War on Science & McCain's Nuclear Option

One thing is clear from the Republican National Convention: The Republican's have every intention of continuing their ruinous war on science & reason in the U.S.A. When John McCain picked the anti-science, anti-education Sarah Palin as a running mate, he was doing nothing less than employing a desperate nuclear option to dam the current which appeared to be carrying  Barack Obama ever closer to the White House.

Palin sends a loud signal to the extreme right wing -- who long ago hijacked the Republican Party -- that there is no danger of change under John McCain. That's why she's making such a splash. These same extremists don't trust McCain and were pretty unhappy about his nomination. He has, after all, this nasty habit of thinking for himself sometimes, which really pisses off the American Taliban (by whom I mean those religious fundamentalists who arrogantly believe they know God's mind and that He has given them the right to ignore the U.S. Constitution and dictate life to the rest of us poor slobs).

With Palin, the fundamentalists are hoping for continued political tampering with science so it does not contradict their dogma, and more undermining of education and basic research. It all makes perfect sense, after all: Theocracies don't function very well when the people are literate and well educated.

But that's not really why this is McCain's nuclear option. The anti-science part is merely the nuclear fallout -- just collateral damage. The real ka-boom and mushroom cloud was triggered by picking a running mate who would instantly deploy the dirty old strategy of the igniting a bogus "culture war" to divide and conquer the middle class. Every election now the Republicans conjure up this non-existent conflict between the members of the working/middle class with college educations and those without college educations. The goal is to scare those lesser educated people into voting against the so called "elites" (who in reality are no better off then they are and live right next door). The folks who fall for this mean, hateful trick then actually vote for the party which protects the rich at the expense of every program that would help working folks get their children through college. Clever, eh? The British used such "divide & conquer" tactics for decades to control rebellious colonies. Rove merely stole the technique.

And just for the record, I'm one of those independents this election is supposed to hinge on. Guess who I'm voting for?

Comments

[Lori Cuthbert]

Choosing Palin says way more about McCain and what sort of president he'd be than anything else. Not the sort I want, that's for sure. Just more of the same doing the complete opposite of what they say.

[Callan Bentley]

Hear! Hear! What a disappointing choice on McCain's part. I really thought he was a decent guy with a strong interest in science, especially climate science, but this choice throws that out the window. A creationist? A global warming denialist? Come on! It's ludicrous to have this woman first in line for the most powerful office in the world.

[Sarah]

Palin's environmental record undoes whatever progress McCain made for Republicans by speaking out on climate change a decade ago. See: http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1837868,00.html

[Clay]

Right on. Palin's reputation for being anti-science is well-deserved, and it's not limited to global warming and creationism.

Palin uses the common anti-science strategy of citing questionable studies, ignoring established research, and creating confusion where none should exist. This strategy is behind Palin's active campaigning for "predator control" in Alaska, which she uses to justify the truly shocking practice of hunting wolves from airplanes. More here:
http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2008/09/08/sarah_palin_wolves/

Even less artfully, Palin has been known to simply lie about what scientists have concluded. That's been part of her clumsy argument that polar bears should be denied endangered status. More of the story here: http://www.adn.com/news/environment/story/416432.html

In general, Palin seems to think she can adjust facts to suit her opinions, rather than the other way around. It's completely terrifying.