Batman and Politics

I was recently perusing news on the web when I came across an editorial in the Wall Street Journal comparing Bush to Batman. The author argues that the Dark Knight is a covertly right wing film, which shows that it is necessary to take a hard line on terrorism.

Brandishing terms like "Islamo-fascism" while renouncing "moral relativism," the author seems to have missed (as he would hate for me to say) the nuance of the film. Batman's fight against the forces of evil in Gotham in the Dark Knight is not as simple as the author seems to conclude.

He writes...

"The Dark Knight" is making a fortune depicting the values and necessities that the Bush administration cannot seem to articulate for beans.

Yes, while the Dark Knight does have Batman invading people's privacy through their cell phones in order to stop the Joker, the cost of Batman's personal "war on terror" is high. It is acknowledged in the film that Batman's crusade on crime has evoked an increasingly horrifying and escalating response, culminating with the psychotic terrorism of the Joker.

As long as Batman exists, so will villains like the Joker. That is why Batman places so much hope on Harvey Dent, Gotham's District Attorney. Real men and women are necessary to end the crusade that Batman began--not the uncompromising tactics of Batman... or George W. Bush.