SALON

Thursday, Dec 9, 2010 11:15 PM UTC

Daniel Sarewitz demands scientists somehow make Republicans want to be scientists

Slate writer: It's the fault of liberals that conservatives don't trust scientific consensus on just about anything

By

Topics: Global Warming, Republican Party, Science, War Room,

Daniel Sarewitz demands scientists somehow make Republicans want to be scientistsFormer U.S. Vice President Al Gore (C) speaks to Senate Environment and Public Works Committee members Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)(R) and Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 21, 2007. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES)(Credit: © Jim Young / Reuters)

Daniel Sarewitz is the co-director of the “Consortium for Science, Policy, and Outcomes at Arizona State University.” He has written a piece in Slate asking why there are no Republican scientists, answering that question, and then for some reason demanding that Republican scientists be somehow created.

The piece is subtitled “Most scientists in this country are Democrats. That’s a problem.”

It is no secret that the ranks of scientists and engineers in the United States include dismal numbers of Hispanics and African-Americans, but few have remarked about another significantly underrepresented group: Republicans.

OK, but is this a joke?

No, this is not the punch line of a joke.

Oh, OK. Well, this one seems pretty easy! The problem is either that Republicans are not interested in becoming scientists or scientists are not interested in becoming Republicans, and either way, it seems incumbent on the Republicans, not the scientists, to do something about that. If they care. Which they don’t.

But Sarewitz doesn’t seem to actually understand that it is the responsibility of a political party to make itself attractive to a constituency, and not the other way around.

He seems to be arguing that the fact that scientists are mostly Democrats is the reason that Republicans refuse to accept the scientific consensus on, say, climate change. In fact, these horrible liberal scientists have only themselves to blame for the fact that Republicans are hostile to their research:

Or could it be that disagreements over climate change are essentially political — and that science is just carried along for the ride? For 20 years, evidence about global warming has been directly and explicitly linked to a set of policy responses demanding international governance regimes, large-scale social engineering, and the redistribution of wealth. These are the sort of things that most Democrats welcome, and most Republicans hate. No wonder the Republicans are suspicious of the science.

Think about it: The results of climate science, delivered by scientists who are overwhelmingly Democratic, are used over a period of decades to advance a political agenda that happens to align precisely with the ideological preferences of Democrats. Coincidence –  or causation? Now this would be a good case for Mythbusters.

Ugh, if only scientists would stop demanding that anyone do anything about climate change, then maybe Republicans would take climate change a little more seriously! In other words, I think the answer he seeks is “causation,” but also I think Sarewitz has the direction of the causation completely backward. (Also this would make a bad episode of “Mythbusters” because it doesn’t involve a provable hypothesis and nothing would blow up.)

Sarewitz honestly seems to think that scientists are all liberals because of … some unknown reason, and the fact that they are liberals led them to decide that “redistributing wealth” was the solution to global warming, and that is why Republicans don’t trust climate science.

I mean, it’s obviously the rabid partisanship of scientists (and the liberal bias of “data”) that is leading Republicans to turn away from the sciences (besides the phony ones like “economics”). And those rascally Democrats are making it worse! “During the Bush administration,” Sarewitz writes, “Democrats discovered that they could score political points by accusing Bush of being anti-science. Oh, heavens! And all the Bush administration did was systematically suppress and misuse science!

How rude of Democrats to score political points with that fact, and then use the fact that most scientists are appalled with Republican policies to go around bragging about how they’re “pro-science,” just because the other party is one where Jim Inhofe is not only welcome but also the former chairman of the Senate Environmental Committee.

So come on, science! Somehow make more Republicans want to choose you as a career, with affirmative action, or something? Maybe scientists should just declare that climate change can be fixed by eliminating the estate tax, or bombing Iran. That should do it.

This entire piece is like the opposite of an “explainer.”

(Oh man, here’s Sarewitz writing more great stuff about science and politics last March: “Contrary to all our modern instincts, then, political progress on climate change requires not more scientific input into politics, but less.” This guy!)

Alex Pareene

Alex Pareene writes about politics for Salon and is the author of "The Rude Guide to Mitt." Email him at apareene@salon.com and follow him on Twitter @pareene More Alex Pareene.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 211 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Journalists file suit against Manning's trial secrecy: Plaintiffs including Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange demand press, public access to trial and documents
140 points141 points | comment
vote
Report: Nearly a quarter of Americans struggle to afford food
121 points122 points | 12 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
108 points109 points | 84 comments
vote
Kaitlyn Hunt refuses plea offer, will go to court over high school relationship - The 18-year-old rejected a deal that would have labeled her a sex offender and placed her under house arrest
100 points101 points | 28 comments
vote
Ted Cruz against the world - How the Junior Senator is igniting the GOP civil war
75 points76 points | 19 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations