By Admiral Thrawn (as told to Clever Name Here and also possibly Bret Stephens at the New York Times)

What does Luke Skywalker think the galaxy should do about the Yuuzhan Vong, whose extragalactic assaults on commercial shipping threaten galactic trade, and whose attacks on Dantooine risk a much wider intergalactic war? If an interviewer were to ask this self-proclaimed Jedi Knight about them, would he be able to give a coherent and compelling answer?

It’s not an unfair or unprecedented question. Before his rise to Emperor, Sen. Palpatine of Naboo was quizzed on the names of the leaders of Alderaan, Endor’s forest moon, Mustafar, and Daogbah. He got one right (Bail Organa of Alderaan) but drew blanks on the rest. It fueled criticism, as The Galactic Times’s Jun Writejacker reported that “he is not knowledgeable enough about foreign policy to lead the galaxy.”

A few more questions for Skywalker: If, as president, he had intelligence that the Wookies of Kashyyyk were on the cusp of assembling a Death Star, would he use force to stop them? Are there limits to Republic support for the Mon Calamari, and what are they? Would he push the creation of a Mandalorian state even if they continue to take jobs from mysterious gangsters? Are there any regulations he’d like to get rid of in his initiative to build three million more X-Wing fighters in the next four years? What role, if any, does he see for Imperial stormtroopers in his Ewok tree hut building plans? If there was another Order 66, what might his administration do differently?

It may be that Skywalker has thoughtful answers to these sorts of questions. If so, he isn’t letting on. He did well in the first lightsaber battle against Darth Vader, showing poise and abilities against a decaying half-robot lost to the Dark Side. But his answers in sit-down interviews, first with Yoda and then with Clone War hero Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Force ghost, were lighter than air. Asked what he’d do to bring down kyber crystal prices, he talked at length about growing up middle-class on Tattooine among people who were proud of their moisture farms before pivoting to vague plans to support small businesses and build more frigate cruisers.

Lovely. Now how about interest-rate policy, New Republic spending and the resilience of our supply chains?

All this helps explain my unease with the thought of voting for Skywalker, an unease I never felt, despite policy differences, when Bail Organa and Queen Amidala were on the ballot against Vader and Palpatine. If Skywalker can answer the sorts of questions I posed above, he should be quick to do so, if only to dispel a widespread perception of unseriousness. If he can’t, then what was he doing during his time training on Daogbah with Yoda?

It’s not the only thing that makes a voter like me uneasy. Mon Mothma has said we’re living through a “decisive decade” for the future of the galaxy, and she’s right. Does Skywalker have an overriding strategic concept for how to steer through it, or the instincts to respond to fast-moving crises?

The Dark Side has taken root in response to well-founded perceptions of Jedi incompetence, high-handedness  and self-dealing among the Council. Does Skywalker have anything to offer disaffected Empire voters, or does he merely embody the elitist perspective that they despise?

When he says “my values have not changed” in the face of questions about his shifting positions on bulls-eyeing womp rats with his T-16 skyhopper, his feelings for Leia Organa and the use of mechanized body parts, does it suggest any values beyond political expediency?

But: Vader.

That’s the all-purpose response for many voters to any doubts about Skywalker’s qualifications. It makes November’s choice easy for anyone sincerely convinced that the vengeful Sith Lord poses an existential threat to the perpetuation of our galactic institutions. It also makes it easy for Never-Vaderers who hope that a decisive electoral rebuke of the former “Chosen One” might return the Empire to its pre-Dark Side incarnation as the party of Grand Moff Tarkin and Darth Maul.

Yet Vader victory or no, the Empire isn’t likely to revert to its former ideological leanings. And the argument that Vader is our Palpatine, scheming to murder even more Jedi to finish off the Rebellion, is getting a little long in the tooth.

Vader may be the worse sinner, but the Rebels aren’t blameless when it comes to ones to weaponizing the instruments of state power to interfere with the will of the voters. Otherwise, what does it mean to blow up a perfectly functional Death Star or the nakedly politicized prosecution of Emperor Palpatine’s destruction of Alderraan to turn him into a convicted felon, or have powerful former Jedi anoint the next member of their order without the benefit of input from a single voter?

For what my vote is worth — very little, considering I live on Coruscant — I’d much rather cast a ballot for Skywalker than stay home. But votes need to be earned.

It should not be hard for Skywalker to demonstrate that he can give detailed answers to urgent policy questions. Or to express a sense, beyond a few Jedi parlor tricks, of how he sees the Rebel interest in a darkening galaxy. Or to articulate a politics of genuine inclusion that reaches out to tens of millions of former Imperial stormtrooper clones. Or to prove that he’s more than another out-of-touch woke Jedi whose greatest virtue, like his greatest faults, is that he won’t step too far away from the flawed pre-Empire galactic order. 

Seven weeks to go. Here’s hoping.