Hopefully this isn’t grossly self-promotional, but we recently had pundit, author (“The Imposters: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics”), and Emmy-winning Rachel Maddow Show producer Steve Benen on our podcast, Open World Chat, which looks at all things “genre” from an unapologetically progressive viewpoint.
Well… at the Washington Monthly waaaay back in 2009, Benen revealed just a hint of an inner nerd…
‘STAR TREK’ AND ‘UNABASHEDLY LIBERAL’ VALUES…. Kevin Drum flags this gem from National Review‘s Mike Potemra:
“I have over the past couple of months been watching DVDs of Star Trek: The Next Generation, a show I missed completely in its run of 1987 to 1994; and I confess myself amazed that so many conservatives are fond of it. Its messages are unabashedly liberal ones of the early post-Cold War era — peace, tolerance, due process, progress….”
What an odd thing to say. It’s not uncommon for someone on the left to suggest conservatives find concepts like peace, tolerance, due process, and progress distasteful, but it’s quite rare for a conservative to admit such a thing in print.
That was enough of a dog whistle for us, and so it was inevitable that we would have him on the show, where we discussed the X-Men, Firefly. It turns out there’s more than just a “hint” of geekery there.
But the return to Star Trek was inevitable, so to those Trekkies out there persistently debating which series was the best, the esteemed Mr. Benen laid down his marker:
“I personally am a DS9 guy.”
I don’t mind saying that he broke this little Original Series fan’s heart. But in the end it’s just another sign that we are everywhere.
For the rest of the geek-talk, check out the episode here and go to the last 7 minutes or so.
