Ted Cruz: ‘Star Trek’s Captain Kirk was probably a Republican

MSNBC.com ^ | 7/24/2015 | Benjamin Landy

[GoneSalt]

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz offered some surprisingly strong opinions on the politics of “Star Trek” in an interview published Thursday in The New York Times Magazine, arguing “it is quite likely that Kirk is a Republican and Picard is a Democrat.”

“Let me do a little psychoanalysis,” Cruz says when asked about the fictional space captains from the landmark 1960s television series and its ”Next Generation” follow-up, which aired some 30 years later. “If you look at ‘’Star Trek: The Next Generation,’ it basically split James T. Kirk into two people. Picard was Kirk’s rational side, and William Riker was his passionate side. I prefer a complete captain. To be effective, you need both heart and mind.”

[Kartographer]

But the very best commander of all was Captain Benjamin Lafayette Sisko was the best of the bunch! The man knew when you had to color outside the lines and by just how much!

Captain Sisko: So... I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. But the most damning thing of all... I think I can live with it. And if I had to do it all over again - I would. Garak was right about one thing: a guilty conscience is a small price to pay for the safety of the Alpha Quadrant. So I will learn to live with it... Because I can live with it... I can live with it... Computer - erase that entire personal log.

Q:"You hit me... Picard never hit me."
Sisko:"I'm not Picard."

[CatherineofAragon]

You really haven’t been here long enough to be tossing around insults like “purist.”

Unless, of course, you’ve been here before...

[Vigilanteman]

Wouldn't matter. He is talking about the character, not the actor.

We know for certain that Mr. Spock was no Democrat. How do we know? Because he was so logical.

[fluffy]

DS9 did a lot to dispel the sour taste TNG left in the Trek universe, I still love the smackdown Jake gets in the opening to “In the Cards”:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wx5I7uEEEYo

[cripplecreek]

Scotty hated those space hippies.

[henkster]

An interesting supposition. The United States was founded as a limited government Republic by the recent descendants of people fleeing an oppressive central government. In fact, there are very few examples of an oppressive central government with a large intrusive bureaucracy ever becoming a limited government with great individual freedom.

As the United States becomes what everyone fled when they came here, perhaps the only way in the future we will ever again see that type of political and social system is when mankind goes somewhere there is currently no government. Then we can start again from scratch. And we’ve pretty much run out of real estate matching that description on this planet.

[Leaning Right]

wan’t shatner in some legal show where he was being mugged and shoots the mugger as he was turning over his watch and wallet.

Shatner's character resorted to gun play at least twice on the show.

Denny Crane 1

Denny Crane 2

[Idaho_Cowboy]

I just watched Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . Kirk comes across as a war mongering Rebuplican. I don’t think the real Kirk would be thrilled by the Iran deal.

[IYAS9YAS]

No, the Next Generation didn’t air “some 30 years later”. Star Trek came out in 1966. TNG came out in 1987. That’s only 21 years.

[Jeff Chandler]

Star Trek was a Western, while The Next Generation was a therapy session.

[OttawaFreeper]

How about Trelane from “The Squire of Gothos”? Kind of makes you think about Dems when he was holding Kirk and his shipmates against their will but promising all sorts of fun and games in return, lol.

[skeeter]

“I don’t wanna”

[IYAS9YAS]

And we’ve pretty much run out of real estate matching that description on this planet.

And the Moon is a harsh mistress...

[RinaseaofDs]

Kirk was smart enough not to negotiate with Klingons. Picard would do a treaty with them. As the Enterprise was leaving the signing ceremony, shields down, Picard was seen to be saying “It’s not fa . . “ just before his ship blew up.

[cripplecreek]

DS-9 was definitely the most cerebral of the star trek series.

Voyager in my opinion was most socialist of the series. I remember a scene where Torres and Paris were hiding to eat meat because real meat was illegal. The explanation of Tom Paris being accused of murder as a cadet. The murderer had to be Starfleet because only Starfleet has weapons.

[uglybiker]

And what am I, big boy?

Faaaaaaabulous!!!

[wally_bert]

Sisko was really good and did a lot to make DS9 watchable. Odo was entertaining as well as Quark sometimes.

[Leaning Right]

Scotty hated those space hippies.

James Doohan was the real deal. As a side note, he landed at Juno Beach on D-Day. Wikipedia has an interesting piece on his military service. He was no hippie, that's for sure.

[tanknetter]

The funny thing about Denny Crane kneecapping the mugger was that he did it AFTER he ridiculed and taunted the mugger (who was black) for making the first Black President look bad.

[itsahoot]

wan’t shatner in some legal show where he was being mugged and shoots the mugger as he was turning over his watch and wallet.

Was his name Denny Crane?