The Dower Power Hour

Well, I’m in another public office that should probably limit the extent to which I use this to express political views. This is a big reason I have stopped updating this regularly, unfortunately.

Which, of course, leads me to my favorite television show at the moment, Battlestar Galactica. The fourth season isn’t as good as the previous three but it’s still keeping avid fans like me eagerly awaiting the next episode. There is a lot of plot to resolve.

The reason I am posting this is two-fold. First, I think if I talk about BSG, when someone searches “Battlestar Galactica” this site might come up, which should get me more hits. Yes even though I rarely update this thing I am still desperate for attention. More hits would inspire me to update it more regularly. It’s a vicious cycle.

Secondly and more importantly there is an amazing historical parallel to something that happened in the show at the end of the third season. I tried searching to see if anyone else noticed the striking similarities, but nothing came up. Therefore, I can only assume I am the only person to make this observation! (Although I’m sure that as soon as I post that, someone will come out and correct me.)

At the end of the third season, a former Vice President is put on trial to determine whether or not they were guilty of treason. The President at the time of the trial, and President during the term of aforementioned Vice President, is absolutely determined to see the former VP found guilty. However, they are acquitted due to lack of evidence which further drives a wedge between the President and several of her former political colleagues.

Of course in the show I am talking about Vice President Gaius Baltar and President Laura Roslin. However, taking the names out, this positively screams the Aaron Burr trial. The parallels are undeniable. After killing Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr went on to lead an ill-fitted attempt to… do something out west. It’s actually difficult to figure out what his plans were because he had so many different lies. It was definitely one of the following: attack and annex much of Spanish Mexico on behalf of the United States, lead an insurgency against the United States (on behalf of Britain), lead an insurgency against the United States (on behalf of Spain), or manipulate both and lead an insurgency against the United States on behalf of Aaron Burr (the most likely).

Jefferson was pretty angry about all of this, but unfortunately Burr was so popular out west that they chose to have the trial in an eastern state where they thought they could get a more friendly jury. Unfortunately, all the juicy evidence required them to be in a western state where it could be used (I’m not sure exactly of the specifics, it’s been a while since I read about this), and so they simply couldn’t muster enough concrete evidence to nail down his involvements or his intentions, despite the defection of one of his key conspirators, General Wilkinson. Who, it should be said, was extremely incompetent in every sense of the word. Like Gaius Baltar, Aaron Burr got off because the prosecution couldn’t muster a strong enough case against him, even though it was pretty apparent he was guilty.

If you’re interested in this time period (the Aaron Burr trial that is, not Battlestar Galactica) I highly recommend What Kind of Nation: Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, and the Epic Struggle to Create a United States. There are many books about the early American Republic but this is definitely one of the better ones, particularly if you have any interest in the history of the Supreme Court.