Asleep at the Switch

Mitt Romney (R-MA) is worried that America is losing its competitive edge in science and technology:

Addressing activists in Omaha, Romney said the nation is "asleep at the switch" and needs to focus on improving its technology or risk being overtaken by emerging countries such as China.

There are a couple problems with Romney's stance. For one thing, technology is meaningless in and of itself; in a sane world, critical thinking guides how, where, and when technology is designed and used. But critical thinking is anathema to the GOP, which feeds off the willful ignorance of the cowards, sexual cripples, and know-nothing hypocrites who make up its base. A society in which modern Republicanism can thrive will be hostile by definition to intelligence and to facts. Romney himself makes this point almost as soon as he opens his mouth:

In a nod to the conservative makeup of Iowa and Nebraska, Romney addressed family values in his speech and lamented court rulings that allowed gay marriages in his state.

"We believe in the sanctity of life," he said. "We also believe in family."

A population willing to take lies of this magnitude at face value is doomed to mediocrity. When you discriminate against gays, you're defying science, common sense, and morality. First, you're ignoring the scientific evidence that homosexuality is not a conscious choice. Second, by discriminating against qualified people, you're weakening your company, your industry, and your country. Third, by abusing and oppressing your fellow human beings, you're sneering at the only religious obligation that matters.

So Romney demands higher standards for American education...at a time when his party is promoting the content-free fraud of intelligent design; and trying to criminalize nonconforming teachers; and exploiting the public's poor grasp of statistics and logic; and treating abject fear - of terrorists, of gays, of women, of evolution - as some sort of moral and intellectual duty.

Unlike Romney and his pals, I'd love to live in a country educated enough to reject this sort of cynicism and dishonesty.