In an exclusive interview on ABC’s “This Week,” presidential candidate Jon Huntsman said “there’s a serious problem” with comments made by Texas Gov. Rick Perry in New Hampshire last week calling man-made global warming “a scientific theory that has not been proven and from my perspective is more and more being put into question” while claiming scientists have “manipulated data” on the issue. Here is what Huntsman said:
“The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party — the anti-science party, we have a huge problem,” Huntsman told ABC News Senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper. “We lose a whole lot of people who would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012.”
“When we take a position that isn’t willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said … about what is causing climate change and man’s contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and, therefore, in a losing position,” Huntsman added.
It might be too late. The Republican Party has rejected science for quite some time. Who can forget a George W. Bush aide that once derided Americans who lived in the “reality based community” in the New York Times magazine?
Jon Huntsman and Fred Karger may be the only two sane Republicans running for President of the United States. Unfortunately, it seems GOP primary voters prefer candidates that belong in padded cells. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to hear a Republican finally stand up to the medieval views that pass for reality in the Republican Party. Why won’t more mainstream Republicans stand up, speak out, and take their hijacked party back from extremists?
If there is no place for people like Huntsman and Karger in the GOP, then there is really no room for the Republican Party in American politics. We are flirting with economic, moral, financial and social disaster if one of our two parties rejects science in favor of superstition.
Hopefully, Huntsman’s comments will gain traction for his campaign. But don’t hold your breath because the GOP is now dominated by people who think Sarah Palin is worldly and believe that Michelle Bachmann is wise.
