When news finally broke that veteran Hollywood producer Kathleen Kennedy was stepping down as president of Lucasfilm, Ltd. — the Disney-owned company behind the Star Wars franchise — it was as if millions of fans suddenly cried out in joy.

Kennedy was handpicked before Lucasfilm’s sale to Disney by founder George Lucas, whose legacy includes not only Star Wars and Indiana Jones but revolutionizing filmmaking itself.

Kennedy’s tenure, to put it lightly, hasn’t lived up to that legacy — or Lucas’ own expectations. Yet in an exit interview with Deadline, she dismissed critics as “a very, very small percentage of the fan base” with “loud megaphones.”

“I wouldn’t change anything that we’ve done,” she said — blaming the box-office flop of “Solo: A Star Wars Story” on recasting titular character Han Solo and claiming director Rian Johnson abandoned a planned trilogy because he got “spooked” by online negativity.

It’s a curious take, especially since Kennedy hired Johnson and, in the same breath, placed his “The Last Jedi” among “the best Star Wars movies.” (Johnson’s tweeted response: “lol zero spooked, sorry.”)

The film grossed $1.3 billion, but that was largely because “The Force Awakens” left audiences hanging on the literal cliffhanger of Luke Skywalker’s return. Fans showed up to see what happened next. Many left disappointed — and said so. Even actor Mark Hamill publicly criticized Johnson’s creative choices. “I fundamentally disagree with virtually everything you’ve decided about my character,” he recalled.

In Kennedy’s telling, nothing was her fault. No regrets. No self-reflection. No lessons learned. She did what she wanted — and she’d do it all again.

That’s hubris. And it’s far from just a Hollywood trait.

Consider a bill expected from Democratic state Sen. Jeff Bridges, who reportedly wants to ask voters to permanently raise the state’s annual revenue cap under the Taxpayers Bill of Rights by $4.5 billion — alongside a 2% annual boost in K-12 education funding for a decade.

Writing in a Gazette op-ed, Advance Colorado’s Kristi Burton Brown noted that “while the state won’t have a surplus of $4.5 billion next year, if it did, education would receive only $90 million of it.” The real objective, she argues, is to “create a slush fund for state government,” while “using anyone sympathetic to kids and education in the process.”

The math backs her up. Colorado’s largest TABOR refund ever was $3.7 billion in 2023. Pass this and say goodbye to your refunds. We’d almost certainly never see them again.

Voters have repeatedly rejected efforts to undo TABOR. Here they go again. Democratic lawmakers want taxpayers to bankroll their reckless spending instead of making tough budget choices themselves. That’s hubris, too.

Similarly, as I wrote last week, Gov. Jared Polis appears poised to grant clemency to convicted former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, serving almost nine years for an election security breach and identity theft scheme.

For some reason, Polis seems to be bowing to pressure largely from President Donald Trump and hard-right activists who hail Peters as a hero. Opposition is bipartisan: Secretary of State Jena Griswold and Attorney General Phil Weiser on the left; the Republican-dominated County Clerks Association and the GOP district attorney who prosecuted Peters, Dan Rubinstein, on the right. Even GOP gubernatorial candidates are divided.

Peters shut off surveillance cameras, obtained credentials under false pretenses, and handed them to a hacker to copy and leak sensitive election data — committing felonies to “prove” 2020 fraud while ignoring legal alternatives.

Polis has always required remorse or responsibility before granting clemency. Peters has shown neither — yet the governor now seems ready to invent the Peters Exception.

“If you want to run for governor, you can be governor and then you have the ability to grant clemency and pardons,” Polis told CPR News.

He can do it. He wants to do it. So he probably will — facts, justice and bipartisan opposition be damned. The only question is how: Will he simply guarantee her release in 2028, when she’s already up for parole (the defensible route)?

Then there’s the Public Utilities Commission, appointed by Polis. The body recently imposed first-in-the-nation “clean heat” rules, mandating 41% emissions cuts for gas utilities by 2035.

Last week, the commission voted 2-1 to keep the target, brushing off deep concerns over cost and feasibility. It’s just a “directional” benchmark, Commissioner Tom Plant insisted, claiming it doesn’t force compliance “at any cost.” Plant and Commissioner Megan Gilman said they’ll sort out what’s “in the public interest” later.

Translation: Get started. We’ll consider the consequences later.

Meanwhile, ratepayers face higher bills, and the risk grows for more preemptive blackouts that crippled communities like Golden. Reliability and affordability, apparently, aren’t top priorities.

From Hollywood to Colorado, that’s the common thread: Powerful people deciding that dissent, facts and consequences don’t matter. They can do it. So they will.

As bluesman Joe Bonamassa sings, “Just ‘cos you can don’t mean you should.” It’s the line too many elites never learned — or simply choose to ignore.

And therein lies the hubris.

Jimmy Sengenberger is an investigative journalist, public speaker, and longtime local talk-radio host. Reach Jimmy online at Jimmysengenberger.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @SengCenter.