I had hoped that the drubbing of Mitt Romney and the downfall of anti-abortion extremists in Senate races would have sunk in and persuaded promising GOP politicians that kissing the extreme right’s ass was a one-way ticket to defeat. Unfortunately, it appears that the Teabaggers are still in charge, with reason, sanity, and science the victims of the GOP’s race to vacuousness.
Case in point is Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who disqualified himself today as a future president, by revealing he is too stupid for the job. Apparently, in the December issue of GQ there is an interview with Rubio in which Michael Hainey asked, “How old do you think the Earth is?”
Mr. Rubio responded:
I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.
Juliet Lapidos of the New York Times got it right when she said:
Mr. Rubio probably figured that these same Republicans have no truck with geologists, and so there was no advantage to stating clearly that the earth is 4.54 billion years old. But if his response was more proof of cunning than idiocy, it was still ludicrous.
If Rubio has a fifth grade science education, talk of his running for president are absurd. And, if he is pandering to the nation’s stupidest voters — he has a good chance at winning the Republican nomination, but will likely go down in flames in the general election. The Republican Party is making a huge mistake. They should be bouncing the Teabaggers and the Religious Right, instead of pandering to pea brains (or is it tea brains?).
If Rubio doesn’t know anything, he should change change his name to Rube-io.
Oh God help us. A Republican Latino who answers like that? Stupido!
These religiospastic clowns need to be called out all the time. Make them blather and stumble until they admit they are catering to their fascist xtian base. They should also be asked directly why they are against big government but then propose constitutional amendments reglulating personal relationships, and laws controlling sex and imposing religious doctrine. The more their idiocy is exposed, the more they will be the butt of jokes in the wider culture.
I thought the trouncing that they received in the election sounded the death-knell for the Tea-Party.
Was this not correct? Have they not gotten the resounding message that American voters sent them?
I don’t find it surprising, especially for a group of people whose answer to everything is “because [our superstitious, literalistic, self-serving, fact-denying, rigid interpretation of] God.” Why would these rationality-free people suddenly apply common sense and reason to their own realities? They remind me of the horrifically spoiled kindergarten child I knew years ago who stood up and announced to her class that “my mother says I’m prettier, and smarter, and better than all of you.” They are so invested in their fantasy of God-given superiority that to admit a mistake is tantamount to a statement of atheism. Which as all we atheists know, is to be henceforth branded an Ultimate Evil Incarnate. Insert MASSIVE eye roll and exasperated exhale here.
Rubio is not dumb. He is trying to win over the right wing Bible thumper literalists. It’s amazing the lengths Republicant politicians will go when they are groveling for the thumper votes.
Peter said “I thought the trouncing that they received in the election sounded the death-knell for the Tea-Party.
Was this not correct? Have they not gotten the resounding message that American voters sent them?”.
No, a lot of them didn’t get the message. Just as many of them were in denial about the polls before the election and certain Romney would win in a landslide since the election many of them are still living in their self-fabricated reality and just can’t accept that their loss had anything to do with extreme right wing policies. Incredibly some of them think they lost because they weren’t severely conservative enough.
Fundagelical christianism is all about the denial of reality. These folks live in a fantasy world of virgin births and talking snakes, rain induced floods that cover “the whole earth” and no answer to prayers that unequivocally demonstrate the activity of their god. Its a fantasy world of rewritten and invented history with a promise that if they follow the party line, they get to disown all of their mistakes and live forever in some kind of “perfection” cared for by their big daddy in the sky. As a group, fundagelical christianists seem incapable of self-reflection and the ability to examine their worldview from outside their own box. No wonder they have so much trouble with a 4.5 billion year old earth. Talk about creating a cognitive dissonance. You cannot be consistently rational and a follower of christianity or any religion as far as I can see.
He’s too dumb to be Senator too – but that apparently didn’t stop him.
In my experiance, teaching a child young earth creationism creates irrational fear of trustworthiness in sources outside the religious right bubble–which of course is the point. Yay, indoctrination?