Ted
Cruz Fact-Checked By William Shatner After Making Comments About Captain Kirk
by Samuel Warde
Republican
presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said
that Star Trek’s Captain Kirk was “likely” a Republican and Captain Picard a
Democrat in a recent interview with The New York Times Magazine.
Noting
that Cruz was a known “Star Trek” fan, Ana Marie Cox of The Times asked him who
he preferred – Captain Kirk or Captain Picard, Cruz responded: “Absolutely
James Tiberius Kirk.”
Cruz then offered what he called “a
little psychoanalysis:”
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.
He added:
The original ‘‘Star Trek’’ was grittier. Kirk is working class; Picard is an aristocrat. Kirk is a passionate fighter for justice; Picard is a cerebral philosopher. The original ‘‘Star Trek’’ pressed for racial equality, which was one of its best characteristics, but it did so without sermonizing.
Asked if he had “a suspicion about
whether Kirk would be a Democrat or a Republican? Cruz answered: “I think it is
quite likely that Kirk is a Republican and Picard is a Democrat.”
As it turns out, William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek series, responded to Cruz‘s interview via Twitter, saying that Star Trek “wasn’t political:”
Star Trek wasn’t political. I’m not political; I can’t even vote in the US. So to put a geocentric label on interstellar characters is silly.