How space travel became right-wing

Over the weekend, Elon Musk’s SpaceX launched its Starship with a Super Heavy rocket and successfully recovered the rocket’s first stage during an unmanned test flight. In a remarkable display of engineering, the first stage made a controlled descent to Earth and was secured back onto its launch platform by a mechanical arm. This achievement should have been an inspiring moment for all Americans. But many leftists took to social media to express outrage that a Trump supporter was responsible for the historic event.

As Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance praised the technological triumph, commentators made bewildering statements, wondering how the dream of space travel had become culturally associated with Republicans. So-called progressives have built their political strategy around demonizing the very elements that make scientific progress possible. Now, they are shocked to find their opponents seen as champions of a brighter future.

When I was young, space exploration was viewed as an inevitable part of the near future. The United States had won the space race in the 1960s, and while astronauts had not landed on a celestial body for over a decade, shuttle missions were common. We were landing remote rovers on Mars, and most of us assumed that manned missions to the red planet were well within reach.

The dream of exploring the stars was also politically bipartisan. Republicans embraced the patriotism and pride attached to the achievement, while Democrats saw it as a step toward their “Star Trek”-inspired vision of a post-scarcity utopia.

As the United States solidified its position as the only global superpower, ironically, the drive to prove dominance through space exploration waned. NASA’s achievements became less impressive, and the agency clearly oversold many of its projections. Republicans began viewing the program as a bloated government expense in need of budget cuts, while Democrats saw an opportunity to redirect funding to their supporters here on Earth. NASA limped along with fewer launches and delayed major projects, and while science fiction remained part of popular culture, the idea of real-world space travel seemed to fade farther into the background.

Regardless of how one feels about Elon Musk, it’s hard not to see echoes of Ayn Rand’s “man of industry” in his struggle against a system that tries to keep him tethered to Earth. SpaceX has certainly benefited from government contracts, but it has also fought off stifling regulations and lawsuits while achieving something the government seemed incapable of. The leftists' outcry that SpaceX should be nationalized now that it has proven successful outside government control highlights the parasitic nature of the progressive regime they’ve created.

Musk may not fit the mold of a typical conservative, and it’s doubtful he ever sought to become a political figure, but his ambition is undeniable. He and many other leaders and entrepreneurs have realized that the dominant leftist regime will make their grand visions impossible. Progressives have embraced a politics driven by graft and spite. Their policies punish success and innovation while fostering a culture of envy and entitlement. Ambition is now labeled as dangerous, and prosperity is seen as something to be collectively plundered for political gain.

Democrats have transformed universities into centers of woke indoctrination, rejecting merit in favor of racial and sexual biases that favor their client classes. What began as an infection in the softer fields of the humanities has now spread to the hard sciences. Woke ideology has branded critical aspects of the scientific method as cultural imperialism and turned math into a symbol of white supremacy. Valuing the written word, prioritizing punctuality, emphasizing efficiency, and striving for perfection — traits essential to launching humans into space — are now labeled as forms of colonial oppression.

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