From acid rain to global climate change, from “creation science” to “intelligent design,” conservatives had been meddling with science for years, lar… - Chris C. Mooney

The emergence of the religious right onto the political stage in the 1970s—motivated in part by its adherents’ resentment of the nation’s intellectual and scientific elites—was also a major factor in curtailing the role of science in public policy.

But when they don’t like what science has to tell them, those wielding political power of the have another option besides running away from the truth: suppression.

But if we care about science and believe that it should play a crucial role in decisions about our future, we must steadfastly oppose further political gains by the modern Right. This political movement has patently demonstrated that it will not defend the integrity of science in any case in which science runs afoul of its core political constituencies. In so doing, it has ceded any right to govern a technologically advanced and sophisticated nation.