"Why Akin Matters" by Joe Klein at Time

[applegrove]

Why Akin Matters

by Joe Klein at Time

http://swampland.time.com/2012/08/21/why-akin-matters/?xid=newsletter-daily

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But the Republican Party that produced such thinkers is, as we all know, gone now. And what we have is a party that too often acquiesces–with rolled eyes and grimaces, to be sure–in the know-nothing idiocy of a plurality of its base. There was a period when the Democrats suffered from a similar malady–the days of racial quotas, overweening sociological tolerance of criminality and the belief that the U.S. is almost always wrong when it uses force overseas. The Democrats still have some outliers who believe such things. But Bill Clinton showed that Democrats could reform themselves; Barack Obama’s reliance on ideas that were originally Republican or bipartisan in much of his domestic agenda is a reflection of the permanence of that change.

The Republicans, by contrast, seem in the midst of falling through a spider hole, away from facts and reality, into a past where “reality” was determined by faith and fear, before the scientific method was invented. There are some honest voices–like Jon Huntsman who, in the primaries, defended evolution and acknowledged climate change (Mitt Romney also said he believed evolution was God’s plan; I agree with that). But you saw how well Huntsman did in the primaries–and you’ve seen how far Romney has had to tack toward silliness to win the nomination.

In the end, Todd Akin is not an outlier. He is a symptom of the disease. It will be interesting to see, if he stays in the race, whether the good people of Missouri decide he should be a United States Senator.


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[BlueinOhio]

1. GOP Mainstream

He is on the Committee on Science, Space and Technology, Sub committee on Space and Aeronautics and Sub committee on Energy and Environment. He makes policy for science for our country, please. But the GOP are proud of being ignorant.