18 Comments

I've always been a Conservative and I've always loved Star Trek. Even after watching every episode, both the original and TNG, at least 10 times each, I STILL never get tired of them. They were brilliant.

Expand full comment
Jan 2Liked by George MF Washington

MFW genius, thank you!

Expand full comment
author

Thanks!

Expand full comment

I'll just add that the Sargon one (later understood to be Return to Tomorrow) was the very first ever Star Trek episode I watched. I was about 5 years old and I was on my belly on the carpet watching a B&W TV. This was early reruns, not original run. But I remember Kirk's Risk oration.

It's why I became hooked.

Expand full comment
author

It’s so great… I sent it to the partners at a firm I worked for. It was a big hit

Expand full comment
author

Thanks for signing up! I promise to make it worth your while

Expand full comment
Jan 12Liked by George MF Washington

Thank you. This neatly explains why the Original Star Trek is the only one that completely captivated me. Even in my pre-9/11 days, I clearly was a potential Conservative.

Expand full comment

How can you endure living in San Francisco?

Expand full comment

Absolutely awesome piece. The original Star Trek with William Shatner's portrayal was pure genius. Yes Rodenberry wanted to portray a liberal utopian world but I think he was enough of a realist to understand that you needed tough men willing to risk it all and sometimes beak the rules for the greater good.

Expand full comment
author

Thanks Dan, totally agree!

Expand full comment

Great essay on TOS! I cried at the risk speech when I was a kid and became an engineer in the space business because I loved STTOS (and the Apollo program). All of the series up through Enterprise have some special episodes with these same themes. One of my favorite episodes, from my favorite series, is “In the Pale Moonlight” on DS9. Sisko engages in realpolitik with the help of the deliciously amoral Garek to persuade the Romulans to enter the war against the Dominion. Love Trek!

Expand full comment
author

Wow, awesome reply! That's so cool.

Thanks for the kind words... I have so many favorites I have contemplated turning this into a mutli-part series.

GMFW

Expand full comment

Good column. Yes TOS was "liberal" in the classical sense, not like today's self-absorbed, risk averse, look at me, look at me culture. But TOS was also "conservative" in many ways too. And TOS respected the great classics of antiquity Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Bible, Shakespeare, etc. The writers back then were much better than today's. They had a grounding in the classics.

I always like "A Private Little War", which is a more hard nosed, gritty episode and it is somewhat supportive of the US effort in Southeast Asia of the 1960's. Very interesting.

Expand full comment
author

Thank you! I totally agree... I have a lot of favorites and I think there's a world where I do a part 2 and a part 3 of this series.

Best,

GMFW

Expand full comment

The liberals also claim Harry Potter as their own, which boggles my mind. Did Voldemort totalitarian much? *wink*

Expand full comment
author

I wrote about that! It was one of my first essays...

https://thecontinentalcongress.substack.com/p/the-politics-of-harry-potter

Expand full comment

Thanks for the link. Don't know how I missed it because I followed you from the old site thanks to you posting on Kurt's Locals, to here.

Expand full comment
author

Right! I remember that... you're the OG Congressional Delegate

Expand full comment