Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Science and Republicans

by Edd Doerr

Charles Blow's NY Times column on 12/7/12 contained this info on the political affiliations of scientists, per a 2009 survey by the Pew Research Center: 6% Republican; 55% Democrat; 32% Independent.  And by ideology: 9% Conservative; 52% Liberal; 35% Moderate.

In Nov, La Gov Bobby Jindal said of the  GOP: "We need to stop being the dumb party." Yet Jindal signed legislation to authorize teaching creationism in public schools and to provide public funding  to private church-run schools that push creationism. Indiana Gov Mitch Daniels signed similar legislation. Ky,  where Romney beat Obama by 23 points, has a Creationism Museum that will  benefit from $43 million in public funds. In June Gallup found that 58% of Republicans believe that God created humans in their present form within the last 10,000 years; most Dems and independents disagreed.

1 comment:

Don Wharton said...

Great post! Republicans complain that they don't get a fair share of the teaching posts in academia. However, there ideology is radically opposed to the critical thinking that is central to what higher education is all about.