Why Conservatives Turned Against Science

Why Conservatives Turned Against Science

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A prediction: When all the votes have been counted and the reams of polling data have been crunched, analyzed, and spun, this will be clear: Few scientists will have voted for Republican candidates, particularly for national office. Survey data taken from 1974 through 2010 and analyzed by Gordon Gauchat in the American Sociological Review confirm that most American scientists are not conservatives. A 2009 study by the Pew Research Center found that only 9% of scientists self-identified as conservative, while 52% called themselves liberals. Only 6% of American scientists self-identified as Republicans. This state of affairs is bad for the nation, and bad for science.

Why have scientists fled the Republican Party? The obvious answer is that the Republican Party has spurned science.