David

Karki

Read David's bio and previous columns here

April 29, 2009

Democrats or Romulans: The Star Trek Model for GOP Resistance

Captain Picard: "This message isn't going to fool anybody." 

Commander Sela: "I don't need to fool them; just confuse them long enough for our troops to reach the surface.”

Picard: "Do you honestly expect that the Federation won't respond?"

Sela: "Of course they will. But we will be there, entrenched. And we will be very difficult to get out. Romulan control of Vulcan will simply become a way of life."

The above exchange is from the “Unification, Part 2” episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Romulan Commander Sela displays a holographic Spock to the captive Picard and the real Spock, giving a speech announcing that three Vulcan ships (all stolen) arriving at Vulcan are a peace envoy. The fake Spock will tell Vulcan to welcome the envoy, and the Romulan troops concealed aboard will quickly overpower and conquer the planet, or so Sela plans. The quoted dialogue then follows.

What does all this have to do with politics? Answer: It's spot-on regarding the bottom-line reality of facts on the ground, and what it really takes to repel and stop a determined foe.

The Romulans didn't need an elaborate ruse to completely hoodwink the Vulcans or a superior strategy to force the Federation to stand down. All they needed to do was get dug in, and demonstrate that removal would take more effort and cost more lives than the Federation was willing to pay. If they could do that much, victory would be theirs.

For the Federation's part, they needed to stop naïvely discussing things and thinking the Romulans could be reasoned with. The only thing that mattered was having the will to remove them from Vulcan no matter what it took, and displaying that so clearly that the Romulans might re-think their nefarious plan.

So it is with stopping Democratic attempts to seize entire sectors of the economy and society and place them under control of the federal government. Currently, Republicans are threatening to bring Senate business to a complete halt for the rest of the two-year cycle should Democrats use the budget reconciliation process to do an end-run around a filibuster where socialized health care is concerned. While this is far more nerve than they've managed to screw up before – i.e. none – it still misses the point, and is a day late and a dollar short.

Any such slow-down would be responsive, rather like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. Or, to use the above reference, rather like Picard's question and Sela's response. Any GOP response would be after the Democrats have already entrenched themselves and become very difficult to remove. Socialized medicine, too, would simply become a way of life, unless those who don't want it are willing to take some very drastic measures and pay a high price to reverse or escape it.

In addition, the contrast between the GOP's consideration of the “nuclear option” on Democratic filibusters of judges and this situation could not be more clear or revealing. With judges, the GOP merely brought up the possibility, the Democrats and the media went nuts and the moderate Republicans did what they always do – caved, with Sen. John McCain and his “Gang of 14” pulling the rug out from under the whole thing.

With socialist health care, you don't hear anywhere near the same level of rhetoric from the wimpy GOP, the biased media naturally isn't uttering a peep, and I assure you that the Democrats will not have anyone leave their ranks and betray the effort – nor will their leadership have any hesitation or misgivings about pulling the trigger on it. They relentlessly and ruthlessly press their advantages when they have them.

They understand, as Sela did, the reality of the facts on the ground. Just getting in position will mean victory. And health care is just the appetizer. Enviro-wacko totalitarianism and economic destruction in the form of cap-and-trade and carbon emissions bills are the main course.

The Democratic trojan horse must be stopped before it can get inside the city walls. Simply threatening to shut down the Senate in response to health care isn't enough, and it may well inspire the Democrats to stick even more awful stuff in the budget reconciliation as a result. And then the shutdown will stop exactly nothing.

In the Star Trek episode, the Romulan invasion was stopped by Picard, Spock and Data altering the holographic message and warning Vulcan, as well as the Enterprise not being fooled by a Romulan ruse to lure them away. It didn't come down to either getting the Romulans to not try, or having to fight a war to forcibly remove them.

I'm not sure such a third way is available here. If there is, then it's up to the GOP and any of us who value liberty and freedom to sound the alarm loud and long about the Democrats' real intentions, to dig in defensively and prevent them from attaining beachheads, and to make it crystal clear that they are far better served not to try (profoundly deaf ears upon which that message will likely fall notwithstanding), as we are determined to bear any burden and pay any price in order to remove them.

© 2009 North Star Writers Group. May not be republished without permission.

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