The Republican war on science

Chris Mooney has a new book, The Republican War on Science. Kevin Drum recommends it, and refers to two other on-line reviews by Brendan Nyhan and Henry Farrell.

Kevin's key statement is:

The Post editorial Chris refers to is indeed extraordinary. You can read it here and it's as good a primer as you'll find on the willingness of the Bush administration to flatly lie about science in the hope that no one will bother to check up on them. The Post did, and everything they had been told was untrue.

This is the real difference. Science informs policy but doesn't drive it, and administrations can legitimately propose a wide variety of policies regardless of what the science says. But that's not what modern Republicans do. Instead, they try to subvert science itself. Global warming doesn't exist. Intelligent Design is a legitimate scientific theory. Condoms don't prevent STDs. Needle exchange programs don't work. As Chris put it last night, Republicans want to turn science into yet another of the he-said/she-said shouting matches that work so well for them in other areas, generating uncertainty where none exists and undermining one of the few sources of objective knowledge we have.

The Republican War on Science exposes this effort for what it is. Highly recommended.

I haven't read the book myself, but I will when I get time. What I have seen in the news certainly confirms the conclusion above.