Two Tea Party Candidates for 2016

After the recent election a lot of pundits (and me) predicted that it was the death of the  Tea Party, that the Republicans would see the writing on the wall and purge this loose amalgamation of neo-Birchers, unrepentant racists, Fox News watchers and fundamentalist Christian wackadoodles from their party.

Marco Rubio, the Creationist Candidate

Today, I am not so sure.  Let’s take a look at two of the probable GOP candidates for president in 2016.  First, Governor Chris “Krispy Kreme” Christie is talking about privatizing police forces, which probably appeals mightily to those who watch “America’s Toughest Prisons” on TV but just about nobody else, because it’s  medieval and would undoubtedly be a bad move even economically, in the long run.

Then,  Florida Senator Marco Rubio came up with this gem of a quote when a reporter from GQ magazine asked him if he knew how old the earth was:

“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 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.  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.”

Let’s work this backwards.  No, Senator, it’s not one of the great mysteries.  We can’t pinpoint it down to the minute, but you’d be on pretty safe ground saying it’s between 4 and 5 billion years old.  We’ve been able to answer that for quite some time now.  People who say it happened in 7 days, 6,000 years ago, are nuts.  Sure, this is a country where you should be able to teach any crazy theory you  want, but not in the public schools.  Their job is to teach science.  If you’re not qualified to answer a question like that, which was really a very easy question, then perhaps you shouldn’t be in the Senate, much less running for President.  Does it have anything to do with the economy?  It has a lot to  do with the oil and coal industries, that’s for sure.  It has a lot to do with environmental sciences, and that’s pretty obviously an area where ignorance is not a good idea.  Finally, it is not a dispute amongst theologians.  It is a dispute between fanatically fundamentalist Christian theologians and anybody who has a brain which has experienced a normal amount of human evolution.

To summarize, every single thing Rubio said in that paragraph was wrong.  The scary part is, it’s a clear sign that Republicans are not rejecting the Teabaggers.  They are still pandering to them, sucking up to their ignorance, for votes.