Tim B. Lee:
Conservatives' Reality Problem: [T]he Mitt Romney campaign being blindsided by Tuesday's election results... the degree of cocooning portrayed in that article is surprising. You'd expect at least some of Romney's highly-paid advisors to be competent.... I don't think it's a coincidence that Team Romne's polling cluelessness comes after years of conservatives demonizing pointy-headed academics, including scientists. On subjects like evolution, global warming, the biology of human conception, and even macroeconomics, conservatives have been increasingly bold about rejecting the consensus of scientific experts in favor of ideologically self-serving pronouncements.... George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a good example of... choos[ing] ideology over expertise....
On macroeconomics, a broad spectrum of economists, ranging from John Maynard Keynes to Milton Friedman, supports the basic premise that recessions are caused by shortfalls in aggregate demand.... But rather than engaging this debate, a growing number of conservatives have rejected the mainstream economic framework altogether....
The conservative movement seems to have adopted the same attitude toward Nate Silver.... [T]he conservative movement has increasingly become a hostile place for people who think for themselves, no matter how deeply they understand their subjects....
A party that systematically favors ideologically convenient arguments and marginalizes dissenting voices will inevitably make costly mistakes. Thankfully, in 2012 those mistakes merely helped Mitt Romney lose the White House. But sooner or later, a Republican is going to get elected president. We should all hope the conservative movement develops a greater respect for expertise in the meantime.
Hope is not a plan, Tim B. Lee!
Until the conservative movement develops a greater respect for expertise, it is your moral duty to, at all times and in all venues:
- point out that it is immoral for anybody to vote for any Republican politician whatsoever, and
- work diligently to crash the reputations and influence of non-reality based and boost the reputations and influence of reality based Republicans.
You had better start doing a lot more than hoping. Just Saying
