The Problem Behind Marco Rubio’s Scientific Ignorance

The Article: Grand Old Planet by Paul Krugman in The New York Times.

The Text: Earlier this week, GQ magazine published an interview with Senator Marco Rubio, whom many consider a contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, in which Mr. Rubio was asked how old the earth is. After declaring “I’m not a scientist, man,” the senator went into desperate evasive action, ending with the declaration that “it’s one of the great mysteries.”

It’s funny stuff, and conservatives would like us to forget about it as soon as possible. Hey, they say, he was just pandering to likely voters in the 2016 Republican primaries — a claim that for some reason is supposed to comfort us.

But we shouldn’t let go that easily. Reading Mr. Rubio’s interview is like driving through a deeply eroded canyon; all at once, you can clearly see what lies below the superficial landscape. Like striated rock beds that speak of deep time, his inability to acknowledge scientific evidence speaks of the anti-rational mind-set that has taken over his political party.

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Voter Fraud: Not Just Fabricated But A Marketing Ploy

The Article: Florida GOP Admission: Voter Fraud ‘Just a Marketing Ploy’ in Common Dreams.

The Text: Two former Florida GOP leaders and current party strategists are blowing the whistle on early voting law HB 1355, which—they admit—was designed by Republicans to limit Democratic turnout, specifically targetting minorities.

Former GOP Chairman Jim Greer and former Governor Charlie Crist told the Palm Beach Post that concerns regarding voter fraud were advanced “for one reason and one reason only,” to deter Democratic voters.

According to the report, Greer cited a number of meetings, beginning in 2009, during which party staffers and consultants pushed for reductions in early voting days and hours. “We’ve got to cut down on early voting because early voting is not good for us,” Greer was reportedly told by party consultants.

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How The Wealthy Dehumanize The Poor

The Article: Lies of Plutocracy: Exploding Five Myths that Dehumanize the Poor by Jeff Nall in Truth Out.

The Text: You’re in the grocery store checkout aisle. Time to cash out. You pull out your food-stamp EBT card. You’re overcome with a sense shame one feels for being broke in a world that measures self-worth according to net-worth.

You hide the card behind your bank debit card – the one that has nearly nothing in it – and try to act natural as you slide it through the machine. “Cash or Food,” it asks. You hit food. No one in the aisle with you is the wiser. But the cashier knows. You wonder if he’s now scrutinizing your food purchases. If he’s so poor how can he afford organic tomatoes? (After all, pesticides only harm the wealthy!) But at least the people behind you aren’t in on it.

“OK, the balance is $10.99,” the cashier says. You forgot about the laundry detergent. Now you’ve been outed to everyone. “He’s buying this stuff with our money,” you imagine people around you thinking.

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What’s Still The Matter With Kansas

The Article: What’s Still the Matter With Kansas – and the Democrats? by Ira Chernus in Truth Out.

The Text: A presidential election focused on income and wealth inequality? The Republicans clearly identified as the party of the rich, and the Democrats, just as clearly, the party of the rest of us? That’s pretty amazing. We haven’t had a contest like this in three-quarters of a century.

But if the voters really care so much about economic issues, as the pundits keep insisting, and inequality really is such a prominent issue, then the Democrats should be breezing to victory. So why are they clearly losing the House and facing a very real possibility of losing the White House?

My answer unfolds in two connected parts: First, the economy is not the most basic issue. Second, this year as always, the foolish Democrats are acting as if it is.

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Today’s GOP: Worst US Political Party In 150 Years

The Article: Today’s GOP: The Worst Political Party in 150 Years of US History in AlterNet.

The Text: When Steve Benen said that last year’s debt ceiling fiasco was the worst thing an American political party has done since the Civil War, it got me thinking. The Palmer Raids were more an executive branch thing than a congressional one. Republican isolationism in the face of the rise of Hitler, Stalin, and a militant Japan was foolish but also very understandable. The Republican establishment, including the Eisenhower administration, wasn’t too keen on McCarthyism. Even the brutal Jim Crow regime of the Southern Democrats was just that, southern. And if the Democrats deserve a ton of blame for committing us to propping up South Vietnam’s government, they didn’t actually start that policy and they were being pressured into it by the other side. The truth is that, either through shared blame or lack of party unity, no single party can be blamed for doing anything as stupid as the debt ceiling fiasco since the Civil War. The closest I can come is the lockstep support the GOP gave to President Bush and Dick Cheney as they walked us repeatedly into the threshing blades.

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