Republicans Help Virginia Evolve To Democrats

[Ed Hudgins]

Republicans Help Virginia Evolve To Democrats

By Edward Hudgins

June 12, 2013 – Republican Party self-destruction is on display in Virginia as the E.W. Jackson, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, is looking foolish for his assertion in a 2008 book that biological evolution is disproven because chimpanzees can’t talk:

“Scientists have made much of the fact that chimpanzees have been trained to use sign language. They take this as proof that primates are our ancestors because they, like us, have ‘language capacity.’ It is amazing the length to which people will go to prove what is so palpably false.”

Scientists don’t claim, as Jackson implies, that humans evolved from chimps, nor do they prove the laws of evolution based on chimps’ use of sign language.

Is Jackson purposely distorting the findings of over a century-and-a-half of scientific inquiry? Or is he just ignorant? Possibly a bit of both! But is this a media-manufactured “gotcha!” moment?

Jackson isn’t alone in his beliefs. A 2012 Gallup survey found that 58 percent of Republicans believe God created humans pretty much in their present form within the past ten thousand years, while 5 percent believe humans evolved but with God guiding the process. So chances are most GOP candidates and officeholders buy into Creationism. If so, they’re mistaken.

But the real issue is whether these GOPers drag these and other religious beliefs into the political arena. Many don’t. They’re concerned foremost about high taxes, out-of-control government spending, skyrocketing debt, and the intrusion of government into our economic lives. Their religious beliefs are personal matters and they can stand with individuals of different denominations as well as secularists in the fight to restore liberty and to limit government.

Last year, for example, Senator Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, dodged a question about Creationism. He didn’t want to offend his religious supporters but said the question “has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow” and he called for “a pro-science and pro-technology” party.

But others, the hard-core social conservatives, reveal different priorities and mindsets when they inject such issues into campaigns and policy discussions. This might mean mandating that their faith-based views about human origins be taught in schools as if they stand on equal footing with the hard-won truths garnered through the scientific process. But in any case, it makes conservatives look foolish. And it often means losing elections by scaring away voters both sectarian and secular.

In 2010, Delaware GOP senate candidate Christine O’Donnell wouldn’t distance herself from her assertion that evolution is a myth, asking, “Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?” This was one of a string of stupid statements, including an admission that she dabbled in witchcraft. She lost.

Speaking of which, Jackson in Virginia has also claimed that yoga makes one susceptible to satanic possession. And of gay and lesbian pride he tweeted “Yuk!” So his evolution assertion seems one of a string of stupid statements.

The kook quotient in the GOP is too high and the result in the fall could be an election loss in Virginia.

---

Hudgins is director of advocacy and a senior scholar at The Atlas Society.

For further information:

*Edward Hudgins, “Rubio, GOP Stumbling Away From Creationist Nonsense.” December 4, 2012.

*Edward Hudgins, “Webinar: An Objectivist Guide to Evaluating Candidates.” February 27, 2012.

*Edward Hudgins, “Tea Party Candidates and The ‘Crane Rule’.” September 28, 2010.

[Robert Baratheon]

As a libertarian-leaning independent living in Virginia, I'd vote for a small-government candidate with some kooky religious beliefs over a progressive central planner any day. Their beliefs on evolution don't affect my standard of living; their beliefs on the proper role of government do.

Tax-and-spend progressives are free to live, vote, and hold office in either the high-tax liberal "paradise" of Maryland or Mordor-across-the-Potomac. With those two "great" options available, why do they still feel compelled to move into Virginia and mess up our beautiful state as well? Just like the Massachusetts liberals who flee Boston for New Hampshire, then try to recreate it when they arrive by voting in big-government Democrats. What happened to states as laboratories?

[BaalChatzaf]

Mordor Across the Potomac! That is rich. And is our President Sauron?

[Robert Baratheon]

Mordor Across the Potomac! That is rich. And is our President Sauron?

The eye is always watching.

[Jerry Biggers]

Great article, Ed!

umm, I was wondering,...you guys over at TAS ever heard about the NSA/PRISM scandal?

Oh well, don't worry. Cato has stepped in and addressed what Ayn Rand would have immediately spoke out on, had she still been alive.

Aren't you guys supposed to be carrying the torch for...... Never mind

And apologies in advance if TAS has already addressed this issue and I just missed it. Kindly provide a link, please..

P.P.S. Damn! I have to add this postscript. Cato's response was actually kinda wimpyand side-stepped some important issues it is NOT whether PRISM can be "effective" or whether a majority of Americans think it "might protect" from terrorism,...it is whether the federal government has the right to collect wholesale records on virtually every American - and yes, privacy rights are protected by the Fourth Amendment and it does apply in the information age.

[Ed Hudgins]

Robert - Could be that Virginia will be better with a guy with looney ideas in office but who opposes high taxes etc. And the country might have been better with O'Donnell, Akin, Mourdock and others in the Senate voting against Obama's programs. But one of my points is that their looney ideas scare away voters and they lose. And there's still the question of whether Jackson will push as policy his good economic ideas as opposed to his bad social ones. (See my piece on "GOP Should Invite Social Conservative Extremists To Leave.")

