Retroactively, this means the Death Star — the most absurd superweapon in science fiction — suddenly feels realistic. The Emperor didn’t have a backup plan for keeping the “local systems in line.” Fear of total planetary annihilation was Palpatine’s only real long-term idea. And, in the end, its overt evil is exactly what brought the Empire down. If the Empire had just continued to scheme in the shadows of a soulless puppet democracy, Palpatine might have stayed in power forever.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/star-wars-finally-admitted-that-the-emperor-s-master-plan-was-actually-terrible

So my son watches Andor, and at the very end, he goes – oh, so that’s why the emperor had to create the Death Star. The very nature of the government made it essential.

The death star is the answer to the problem expressed in the Federalist papers about the dangers of a standing army, a central government, and a large country.

The Federalists pointed out that a standing army could never control a country as big as the then United States.

The Federalists argued that if the people valued their freedoms and meaningful freedoms, the country’s size made it impossible for the federal army to impose order. They could conquer but not impose a charge.

And because the Death Star is necessary, the Empire must build a second one. The Empire requires the Death Star because, without one, the Empire is too fragile to exist.

Folks can point to Russia as a counter-example of such a need. But here’s the but, the Russian and Soviet governments had a quasi-federal system that devolved significant autonomy to the edges. Putin and his goons just piggybacked on the system. Only when folks were drafted into the most recent war did any significant resistance emerge to his regime.

STAR WARS FTW