Republicans turn their back on the Enlightenment. Decline of the political species: Charles Darwin and Rick Santorum From today's paper: Over in the US, the Republican party is choosing its presidential nominee to face Barack Obama in November. But whoever wins, science may lose. The Grand Ol’ Party (GOP), as the Republicans are known, has an uncomfortable relationship with scientific fact. Rick Santorum, a frontrunner in the nomination race, has said of a fellow candidate: “If he wants to believe he is the descendant of a monkey then he has the right to believe that, but I disagree with him on this liberal belief.” It’s not just the candidates. “Is the GOP anti-science?” To some extent, the cause is obvious. But it hasn’t always been like this in the party of Eisenhower and Lincoln.
This Nixonian strategy actually changed conservative psychology, according to Mooney. Worse, it’s become a vicious circle. And to appeal to this anti-intellectual base, the Republican elite now have to pretend to be stupider than they are. Perhaps. Free Inquiry. Freethought Radio Network. NoBeliefs.com (Freethinkers) Secular Web: Atheism, Agnosticism, Naturalism, Skepticism and Secularism.