Nolan's Batman Trilogy as a vindication of conservatism

The Dark Knight: TDKThe Dark Knight Rises: TDK===The Dark Knight===In TDK, Batman creates a city-wide surveillance system in an attempt to locate the Joker. Bruce decided that locating and capturing the Joker was more important than the security of Gotham's citizenry. The scope of this privacy invasion was so massive as to lead Lucius Fox to give Batman an ultimatum, that he couldn't work with Batman so long as the surveillance system was in place. This part of the movie can be likened to the broadly defined War on Terror. In order to capture and stop terrorists who don't play by the conventional rules of war, the USFG engaged in warrantless wiretapping. Under the 'conservative' interpretation, Batman is likened to the law-giver, the person (or entity) charged with keeping law and order in the face of a grave threat. The Joker on the other hand is likened to modern terrorism. The only way to stop the Joker is to massively violate the privacy rights of the entire city. But in Batman's own mind it's worth it. The bottom line is all that counts; much in the same way that conservatives defended Bush's warrantless wiretapping under a "bottom line" justification.===The Dark Knight Rises===In TDKR, Batman's new nemesis Bane who takes over Gotham by leading a quasi-communist revolution, taking out the authorities, and beginning a reign of terror over the city. Bane under the conservative interpretation represents leftist radicalism and perhaps even the Occupy movement. Batman's responsibility is to stop this socialist revolutionary. In this scenario, Batman takes the (interpretive) form of the status quo. The movie leaves us with two choices. Either the (albeit imperfect) status quo with all its inequalities or a dictatorial communist dystopia. TDKR is not idealistic. It sees both options as more or less unsatisfactory, but views everything through a pragmatic lense. Modern capitalism isn't perfect. It opens the doors to large wealth inequalities and numerous chances for many to fall through the cracks. But with the choice of capitalist Gotham or Bane's communist dystopia, the choice is clear for Batman. Capitalism (represented by Gotham's unequal and sometimes corrupt politico-economic system) is but a necessary evil. Radical attempts to create utopias themselves become worse than what they seek to rectify.===Con's Rival Interpretation===Con's own interpretation of Nolan's trilogy is that "personal justice systems being superior to governmental ones". This interpretation is untenable for a few reasons. First, Batman's own opinion in TDK clearly contradicts this. In TDK, Batman is looking for someone to do his job "without a mask". This person is Harvey Dent, Gotham's new District Attorney. Batman clearly doesn't think personal justice is superior. He's simply unsatisfied with the *current* governmental one in place. This is further evidenced by Bruce's willingness to turn himself in, by him helping Gordon to cover up Dent's killing spree and thus helping to preserve the work Dent has done, and by his willingness to work with the police on numerous occasions.Another crucial point of evidence against this interpretation comes from TDKR. A side-story comes up where Bruce and Alfred fight over Bruce's obsession with the Batman and unwillingness to give up on his vigilantism. Alfred wishes Bruce would give up the life while Bruce can't let go. At the end of the film though Bruce is content to leave the crime fighting to the police, instead choosing the live a quite life with Selena Kyle and thus in the end finally finding peace. Bruce's life as Batman wasn't something he thought was better than traditional government. He did it because he had demons he wasn't willing to face. And when he finally overcame those demons, he was content to stop.