“Star Wars” is a story about the struggle against good and evil set “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.” In this epic, a young Anakin Skywalker leaves his life as a slave on Tatooine and joins the benevolent Jedi Order to keep peace in a turbulent time of secession and civil war. The peacekeeping branch of the Jedi Order become wartime generals and commanders in the Clone Wars, and the Republic, corrupted by the forces of evil due to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, crumbles at the hands of the one meant to save it: Anakin, who betrays the Order and turns into Darth Vader. In the original trilogy (set after prequels), The Alliance to Restore the Republic are tasked with taking down the oppressive Galactic Empire.

This story sounds fantastical because of its sci-fi flare, but the implications of this saga are not. We may not have lightsabers or the Force, but the political atmosphere of our country does seem to resemble the movie series. It seems that only a little more than a decade ago, the landscape of politics was entirely different. It seemed good-natured and could be described as a more peaceful time, but in just a few short years, it seems we are headed down the wrong path.

This has become clear in Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis that caused violence across the city between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and civilians. The ICE raids in Minnesota and other cities eerily reminded me of watching these movies. Just as civilians in the Galactic Empire fear Darth Vader’s Stormtroopers, civilians across the country today continue to fear the current U.S. administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Unlike how Princess Leia starts the events of the story, we do not need a “New Hope”; we already have it. We have hope in our institutions and democracy. And just as Luke Skywalker feels through the Force to navigate his journey, we must use our ideals to navigate the political sphere in what feels like a similarly tumultuous time in American society.