Is Skyrim a not-very-subtle metaphor for Amerika?

So, I’ve been playing through Skyrim, and I keep dragging my heels on whether to side with the Empire or the Stormcloaks. The Empire are arrogant colonizers, imperialists, and tyrants. The Stormcloak are rabid nationalists, xenophobes, and bloodthirsty killers. Somehow I sincerely doubt I will be offered the option to fuck up everyone on both sides and organize autonomous worker soviets.

I feel like I’m being editorialized by the game designers, and forced to choose between the Talos-thumping, beard-braided rednecks of the Skyrim Tea Party on one side, and the effete, reptilian bankers of the IMF (the Imperial Monetary Fund) and the NWO (Nirn White-Gold Order) on the other.

Does anyone else sense that Skyrim is a ham-fisted attempt to portray a one-sided metaphor for current US politics?