Following the tumultuous 2020 Presidential election, the previous four years of feeling like I’m in the “WTF!?!” episode of the Twilight Zone, and the atrocity of the Capitol attack, politics is, at best, a sensitive subject. This post is not about the orange jackass who will not be named. I could rant for days on the topic of US politics, but I will try to stay on point.
Politics has been an almost all-consuming part of my daily life since 2016. Sadly, I was always more aware of what was happening across the ocean than I was of the politics in the Netherlands. It’s probably because politics here is so tame in comparison to the Jerry Springer-esque craziness.
The first time I saw a ballot here, I was stunned. There were 27 parties listed. I was especially excited to see the Pirate Party. People do make generalizations about members of certain parties, but the acrimonious rancor that exists between the two major camps in the U.S. is not really so apparent (unless you’re a fascist, then there are pretty strong feelings about you being a d*ck).
ln the Dutch parliament, parties actually have to work together to get anything accomplished, often forming coalitions to do so. It’s not really the “us versus them” style that Americans have become so used to. The Dutch government does not shut down over funding disagreements, nor is corruption or melodrama tolerated. Perhaps the US could benefit from a bit more imitation of one of our former colonial overlords.
My rant is related to a bad habit I had during the election of factchecking random people on Facebook. After a glass of wine, a delicious dinner, and some more horrifying news stories, I found it therapeutic. One day, I came across a post that used Star Trek to bash Democrats using “alternative facts.” I went after it with the glee of an unsupervised fat kid in a candystore. It also got me thinking about the kind of world I want to live in, and the world portrayed in Star Trek was looking pretty good.
Therefore, I’m advocating for the official creation of the Trekkie party. It would be a party that advocated for the values of the Federation portrayed in those wonderful series (not Borg values, even though the Borg are awesome). Even if not taken seriously as a party, they would at least serve as a reminder of ideals that society should always strive towards. Hey, I’d vote for them.
In Spock We Trust