I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the Right has a similar elite vs. populist chasm as the Left when it comes to some non-economic issues.<\/b> In this case it is evolution, where many elite conservatives have presumed to humor, and in the end ignore, the more unvarnished populists who espouse Creationism. <\/p>\n
Acceptance of evolution a marker in political\/cultural tribal disputes<\/a>:<\/p>\n U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican congressman from Savannah, deserves credit for venturing into \u201cunfriendly territory\u201d on Bill Maher\u2019s HBO show. In the show taped live Friday night, Kingston and the host got into a debate about evolution. Kingston denied the existence of evolution<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t believe that a creature crawled out of the sea and became a human being one day,\u201d Kingston says. Of course, nobody else does either \u2014 the process was a little more complicated than that. At one point, Kingston turns to fellow conservative Will Cain, of National Review, asking for a little support. Cain declines, explaining that he accepts evolution.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I am not a liberal because I think modern Left-liberalism does not take into account reality<\/i>, in particular, it too often ignores human nature<\/i>. There are probably issues where I agree with many Creationist social conservatives on the answer, if not the method by which I come to a particular answer, but one must draw the line at aggressive espousal on frankly primitive superstitions.<\/b> A conservative movement without a religious segment would be totally ineffectual, as it was during the New Deal era. But a conservative movement without an intellectual element will also be ineffectual, as mass movements without elite guidance tend to founder and become incoherent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: the Right has a similar elite vs. populist chasm as the Left when it comes to some non-economic issues. In this case it is evolution, where many elite conservatives have presumed … Continue reading