YMMV / Orson Scott Card's Empire

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: One way to read the book is that the bad guys aren't "the Democrats" or "the Republicans." It's not the right or the left, it's a few people at the top on both sides, with extremist views, who could pull everyone else along with them into a second civil war. The rebels are liberals, but they have equally angry and irrational enemies on the right. (And the unanswered question posed by the ending is even creepier...)
• Broken Aesop: The book is about the evils of divisiveness in political discourse and extremism on both ends of the political spectrum, but the right-wing response to the leftist uprising turns out to be a sham and never materializes — it's an attempt by the Progressive Restoration's mole to identify who's going to take the most hardline action against them. The Progressive Restoration itself has no manifesto or demands, despite a paragraph talking about the divide it caused in the left-wing community, especially among hard-left radicals.
• Broken Base: Fans of Shadow Complex tend to be liberals who resent the political elements while fans of Orson Scott Card resent the video game elements.
• Strawman Has a Point: The Ax-Crazy Progressive Restoration never actually says anything WRONG really, even if they are all sort of nuts.

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