Does Grand Moff Tarkin simply not exist to you people?!?!

In an otherwise decent column about Firefly, this piece misrepresents the relationship between government and freedom in "Star Wars." The author says:

While Star Trek lamentably supported a "Federation knows best" mentality, other works like Star Wars and Robert Heinlein's novels have promoted the dissolution of central rule and the triumph of the individual.

She's using this to set up an argument for Firefly as being essentialy libertarian, which is not entirely untrue. But I think she makes a common mistake, or at least a simplistic one, in assuming that the rebels in "Star Wars" equal the way, the truth, and the light. Let's not forget how the Empire began, ok? The bureaucratic Galactic Senate could not effectively regulate interplanetary trade, and a new faction arose to handle these disputes. Wouldn't that make the side the rebels are fighting on, the side of the "Old Republic," the side of repression and the stifling influence of economic central planning? "Ah," you counter, "but it turns out that the trade dispute was manufactured! Nothing more than a ruse to distract the Jedi from the rise of the Sith." This I cannot dispute. Howevs, it is, in truth, irrelevant. As late as Episode IV, Tarkin lays out the plan for how the Empire will rule the galaxy:

Governor Tarkin: "The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away."

General Tagge: "But that's impossible. How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?"

Governor Tarkin: "The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station."

Setting aside any moral claims you may have with the Empire (y'know, like genocide), I think it's unreasonable to say that "Star Wars" "promoted the dissolution of central rule" when the heroes of the movies were fighting to preserve exactly that.

p.s. How disgusting is it that Tagge simply cannot concieve of an effective mode of governance that doesn't involve a centralized bureaucracy. Get with it, pinko.