How Badly Could The GOP Jihad Against Science Hurt National Security-- Not To Mention The Economy?

In the destructive, dangerous hands of Roger Ailes and Republican Party hate-talk radio hosts like Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham, "science" has become just another hot-button word to rant and rave and demagogue over. In a blogpost Friday The New Yorker's Nicholas Thompson ranked all the Republican nuts running for president, or whatever they're doing on the national stage, in terms of their disavowal of objective, scientific reality. Most of it is probably posturing-- I mean other than Bachmann and Perry, are these people really that dim?-- but they're all appealing to the superstitious, primitive Foxified base with pronouncements that sound downright insane. After all, it was GOP kingmaker Karl Rove who famously defined a Democrat, disparagingly, as "somebody with a doctorate... the information class." The article ranks Gingrich as the most pro-science and Santorum the least, which explains why Iowa Republicans embraced him (and why New Hampshire Republicans aren't).

1) Newt Gingrich

Jon Huntsman may have the most rational scientific and technological policies of anyone in the field, but Gingrich, sometimes called Newt Skywalker, has far more passion. As Kelefa Sanneh argues in the current issue, the philosophy of Gingrichism is nothing but a combination of the idiosyncratic views of the man himself-- which include his beliefs in the virtues of space exploration and his opposition to regulating the Internet, even when it comes to porn. He was an early adopter of Twitter, and he once made the cover of Wired. He is ranked atop Scientific American’s recent “Geek Guide” to the 2012 candidates. As Sanneh notes, one of Gingrich’s manifestos about information policy includes a preface by the science-fiction writer Jerry Pournelle, declaring, “It’s raining soup, and Newt Gingrich has the blueprints for soup bowls.”

His record is scarcely perfect. As Speaker, Gingrich abolished the Office of Technology Assessment--a move reminiscent of Nixon abolishing the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy. But, for the most part, Gingrich has moved policy in the right directions. And he gets extra credit for sitting on the couch with Nancy Pelosi to talk about global warming [see video above].

2) Jon Huntsman

Huntsman almost edged out Gingrich. His tweet about global warming was the single most pro-science action of any of the candidates. Also, as the Boston Globe noted in an endorsement that included a heavy amount of science policy, Huntsman has a strong position on increasing the number of Americans who can get H-1B visas, which helps our tech sector hire talent from around the world. In one admirable move as governor of Utah, Huntsman blocked a misguided law on video-game regulation, which is the sort of bill that enthuses social conservatives but that rarely does any good.

3) Mitt Romney

Romney has connections to Silicon Valley, and the right view on the most important tech issue of the day: the nefarious Stop Online Piracy Act now working its way through Congress. It’s a dangerous sop to Hollywood, which Romney opposes.

But Romney’s position on global warming is, well, Romneyesque. He’s trying to signal to deniers that he’s on their side, without saying anything actually nutty. “I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans.” Or: “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.” All true! Spending trillions and trillions of dollars-- in a total budget of three and a half trillion dollars-- would indeed be a bad idea. His position on evolution is also rational, but he comes as close as he can get to using “intelligent design” and “creationism,” the two main phrases of deniers. “I believe God is intelligent and I believe he designed the creation. And I believe he used the process of evolution to create the human body.”

4) Ron Paul

Dr. Paul is the candidate of Reddit. (Check out this awesome thread when it appeared that he might pull off a victory in Iowa.) And libertarianism is a good policy for Internet regulation. By the time government passes a law, the technology has moved on. Paul, predictably, has come down firmly against the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Libertarianism is not, however, the right philosophy for science. There are projects, and types of basic research, that the private sector won’t fund and that non-profits can’t fund either. These efforts need government. And do we really want someone in the White House who has said, “It might turn out to be one of the biggest hoaxes of all history, this whole global warming terrorism that they’ve been using.”

5) Rick Perry

Governor Perry failed organic chemistry as a young man and famously wants to cut the Department of Energy. He’s skeptical about evolution and climate change. But, to his credit, he stood up for science during one of the testiest moments in the Republican debates. The question was why he had pushed for mandatory vaccinations of girls against the H.P.V. virus, which can cause cervical answer. He responded, with some hems and haws, but ultimately said, “At the end of the day, I will always err on the side of saving lives.” As Michael Specter has pointed out, and out, and out, vaccinations matter and are one of the touchstones of rational science policy.

6) Rick Santorum

Parts of Santorum’s platform are pro-science and pro-tech. He wants to almost double R.&D. tax credits, and he’s cautious of Internet regulation. But the two most pro-science moments in the campaign-- Huntsman’s tweet and Perry’s defense of vaccinations-- have inspired Santorum to attack. He barked back at Perry in that debate, and pounced on Huntsman. The climate does indeed change over time, he said, but it’s crazy to think that man is “somehow the tip of that tail that wags the whole dog.” It was an unfortunate metaphor to use, because Santorum has been engaged in a long and losing war with the Internet largely because of dogs.

And we'll represent congressional Republicans with Texas Neanderthal Joe Barton, who didn't get the nickname "oily Joe" from nowhere. His slavish adherence to Big Oil's agenda has earned him $3,549,445 in legalistic bribes, more than any other Member of the House and, in fact, more than any senator other than John McCain. This tweet yesterday reminded me he desrves a mention: