Like it or not, the conservative movement is made up of two constituencies: Religious conservatives, who come by their conservatism via their religion, and Objectivists (& fellow-travelers) who come by our conservatism via a secular analysis of human nature & the proper role of government that's most compatible with human nature.Funny that you should celebrate the defeat of a conservative Senator's proposal on a conservative website.
It's a perfect example of the Clintonian strategy, which he really never had the strength to bring off, of using wedge issues to demonstrate to Republican and conservative constituencies, that their representatives did not have the power or will to do things for them, or to prevent bad things from being done to them. Thus the choice of the NRA and pro-life issues to beat up on Republicans for 8 years. Perfect voter suppression strategy--"they can't do anything for us, why get excited about voting?" Not far behind is the "Creationist" constituency for whom Big Media constantly uses to try to heap scorn upon Republican candidates.
Surely the conservative movement is robust enough to survive vigorous internal debate? When a Republican senator pushes thru a piece of stealth creationism into our schools, the GOP is going to get ridiculed whether we right-wing evolutionists keep our mouths shut or not. And rightly so, IMO - which is why I'm glad it got quashed.
And you anoint, of all people, as keepers of the flame of freedom-- the NEA.
NEA??? The article is from the NCSE. Different group entirely, with very different goals.
Your code word of "fabian creationism," I presume, though I choose not to spend time researching it, is "intelligent design."Yes. Good guess! Fabianism was a socialist movement from the early 1900's. The Fabians were the "reasonable", moderate socialists who never came out & mounted a full, honest fight for socialist/communist revolution, but rather tried to nip at the heels of capitalism wherever they could. In the same way, ID is "respectable", moderate, "big-tent" - fabian creationism. They try to nip at the heels of mainstream biology, & try to pass themselves off as the "reasonable" creationists, as opposed to the young-earth creationists, who they always act somewhat embarrassed by.