The Republican Party and the war on reason
By Comrade Misfit
Science is an experimental pursuit. When the data and a theory do not agree, scientists question the validity of the theory.
That differs, of course, from the Republican Party. Republicans are ideologues. When the data and the ideology conflict, they question the data.
So when the Congressional Research Service produced a report that tax increases on the rich would not damage the economy, and that there is little correlation between tax rates and investment, the GOP went completely batshit and pressured the CRS to withdraw the report.
This is nothing new. The GOP is a religious party, though when they are not kowtowing to the evangelicals, they are bowing to Mammon.
We face a lot of serious problems both in this nation and on a global scale. We will make no progress on solving them if we heed the ideologues rather than the data. Those who are blindly following ideology on tax cuts are no different from the ideologues of the Taliban, a party that also rejects science and modernity.
"What does the data tell us" should be the constant question asked by policymakers. Blind adherence to religious ideology as a method of determining policy should have been consigned to the dustbin of history centuries ago.
The modern Republican Party is an embarrassment. History will regard the current iteration of the GOP as a deep stain on the chronicle of this country.
The GOP needs to corral its ideologues and fence them off. Or it will be the GOP that becomes history.
(Cross-posted at Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I.)
Science is an experimental pursuit. When the data and a theory do not agree, scientists question the validity of the theory.
That differs, of course, from the Republican Party. Republicans are ideologues. When the data and the ideology conflict, they question the data.
So when the Congressional Research Service produced a report that tax increases on the rich would not damage the economy, and that there is little correlation between tax rates and investment, the GOP went completely batshit and pressured the CRS to withdraw the report.
This is nothing new. The GOP is a religious party, though when they are not kowtowing to the evangelicals, they are bowing to Mammon.
We face a lot of serious problems both in this nation and on a global scale. We will make no progress on solving them if we heed the ideologues rather than the data. Those who are blindly following ideology on tax cuts are no different from the ideologues of the Taliban, a party that also rejects science and modernity.
"What does the data tell us" should be the constant question asked by policymakers. Blind adherence to religious ideology as a method of determining policy should have been consigned to the dustbin of history centuries ago.
The modern Republican Party is an embarrassment. History will regard the current iteration of the GOP as a deep stain on the chronicle of this country.
The GOP needs to corral its ideologues and fence them off. Or it will be the GOP that becomes history.
(Cross-posted at Just an Earth-Bound Misfit, I.)
Labels: reason, Republican Party, Republicans, science, tax policy
posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at
2:15 PM
1 Comments:
The GOP is a fine container of insanity and thuggery and thus serves a purpose. It's just that we should get it out of politics, government and the media and confine it to its proper place - mental institutions and prisons.
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steeleweed, at 3:54 PM
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