Darth Vader Beats Donald Trump in 2016 Poll. No, Seriously.
Sure, he lost an Empire and destroyed a planet or two. But American millennials are still willing to give the former Anakin Skywalker a chance at running the country.
In a new, completely troll-y and click-bait-y poll released by Ipsos, it appears Americans would rather have a fictional space-knight elected president than any of the real-human 2016 presidential candidates.
The online poll, conducted between Dec. 10 and 14 with a sample of 1,005 adults, found that Obi-Wan Kenobi—a Jedi legend from the Star Wars franchise—beats all the 2016 frontrunners in a head-to-head match-up. (Again, this would never happen because Star Wars is fake and Donald Trump is likely real, but let’s play along.)
For instance, in a race against Hillary Clinton, Obi-Wan would get (if this pointless, intergalactic election were held tomorrow) 37 percent of the vote, whereas Clinton would receive 26 percent.
"Whether it's due to this week's release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, or general disdain by Americans with their political system, this data suggests that the Jedi Order is vastly more popular than either the Republican or Democratic Party,” Chris Jackson, vice president at Ipsos Public Affairs, said in a statement, likely while grinning like a fool. “As we have seen in much of the political data this year, our Republic is more fractured than in recent history. However, it seems that the force could ‘surround us and bind the universe together.’”
More interestingly, the data also reveals how much young Americans generally prefer Darth Vader’s galactic-Hitler policies to Trump’s proto-fascism. In a head-to-head matchup among millennial adult voters, Vader would crush Trump, 27 percent to 18 percent. Moreover, minority voters would rather install Vader as their overlord, rather than elect a President Trump, 26 percent to 13 percent.
This is significant because Lord Vader presided over an Empire that dismantled space-democracy, carried out numerous atrocities, committed at least one act of of genocide, and was mean to Harrison Ford. The worst Lord Trump has done so far is propose oppressing millions of Muslims and rounding up and deporting 11 million people.
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The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. The Vader campaign, which does not exist, similarly could not be reached for comment.
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