There are plenty of reasons to criticize Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (below, left), a possible Republican presidential candidate, but he gave us a new one during an interview at London’s Chatham House today.
Moderator Justin Webb asked him a question he said he often poses to Republican politicians from the United States: Did Walker accept evolution?
And Walker did what Republicans so often do on science-related questions: He embarrassed himself:
I’m going to punt on that one as well… That’s a question a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or the other.
Only in American do politicians have no problem weighing in gay marriage and women’s rights… but science?! They’ll avoid that one. Too controversial to admit you accept a scientific reality, I guess.
Webb pointed out that British politicians would have had no problem answering the question in the affirmative. Walker didn’t care.
He later released a statement trying to find middle ground on an issue that requires no compromise:
“Both science and my faith dictate my belief that we are created by God,” Walker’s statement said. “I believe faith and science are compatible, and go hand in hand.”
That’s a cutesy and ultimately unhelpful way of admitting you’re a Creationist. I mean, even Ken Ham claims to accept science.
Remember: this guy was elected — and survived a recall — to run a state. The sad part is he’s not an anomaly. Plenty of Americans — certainly plenty of conservative Christian politicians — would have replied the exact same way.
His response echoes a Republican primary debate in 2007, when three GOP politicians admitted that they flat-out rejected evolution:
These people are embarrassments. If you can’t accept science, you’re in no condition to manage a state (much less a country) that depends so heavily on it.
It shouldn’t take an overseas interview to make that point clear.