When I left off with Part III, I had observed that the seeds of xenophobia existed on Babylon 5's Earth before they were exploited by Morgan Clark in his fascistic power grab, which makes an important point about politics generally. The xenophobic impulse is always there, and no, it isn't about "economic anxiety," nor any objective assessment of domestic or international politics. If it were, xenophobia would have blossomed most intensely in Babylon 5's universe directly after the Minbari War, just as anti-muslim bigotry would have taken off most intensely here directly after 9/11. It takes a sociopathic, bigoted, power-hungry demagog to exploit the xenophobic impulse for things to get truly dangerous.
However, those power-mad authoritarians don't rise to power alone, no matter how nationalistic their rhetoric. They... collude. Nationalistic rhetoric is bullshit. It is a cover. Nothing more.
In Babylon 5, Morgan Clark colluded. How did he rise to power? He was Luis Santiango's vice presidential running mate against Marie Crane at the beginning of the first season. Santiago won. Was the election rigged? The series never says directly, but given what happens subsequently, there is no way that Clark's people would have left the election to chance. What happens subsequently, of course, is that in the last episode of Season 1, Clark's people assassinated Santiago so that Clark could assume the Presidency, and start turning Earth into a fascist state.
I keep referring to "Clark's people." Who are those people? They are a wide range of fellow conspirators, but there are two linked groups in particular. First, Psi-Corps. In Babylon 5, telepathy exists. Sometime after now, telepaths start popping up. Why? The Vorlons start messing with human evolution, because that's what they do (remember the Vorlons? I mentioned them in Part I). Telepathy, if you think about it, could be kind of scary. Threats to privacy, and such. What happens? They aren't treated in the warm-and-fuzzy way that the Betazoids are in Star Trek. Instead, they are shuffled into a quasi-military organization called Psi-Corps. Sure, they can operate privately, but Psi-Corps keeps telepaths on a short leash.
Clark and Psi-Corps are tight. Why? It isn't hard to understand. He wants them as a secret police when he takes power-- thought police, and telepaths have a weird status in society, so that's a vile match made in hell. Psi-Corps is directly involved in the plot to kill Santiago. It gets worse, though. Why does Psi-Corps exist? Vorlons created telepaths among humans as weapons against "the shadows." The shadows didn't want the telepaths running around out of their hands, so the shadows manipulated human political leaders to create Psi-Corps. The shadows run Psi-Corps. And the shadows backed Clark, and worked with him to assassinate Santiago, even beyond their manipulation of the Psi-Corps.
So... Morgan Clark. He rises to power spouting Homeguard rhetoric about the need to protect humanity from alien influences and preserve Earth culture and blah, blah, blah. Why? Because consolidating power requires ginning up fear, so he exploits the xenophobia that could have been exploited even more easily directly after the Minbari War, had leaders then been as vile as Clark. But, the irony is that for all of Clark's nationalistic rhetoric...
It was all bullshit, just like it always is. He rose to power, because an external group-- an alien race known as "the shadows," conspired to put him there. And he worked with them, spouting nationalistic rhetoric while depending on alien influence to bring himself to power, and stay there.
Morgan Clark colluded. He had help from a quasi-governmental agency that had no business getting involved in the election (Psi-Corps), even aside from their role in the Santiago assassination, and an alien race intervening (the shadows). There was an amusing little tidbit in an early episode in which you see a screenshot of a newspaper (yeah, funny that they thought such things would still exist in the future, right?) with a headline about the scandal that Psi-Corps violated its charter by endorsing Clark.
Hey! Jim Comey! Did you ever watch B5? Maybe before announcing that re-opened investigation bullshit, which violated DoJ policy, it would have been a good idea. Just sayin'...
I never said these posts would be subtle, but that's kind of my point. It is scary how closely Morgan Clark's story mirrors things today. A racist demagog who rises to power through collusion with a hostile alien power, unethical intervention by a government agency...
And I'm still just getting started. This is only Part IV. I haven't talked about the media, alliances and treaties... there's still plenty to go. Thinking about Babylon 5 right now is just creepy.