I Love Democracy

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About

"I Love Democracy" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Senator Palpatine from the 2002 science fiction Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones. The phrase and screenshot of Palpatine saying the line has since been used as a reaction image about voting.

Origin

On May 16th, 2002, the film Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones was released in the United States.^[1] In the film, Senator Palpatine (portrayed by Ian McDiarmid) addresses the Galactic Senate and announces that through an emergency vote, was has been declared (clip below). He says, "I love democracy. I love the Republic. Once this crisis has abated, I will lay down the powers you have given me!"

Two years later, on January 28th, 2004, TheForce.net^[2] user JediOverlord posted in a thread about the United States Senator Joe Lieberman's resemblance to Palpatine, "Whenever Lieberman is on TV, I always like to quote something from Palpatine's Senate speech in AOTC. It's usually 'I love democracy. I love the Republic'" (shown below).

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On January 21st, 2011, the website conservativeimage.com^[3] posted an image comparing Palpatine's speech to one made by President Barack Obama (shown below, left).

On April 29th, 2017, Redditor ^[5] Jarb0t posted an image in the /r/PrequelMemes subreddit combining the It's Treason Then with "I Love Democracy." The post received more than 1,900 points (99% upvoted) and 35 comments (shown below, center).

On January 28th, 2018, Redditor^[4] creeper857 posted an image in the /r/PrequelMemes subreddit, in which Attack of the Clones received a better audience score than its sequel Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which was reacted to by the "I Love Democracy" screenshot. The post received more than 2,000 points (94% upvoted) and 150 comments (Shown below, right).

The following year, on January 19th, 2019, Redditor^[6] UltimateSausage used the phrase in the thread about Maroon 5's usage of the SpongeBob SquarePants clip "Sweet Victory" during their Super Bowl LIII half-time performance. The post received more than 42,000 points (93% upvoted) and 185 comments in three weeks (shown below).