I’m no Betazoid — but I’m fairly certain that your immediate response to this question (assuming you didn’t laugh and scroll to something else) correlates with your own political allegiance. With that in mind, I will make no attempt to argue for a particular side — I’ll leave that to the comments. Instead, I’d like to explore the aspects of the Star Trek Universe that support each side of this equation…

The Progressive Case

The Future is Diverse: The future envisioned in Star Trek is built on incredibly diverse races and species working together as equals. In fact, the show (particularly the original series) was quite groundbreaking in this regard. Despite the often dramatic physical and cultural differences between crew members, there’s an overriding sense of mutual respect & cooperation. No single culture or worldview dominates over the others.

This is especially apparent in everyone’s favorite android — Data. Although his mere existence pushes the boundaries of sentience, he’s treated as a highly respected member of the crew (as a Lieutenant Commander he’s also pretty much everyone’s boss, which doesn’t hurt his cause). Heck, despite his inherent lack of emotion, he even has a few romantic encounters along the way!

This is a future that progressives can be proud of. The people of the United Federation of Planets have (for the most part) moved past racial and cultural strife. But they haven’t surrendered what makes them different in the process — it’s the very foundation of their success.

Money = Bad: Although there’s the occasional reference to credits, the main characters of the show live in a predominantly money-less society. There’s certainly a chain of command that remains well respected, but this doesn’t translate at all into different levels of wealth. Everyone in the crew seems to have their needs well met (the presence of replicators makes that apparent) and few aspire to more prosperity. No wonder everyone on those starships is so chummy!

The more peripheral characters that do seek out money — aka the Ferengi — are pretty much hell-spawn. In addition to having digestive tracts for faces, they’re completely unethical, scheming and relentless in their pursuit of the almighty dollar. “Job creators” they are not.

Chalk up another point for the progressive case. There’s no 1% to be found on the USS Enterprise. They seem to have moved well past that towards a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.

Everyone Works for the Government: Although money has been largely relegated to the past, the people of Star Trek definitely have jobs—and pretty much all of that is somehow tied up with the Federation. This doesn’t exactly scream “small government.”

Not only that, but it seems to be a sweet gig. Vacation time abounds (enough for the occasional hedonistic trip to Risa), health care is definitely covered, you’re allowed to have children on the ship (with free daycare), plus HOLODECKS. No wonder Starfleet Academy seems so damn cut-throat. The payoff is massive!

No Shortage of Regulation: Even if you’re not a fan of the shows, it’s obvious that the Federation/Starfleet rule book would be (if it weren’t, of course, digitized) quite thick. When can you fire phasers on the enemy? When/how you can travel through time? What level of warp speed is permitted in this sector? Worry not, friends, there’s a regulation for each of these! And don’t even get me started on the Prime Directive!

Not only that, but everyone seems to have memorized everything word-for-word (with immediate recall). You’d think that would mean they don’t have to remind each other of the rules — but they do…quite often.

All that being said, the rules seem to be there for a reason. Aside from the adventures we see in each episode, things seem to run quite smoothly (hence the level of dismay each time the turbolift breaks). Once again, points scored for the progressive side.

Science Reigns Supreme: This last one is the most obvious, but worth pausing to consider. It’s made very clear — in essentially every episode — that the future envisioned in Star Trek has been made brighter through the advances of science.

Not only have the wonders of interplanetary space exploration been made possible through technology, but advanced knowledge of this subject is essential to operating (and certainly surviving) in this universe. Each starship has a senior officer completely focused on science (most notably, Spock). And, more often than not, it’s this person that solves the conundrum of the day and saves everyone’s ass. In this future, brains have genuinely triumphed over brawn (I love Worf, but he’s pretty useless).

I think it’s fair to say that progressives would be more likely to dream up this sort of future. A typical conservative, I’m guessing, would opt for a lot less techno-bable and way bigger guns.

The Conservative Case

The Universe is Scary: While life looks relatively good in the Star Trek version of the future, there are still plenty of things trying to kill our intrepid crew members (particularly those donning red shirts). For all of the progress made over the centuries, the space outside of the Federation is still brimming with conflict.

Whether it’s the Klingons (spray-tan version) or the Romulans, there remains an ever-present threat from which peaceful, free society must defend itself. There are even times when the silver-tongued, shiny headed Jean Luc Picard must resort to force rather than diplomacy to defend Earth and its planetary allies.

This tallies up some serious points for the conservative side of the argument. The entire premise for Starfleet existing is to address the foreign and domestic threats that challenge the Federation. Progressives would tend be disappointed in this vision of continued conflict, whereas those on the other side of the aisle would more likely accept this as inevitable.

Everyone Works for the Military: While it’s true that our favorite characters are enjoying cozy government jobs, let’s not forget that they’re also packing phasers (which, by the way, are absurdly easy to overload and detonate). These are seasoned military officers trained in the art of bad-karate and really fast typing.

The same holds true for the iconic USS Enterprise. For a ship that’s supposed to be on a mission of exploration and outreach, it’s bringing along more than its share of photon torpedoes.

So, while the Federation clearly isn’t afraid to spend big, it’s apparent that the majority of its resources are going into things that go boom. Another clear victory for the conservative camp.

Collective = Bad: Although Starfleet takes on a wide variety of baddies, its most grave threat comes from The Borg Collective — a drove of half-machines determined to absorb all living things into a single entity.

When you think about it, The Borg reflect many of the trademarks of progressive thinking — just taken to an absolute extreme. They’re all about sharing—they’re so intricately tied into one another that they act as one. They’re also not particularly militaristic — they have serious firepower, but they only use it when they want you to join their club (otherwise they just ignore you). And they certainly aren’t lacking in equality—they’re all kinds of ugly, but each gets pretty much the same stuff. Things are so meticulously efficient and portioned that their ships end up shaped like cubes.

This choice in arch-nemesis really cuts to the core of the Star Trek worldview. The ultimate crime committed by The Borg is their theft of individuality and self-determination — the core values that most conservatives hold dear.

No One Follows the Regulations: Earlier, I mentioned Starfleet officers’ fondness for citing (apparently universally understood) regulations to one another in the midst of a crisis. What inevitably follows, however, is a defiance of that rule in order to resolve the situation. Just think of how many times Commander Riker shouts something along the lines of “I’m well aware of the regulations ensign!” then does something badass. Solid gold.

The most famous example of this is, of course, the Kobayashi Maru—an unsolvable test which Cadet James T. Kirk gets around by shamelessly cheating. What a charming rogue! As much as the show envisions a well-ordered tomorrow, it shines an even brighter light on heroic disregard for the rules.

Both political ideologies have their defiant streaks to be sure, but I would argue that this resistance to regulatory overreach comes from a more conservative spirit.

Religion Endures: There’s no denying that science represents the final authority in the Star Trek moral universe, but themes of religion and spirituality continue to shape that world—despite it being several centuries after our own.

While it’s true that forces that are initially regarded as supernatural are often given practical explanations by the end of the episode, the show retains a reverence for the unknown — such that it never entirely dismisses the possibility of spiritual forces. As Kirk states in Who Mourns for Adonais? “Mankind has no need for gods, we find the one quite adequate.” Part of what makes Star Trek so great is that mixture of rationality and awe.

It’s not a clear win, but I would argue that this stubborn persistence of religious dialogue into the future (although it remains in the periphery) would get more cheers from the conservative side.

I’m looking forward to comments on this as I am sure there are other factors (and other aspects of the Star Trek universe) that I’m missing. I’m looking forward to input, but please remain civil. Part of the fun of this mental exercise is appreciating the virtues of the other side. Engage!