I LOVE "Mordor Across the Potomac!"

[Ed Hudgins]

Jerry - Here's one for a start from a different angle: "Snowden, Heroism, And Self-Interest."

More to follow ... !

[Neil Parille]

In 2010, Delaware GOP senate candidate Christine O’Donnell wouldn’t distance herself from her assertion that evolution is a myth, asking, “Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?” This was one of a string of stupid statements

Actually, this sounds like a perfectly reasonable question.

-Neil Parille

[Ed Hudgins]

Jerry - Here's an angle you probably haven't seen in the media:

"Was A Telecom CEO Sent To Prison Because He Resisted NSA?"

[Ed Hudgins]

Neil - A reasonable question for a third grader who's never studied evolution and who gets their knowledge of the subject from cartoons and from fleeting impressions in popular culture. Not for an adult.

[Neil Parille]

Ed -

It is perfectly reasonable to ask why evolution doesn't seem to be occuring. When I was in school I was taught the now discredited examples of the moths switching colors in Englad as a result of factories. But even that didn't concern an actual change.

Is it also wrong to ask how consciousness can evolve? Even a secularist like Nagel has a problem with that, see his recent book Mind and Cosmos.

I don't have any firm views on evolution, but I think some good questions have been raised about it.

-NP

[Robert Baratheon]

I don't like the social conservativism of the GOP, but at the same time I worry that a purge of the religious extremists will ostracize a large portion of its base and cripple its infrastructure so badly that it won't be able to compete with the Socialist Democratic machine any longer. It's better to maintain a less-than-ideal party winning elections than a politically pure party bringing in 30% of the vote. Of course there will inevitably be some candidates - especially in an anti-establishment insurgency like the Tea Party movement - who so damage the party image that they have to be removed. The Democrats have their share of whackos as well.

[Ed Hudgins]

Robert - As I've pointed out, about half of Tea Party members ID themselves as social conservatives while a bit less than half ID themselves as libertarian. But these social conservative do not share the priorities of those like Huckabee who threaten to bolt from the GOP over gay marriage and such. I work with social conservatives on limited government issues all the time. But my point is that if they want to put social issues first, they will hinder the advance of liberty and are scaring away others who might be Republicans but for the high kook factor.

[BaalChatzaf]

Mordor Across the Potomac! That is rich. And is our President Sauron?

The eye is always watching.

I like to think of the White House as Barad-Dur.

But you had the right impulse with this touched up photo.

Ba'al Chatzaf

[william.scherk]

In 2010, Delaware GOP senate candidate Christine O’Donnell wouldn’t distance herself from her assertion that evolution is a myth, asking, “Why aren't monkeys still evolving into humans?” This was one of a string of stupid statements

Actually, this sounds like a perfectly reasonable question.

-Neil Parille

Why aren't you still beating your wife?

The question is poorly formed, based on O'Donnell's notion that human beings are descended from monkeys, and buttressed by her notion that we humans are an end-point of all primate evolution. She has misunderstood what evolution is and what it isn't. .

The simplest way to illustrate this misunderstanding is via Youtube. Here is Richard Dawkins explaining what was stupid about the question ... no 'evolutionist' holds that humans are descended from monkeys, and so her question is not cogent. It simply shows her ignorance and lack of engagement.

[i should have noted that O'Donnell's notions are what she ascribes to evolutionists -- what she thought was a claim of evolution.]

Edited June 14, 2013 by william.scherk

[Ed Hudgins]

WS – Thanks for posting the video of Dawkins. I’d add this.

O’Donnell and Jackson were not making honest points in a discussion of human origins. They were pushing a religious agenda and revealing both their ignorance on the subject. If they don’t know what they’re talking about they should shut up and not advertise their ignorance. Or, after the “gotta” sting of finding an old statement about this matter, they should have responded as Marco Rubio did. But she ventured her chimp comment in the context of saying “evolution is a myth.” Sorry, that and other statements marked her as an idiot.

[william.scherk]

I probably should not do a dogpile on O'Donnell**, but I cannot resist one other spectacle of dumbosity. Here MSNBC's Rachel Maddow fetches up a video wherein O'Donnell explains the mission of her organization SALT. No hints.

________________________

** I felt bad for the candidate at times during the 2010 campaign. I remember one hideous (and non-corroborated) story from some guy who wrote about a sleepover with her, sexually explicit and nastily personal. Her Senate race had everything ugly that US electioneering can produce, I think.

Edited June 14, 2013 by william.scherk

[caroljane]

Wait till the next Toronto mayoral race Bill, which if Hizzoner persists in running as he now says, will twist up knickers on those we never knew to wear them.

[Ed Hudgins]

WS - The sex allegations against O'Donnell in 2010 might well have been bogus but still ignited a media frenzy. But her years of stupid statements certainly made her a target.