impact
When Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a system of lasers and missiles meant to intercept incoming ICBMs, the plan was quickly labeled "Star Wars", implying that it was science fiction and linking it to Reagan's acting career. According to Frances FitzGerald, Reagan was annoyed by this, but Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle told colleagues that he "thought the name was not so bad."; "'Why not?' he said. 'It's a good movie. Besides, the good guys won.'" [44] This gained further resonance when Reagan described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire".
In television commercials, public interest group critics of the Reagan administration's Strategic Defense Initiative program deridingly referred to the orbital missile defense project as "Star Wars". Lucasfilm originally sued to try to enjoin this usage of its trademark, and lost. [45] Explaining its decision, the court said,
When politicians, newspapers, and the public generally use the phrase star wars for their convenience, in parody or descriptively to further a communication of their views on SDI, plaintiff has no rights as owner of the mark to prevent this use of STAR WARS. ... Since Jonathan Swift's time, creators of fictional worlds have seen their vocabulary for fantasy appropriated to describe reality. Trademark laws regulate unfair competition, not the parallel development of new dictionary meanings in the everyday give and take of human discourse. [45]
When Margaret Thatcher won the 1979 United Kingdom general election held on May 3, the Tories took out a newspaper ad that read "May the Fourth Be with You Maggie. Congratulations." [46]
On May 4, 1995, during a defence debate in the UK parliament, MP Harry Cohen related the Star Wars Day joke: "May 4 be with you". [47]
In England and Wales, 390,127 people (almost 0.8%) stated their religion as Jedi on their 2001 Census forms, surpassing Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism, and making it the fourth largest reported religion in the country.
The holographic video effect associated with Star Wars served as a technological tool for CNN during its 2008 Election Night coverage. CNN reporter Jessica Yellin and musician will.i.am looked as though they were in the network's New York City studios talking face-to-face with hosts Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blitzer, when in reality, they were in Chicago at Barack Obama's rally. The process involved Yellin and will.i.am standing in front of a blue screen in a special tent, while being shot by 35 HD cameras. [48]
On March 1, 2013, American President Barack Obama spoke on the sequestration debate. He said that some people expect him to do a "Jedi mind meld" on the Republicans who refuse to deal. [49]
In the 2014 Ukrainian presidential elections, the Internet Party of Ukraine tried to nominate a man named Darth Vader; [50] [51] but his registration was refused because his real identity could not be verified. [52] A man named Darth Vader was a candidate at May 25 2014 Kyiv mayoral election and the Odesa mayoral election of the same day for the same party. [53] [54] In the 2014 Ukrainian parliamentary election the Internet Party let Darth Vader along other Star Wars characters such as Chewbacca, Padmé Amidala, and Yoda run for seats in the Ukrainian parliament. [55] In the election the party failed to clear the 5% election threshold (it got 0.36% of the votes) and also did not win a constituency seat and thus no parliamentary seats. [56] [57] [58]
In 2015, as a part of the decommunization process in Ukraine, a statue of a Vladimir Lenin was modified into a monument to Darth Vader at the territory of Pressmash plant in Odesa. [59] [60]
In the 2020 Odesa local election, a person called Darth Vader was again a candidate for mayor of Odesa (nominated by Darth Vader Bloc). [61] He scored 0.48% of the total votes cast. [62]
