tl;dr: Patrick Stewart's Jean-Luc Picard embodied a 1990s-era institutionalist liberalism, portraying a Starfleet captain who wielded immense power justly and defended universal rights through reasoned argument before trustworthy institutions. While this optimistic vision feels dated in Trump's America, where institutions have been corrupted and neoconservative failures have discredited liberal interventionism, the article argues Picard remains a vital role model—because strong, benevolent institutions led by just individuals are, per economists Acemoglu and Robinson, the only proven path to sustained prosperity and equality.