Rarely throughout our nation’s history has science become an issue that could sway voters in their choice for president or other elected office. There was in fact a time, not too long ago that support for science had a wide bipartisan appeal. Oh, there were occasional debates over the total price tag for individual scientific projects but in general both Republicans and Democrats recognized the importance of scientific research both for growing our economy and for America’s standing in the world. How naïve and innocent those days now seem.
In today’s America, whether it be evolution or environmental issues or now even how to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, science and empirical thought in general have become politicized to a degree unknown in American history. In its efforts to energize its base, and please its billionaire masters the Republican Party has gone to considerable lengths to confuse and undermine public confidence in basic scientific knowledge.
The election of Donald Trump sent this ‘war on science’ into overdrive. A habitual liar by nature Trump has unquestionably spent more of his time attacking the facts that have been gathered by the governmental agencies it is his job to manage than he has attacking America’s foreign enemies.
Indeed Trump has interfered on numerous occasions with government scientists trying to do their jobs. Perhaps the most egregious incident came in 2019 when in a tweet Trump erroneously added Alabama to an official National Hurricane Center list of states at risk from hurricane Dorian which was approaching the US. Rather than simply admitting to having made a tiny mistake Trump insisted that he was right, going so far as to personally, and ineptly, alter and falsify an official hurricane projection map with a black sharpie marker.
Such disdain for the truth is more than simply dishonest, it is extremely dangerous. We all know that making the right decision depends on facing the facts and accepting reality. This is true in our own private lives as it is in government. The whole purpose of government scientists and data taking bureaucrats is to provide the facts to our elected leaders. It is risky enough when those leaders choose to ignore the facts presented to them but when they attempt to portray their own prejudices as facts it is a recipe for disaster.
In fact the Trump administration’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic is an excellent example of what can happen when a government replaces facts with lies and reality with delusion. The false statements that Donald Trump has made about Cov-19 are well documented. From “like a miracle it will just go away,” to “we’re turning a corner” it’s just been one lie after another. All while more than 220,000 Americans have died.
Now we face the distinct possibility that Donald Trump may overrule the Food And Drug administration’s scientists and release a vaccine before it has completed testing. The consequences of such a bulldozing of scientific and medical norms could destroy all trust in the safety and efficacy of, not only of any vaccine for Covid-19 but for vaccines in general.
I had only just begun to compose this post when the news broke of President Donald Trump’s own diagnosis for Covid-19. The irony of how Trump, who had downplayed, denied, ignored and even told boldfaced lies about the pandemic’s deadly spread throughout the US has become a victim of his own reckless and irresponsibility behavior is certainly historic. It certainly says a great deal about how Trump always places his own personal desires above, not just the health and welfare of others but literally above everything else including his own health.
And the consequences of that irresponsibility to not only Trump himself but to his supporters are becoming clear as every hour another campaign official, senior White House advisor or GOP member of Congress tests positive for Covid-19. Add to that the question of whether Trump knew that he was positive when he attended fundraisers in Minnesota and New Jersey, potentially putting the health of those he came in contact with at risk and the President’s reckless behavior verges on the criminal. All of this demonstrates exactly how dangerous Donald Trump’s arrogant ignorance and determination to force his will onto the facts presented to him by scientists, doctors and other experts is to the future of our country.
The attitude of Joe Biden, the democratic candidate for President, to science and basic knowledge in general serves as a stark contrast to that of Donald Trump. Throughout his years in congress the former Vice-President had always shown the greatest respect for scientific fact and the opinions of experts. Whether it be the dangers of pollution and climate change or the attempted interference in our elections by foreign powers Biden has always sought for and based his decisions on the best evidence available from those whose job it is to gather that evidence. A Biden administration will be one that at the very least tries to do the right thing to solve the problems of this country instead of simply lying its way through those problems.
During all of those years in congress Biden has been at the forefront of the fight for stricter environmental rules to control all forms of pollution. Then, as Vice-President under Barack Obama, Biden worked on many sustainable energy projects and other ‘green’ initiatives. As President Biden can be expected to continue the work of trying to clean up the environment as well as simply returning science to its proper place as a guide toward the future of our nation.
The choice this year is so clear, so indisputable that scientific organizations and publications who have for many years strictly avoided taking any sides in any political debate have in this election decided that they cannot remain silent. Scientific American magazine, which had never in its 175-year history endorsed a political candidate, has endorsed Joe Biden for President, accusing Donald Trump of dismissing science. At the same time the 208-year-old New England Journal of Medicine recently published its first ever editorial dealing with politics referring to the Trump Administration’s response to Covid-19 as “Dangerously Incompetent” and calling for voters to remove him from office. The fact that these two apolitical institutes should reverse centuries of tradition in order to voice their opposition to another four years of Donald Trump is telling.
One recent episode illustrates very succinctly the difference between Trump’s and Biden’s attitudes toward science. At a rally in Nevada on the 18th of October Donald Trump actually accused his rival of ‘Listening to the Scientists”. The democratic nominee quickly replied with the one word answer of “Yes!!”
The word science is just Latin for knowledge, truth. The question in this election is simply this, is the United States to be governed by a man who at least respects the truth, or by someone to whom lying is a lifelong habit?