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.”

[dfwgator]

Obama is John Gill.

[Political Junkie Too]

The tribbles were illegal aliens.

They were smuggled aboard, gave birth to more illegals, ate all the food, and overran all of the ship's support systems.

But the tribbles eventually all got deported!

-PJ

[yarddog]

Harry Mudd was a typical Democrat.

[PGR88]

He screwed women like a libertine.

[Kartographer]

Quark was the 'Trump' of DS9! But his observation of 'Hew-mons' was so very perceptive! He may have been a fictional character, but this is one of the truest statement I have ever heard on 'Hew-mon' behavior:

"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Siege of AR-558 (#7.8)" (1998)

Quark: "Let me tell you something about Hew-mons, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes."

[tanknetter]

Decking Q was one of the few good Sisko moments until Season 5. When he went off on vacation, encountered a late 20th Century TV series called “Spencer for Hire” and got so inspired by Hawk that he shaved his head, grew a goatee, and returned to the station fully manned-up and with the only warship Starfleet ever tried to build

[pepsi_junkie]

Star Trek in the 60s was a fun adventure series with, as Cruz says, working class "lunch pail" military types, doing a job on the frontier. Kirk standing there holding the constitution in that one episodes and holding it in reverance is good enough evidence to me which side he was on.

On the other hand, in the 80s the producers felt that it was best to remove all conflict, that we'd all be automaton agents of the massive state and thus no conflict in our "perfected" society would occur. This has two sins. First, it's a scary concept that people would all just be robots without differences. Second, it's TERRIBLE writing that results in boring speechifying. So yeah, TNG is a democrat dream of a lifeless, boring society where people are not allowed to take risks that aren't sanctioned by the state or even to hold opinions of their own. A bunch of mindless holodeck slaves under the rule of a few hand picked elites who know what's best for them. Yep, Democrat ideal society alright.

[Lx]

You are NOT of the body...

[henkster]

Doohan got a finger shot off on D-Day. They filmed Star Trek in such a way as you wouldn't notice. But occasionally you could tell.

[henkster]

Captain James T. Kirk was the American naval officer or divisional commander who won World War 2.

Jean Luc Picard is a late 20th Century bureaucrat chairing a committee.

[Vigilanteman]

Scottie was an engineer.

Engineers, by definition, must be logical.

Excepting those Muzzies who go into the field to learn how to make bombs, fly airplanes into buildings and things of that sort.

[Vigilanteman]

Don’t miss post #49 either. I knew there were additional reasons I liked Scottie.

[Kartographer]

A translation for those who don't understand:

"Let me tell you something about Hew-mons Americans, Nephew. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites Internet, TV and Video Games are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic hot showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon Islamist. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes."

[Salamander]

Shatner has Dobermanns.

Stewart has cats.

[Texan5]

Shatner is a Canadian-I don’t think he is an American citizen-but the character James Tiberius Kirk is most definitely conservative-and seriously badass-Shatner played him that way, and so does the new guy, Chris Pine in the new ST movies. Kirk is one of my fav heroes of fiction.

Picard had his moments, but they were few and far between-mostly he made me wonder how he ever got a ship’s command at all, never mind the flagship...

[Radagast the Fool]

Loved DS9, and I miss it.. I bet Morn is a Freeper!

[MrB]

Well, the democrat voters, not the democrat “ruling class”.

[MrB]

No one considered whether there was any meat on those things...

[MrB]

From episode 1 of TNG, I thought they had the wrong captain. Should have been Riker.

[driftdiver]

I was always amazed at how they pushed communism in that show and yet some people are significantly more equal.

Not to mention the poor red shirts.