I like "Star Trek." I especially like the original show with Spock, Kirk, and Scotty. The program as a whole sometimes dealt with social issues through parable, and it was actually pretty effective. Race was dealt with in an episode where Frank Gorshin (Batman's Riddler) played a role where half of his face was black and the other white, and he hated an alternate version of himself whose face was half white and the other black. Like....it was the opposite profile of the other guy. The point was to show that hating somebody for such minor differences was stupid. This during the tumultuous period known as the sixties. 

There was also another episode that is especially relevant today. This was called "The Return of the Archons." In that show, Kirk et al. beam down to a society whose inhabitants are a bunch of brain-dead drones controlled by an amorphous ruler named Landru. They go through their daily lives like robots and seem to have no will of their own. They are entirely passive. Should anyone rebel in thought, word, or deed, they are immediately "absorbed into the body," which is a techno way of saying "forcibly brainwashed and pacified to serve the group." This is done "according to the will of Landru."

Once a year, for a period of 12 hours, the inhabitants get to blow off steam during "Festival," where they rape, loot, and burn down their own town.

Any of that sound familiar?

Well, today in Washington live the Swamp Creatures. Call it the Uniparty, if you will. Politicians get elected, and those who come in as Republicans soon find themselves subject to absorption. When those guys bend to the will of Landru, they become known as RINOs. Some Republicans resist, but enough succumb so that thin majorities in Congress evaporate, and before you know it, they are voting with Democrats to flip the conservative agenda. 

Now, Democrats rarely have such issues because most of those guys are already absorbed when they arrive as freshmen, and under the will of Landru (Pelosi), they start mesmerizing Republicans. You want a seat on this committee? You want me to vote against Trans Bathrooms in the Russell Building? You want a sammich named after your state in the congressional dining room? So alluring. So tempting. Few can resist.  

Now, generally, I would like to see Republicans and Democrats work together the way they used to. Remember Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill? They negotiated, they horse traded and what have you, and managed a lot of the time to actually get stuff done. I think that's what the founders intended. I don't think they wanted to see a situation of political capitulation where groupthink, brainwashing, and assimilation (yes, readers younger than myself may recall the Borg) was the current standard. But here we are.

Donald Trump wanted Matt Gaetz to be Attorney General. All of the Democrats were going to oppose, and enough Republicans were signaling they might also, so Gaetz said, "Screw it. I'm gonna blow this pop stand and do something else." Landru won. Republican absorbed. Then it comes out that Sen. Joni Ernst (R) Iowa is maybe gonna go mush on Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense, along with about a half dozen Republicans. Landru is happy. He is going to buy more high-dollar ice cream for his high-dollar freezer and celebrate by stuffing his pie hole and getting his hair done.

Iowa Senator Ernst Speaks Out on Hegseth Nomination

The Washington Post Goes Dumpster Diving With New Attack on Pete Hegseth's Military Service

If Hegseth goes down because of these guys, you will find RFK Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard shooting Rock, Paper, Scissors in some congressional antechamber to see who goes up on the chopping block next. It will be a really sad way to start Trump's second administration when all of his nominees who might actually effect change get shot down.

Democrats are an effective organization. They do not dissent; they do not rebel. They do what they are told by Landru, and they never break ranks. When they circle the wagons, the Indians never punch through. I don't like this style of management. It kills independent thought. It kills honesty and spirit.

However, in the Swamp, it works like a champ. Republicans are Republicans because they believe in honesty, spirit, and independent thought. That's why they aren't Democrats, so when they get into Congress they continue to try and play by Marquess of Queensbury rules. Be fair. Be civil. Be Good. Democrats are like the Chinese. In such rules, they only see weakness. And the weak must be absorbed. I think with these upcoming hearings, Republicans had better listen to what they heard during the election and close up ranks. 

They need to put their personal stuff aside and just vote for Trump's appointments and ram those nominations through. Do it for the voters. Not for your own personal sense of "ought." The Swamp has got to be drained and Landru fired into another part of the cosmos. When/if the Democrats ever become normal representatives again, Republicans can go back to being bi-partisan human beings. But until we begin to play the game effectively, we're going to lose. And the people who voted for Trump are sick of losing.