You Are Not There To Play Star Trek’s Captain Kirk

“Politics is Hollywood for ugly people” -Paul Begala

Anyone who has ever watched the television show Star Trek more than few times knows the formula for a good Star Trek episode goes something like this, the crew of the Enterprises finds themselves in a predicament that has the potential of destroying the Enterprise, the Earth or the known universe.  Then when everything looks bleak and death is knocking on escape hatches of the Enterprise,  Captain Kirk or Captain Picard figure out a way for everyone to get along and save the Enterprise and the universe from utter destruction in the last three minutes of the show.

Since President Obama was sworn into office, it seems like members of Congress especially from the radical Tea Party section of the Republican Party watched way too much television in their youth because many go to Washington with delusions of being Captain Kirk or some other TV superhero. They believe they will single handedly beat back any one they perceive as America’s enemies. From liberals, African-Americans, Muslims, and other non-White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, they believe they are fighting evil doers and believe they are under attack. Even Ted Cruz in his fake filibuster last month tried convince people he was Luke Skywalker from Star Wars and that somehow Obama was Darth Vader.

By recruiting delusional candidates like this, the GOP has turned Washington into their version of a non-stop episode of Star Trek where politicians are saving the country at the last minute from manufactured crisis after manufactured crisis.

This past crisis, the “fiscal cliff” crisis at the end of last year and the coming budget battle in February are perfect example of this. The Tea Party’s game of taking America to the brink by threatening the American people with a shutdown of the federal government and threatening the world with a default of US government debt all because they don’t like President Obama just shows they live in a fantasy world.  Even Ted Cruz has said he has no problem doing it again if he doesn’t get what he wants.

This insanity needs to stop. Not only does it have negative effects on our economy but it effects our standing globally.  Congressional dysfunction and idiotic fantasy game playing by Tea Party Republicans are one of the reasons S&P gave for downgrading the federal government’s bond rating two years ago and why other bond rating agencies are now threatening to do the same.  This downgrade means we will all have to pay high interest rates and bank fees. If another downgrade happens then we’ll all be paying for the Tea Party’s sci-fi cosplay.