People like and want heroes and kings. It's not supposed to, but I think the role of US president often satisfies the role of king (much more so than prime ministers of other democracies).

Some radio hosts promote this: I remember in the last election some host (I don't remember which one) was very clearly promoting Mitt Romney as the new king. (Not to say that this is shared by all of the right-wing, it certainly is not- the right-wing would say that the left-wing doesn't want kings, but dictators).

Also, I think this explains a lot of populist animosity towards Obama: How can our king not be one of us?

Anyway Star Wars (and many other fantasy) is all about this kind of mythology.