Anti-Intellectualism
We have seen ample evidence of the McCain/Palin campaign being "anti-science" and I am going to share just a few here. But first, the idea of anti-intellectualism. It's apparent in the language used by conservatives - Obama isn't well-educated and smart, he's "elite" which translates in people's minds as "elitist." I've never understood why you'd want your drinking buddy instead of the smartest guy in school to be leader of the free world, and apparently, neither does the rest of the world:How these gibbering numbskulls came to dominate Washington
The degradation of intelligence and learning in American politics results from a series of interlocking tragedies
Way back in August, before I started blogging about this, I read a great op-ed by Charles Krugman, Know Nothing Politics Recall, this is before Palin. Also before Krugman won a Nobel Prize in Economics. Yeah, take that you anti-intellectuals! My favorite Op-Ed writer for the New York Times is also a Nobel Prize winner. In Economics. Yeah, that thing that nobody else seems to understand these days. AND he's a liberal! Touche! Okay, enough gloating (for the moment). Here's a quote from the article, and since adding Palin to the ticket, it's only gotten worse, as you may have noticed!
"...know-nothingism — the insistence that there are simple, brute-force, instant-gratification answers to every problem, and that there’s something effeminate and weak about anyone who suggests otherwise — has become the core of Republican policy and political strategy. The party’s de facto slogan has become: “Real men don’t think things through.”Or, in other words, it can all be boiled down into talking points and slogans.
When searching for that article, I came across two others on the same topic with slightly different perspectives, but both compare the current state of the G.O.P. to the Know-Nothing Party:
How the Republicans went from a party of dissident intellectuals to a party that disdains the educated class as a whole: The Class War Before Palin
And this one with a historical perspective from the Daily KOS, comparing modern-day Republicans to the "Know-Nothings" of Lincoln's era: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/10/11/152556/66/710/622713
I think, I hope, that people are starting to wake up to this. Intelligent and decent Republicans have been crossing party lines quite publicly to endorse Obama, from Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley and (former) editor of the National Review, to Colin Powell, to one of McCain's campaign advisors.
Anti-Science
The Anti-Science crowd are a sub-group of the anti-intellectual crowd. As a science educator, I am embarrassed by them, and the failure in science education that they represent. They don't understand the process of science, the very basics of testable hypotheses, and complain that "scientists are always 'changing their minds'" anyway. That's because science is NOT dogma, people! Science is constantly examining itself - peer review, reproducible results, and testing with new and better tools all the time. Here are a few examples of the anti-science sentiments from McCain and Palin:Famous "Overhead Projector":
This:
Not This:
McCain and his earmarks obsession: we've gone over this before, but all of the examples of bad spending bills that McCain has brought up have been science-related!
Planetaria as "foolishness"
Before this one, McCain criticized another earmark that was studying Grizzly Bear DNA. Okay, just about ANY DNA study can provide benefit - we share a lot of the same genes, even with bears. And this is to help wildlife managers study the habits and ranges of grizzlies they have to manage in National Parks and other areas like Yellowstone, where understanding behavior and territory of these magnificent beasts is essential to people's health and welfare who visit, live, work and ranch in the areas where they live.
And Palin... oh wow. There is just TOO much material here!
Most recently, though, is her failure to understand High School Biology. Memo To Palin: Fruit Fly Research Has Led To Advances In Understanding Autism
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/10/24/palin-fruit-flies/
And a whole lot more about that same thing:
In Case You Weren't Scared Enough: Palin on "Fruit Fly Research"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/todd-palmer-and-rob-pringle/in-case-you-werent-scared_b_138089.html
Beyond the Palin:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2008/10/25/beyond-the-palin/
Sarah Palin: Ignorant and anti-science
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/10/sarah_palin_ignorant_and_antis.php
Of course, her belief that The Flintstones is based on fact (seriously - she thinks dinosaurs and humans walked the earth together - is a young earth creationist), her opposition to scientists' findings on listing polar bears and beluga whales as endangered, and her denial of the huge amount of scientific evidence for human-caused global warming all add to this picture.
I can't help but feel that if we elected McCain/Palin, we would be starting (or continuing what the Bush administration started) down the path of a new dark age of scientific reason.
UPDATE: an even better article about the anti-science positions of the McCain/Palin ticket - this article goes into more detail about the Grizzly DNA study as well:
The GOP ticket's appalling contempt for science and learning. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
