This isn't what 'the sword of Damocles' story means, it's about the people that conspire against the king not about a literal weapon to threaten him. It's about intentions not items. Littlefinger from Song of Ice and Fire is a sword of Damocles, an unknown conspirator, the Death Star isn't.
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Yeah, the idea of the Sword of Damocles is that something is held against a certain party that could potentially fuck them over big time should something happen.
So what I just added (the FFXII reference) is something that should stick I think. Reducing the concept from the thing that can undo people to "a literal weapon of deterrence" undermines the entire aspect of it, because the Sword of Damocles is a metaphor for ANYTHING that can be dangerous to one's aspirations.
Which in politics, can be a lot.
I launched this myself because I was tired of the OP waiting to launch it. I also saved some examples from an earlier attempt at YKTTWing this.
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It's not like No Launching Please means no launching, please, or anything.
The sad, REAL American dichotomy
There seems to be multiple different tropes at play here, one from people using the more classical metaphor in the "heavy weighs the crown" sense, while others are examples of what the introduction and laconic seem to describe where it's being used as a pun instead of metaphor. Since the two tropes are being conflated I think this page could use some clean up.