Scientific American has never endorsed a presidential candidate in its 175-year history. This year we are compelled to do so. We do not do this lightly.
The evidence and the science show that Donald Trump has badly damaged the U.S. and its people — because he rejects evidence and science. The most devastating example is his dishonest and inept response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which cost more than 190,000 Americans their lives by the middle of September. He has also attacked environmental protections, medical care, and the researchers and public science agencies that help this country prepare for its greatest challenges. That is why we urge you to vote for Joe Biden, who is offering fact-based plans to protect our health, our economy and the environment.
I know, I know … the people who most need to understand this don’t read Scientific American, don’t have much association with people who do, and would probably mutter something ugly about pointy-headed experts if they happened to hear about the endorsement. This is exactly why the rest of us should spread the endorsement far and wide — because educated Americans have got to get to the polls on November 3rd and put Trump out of office; it’s up to us.
There is now some speculation afoot in the opinion pages that evangelicals are abandoning Trump. I suppose that may be true of an honorable few, but I doubt that the numbers are very great because an appeal to common decency, or the chimera of Christian family values, is not going to move them; if those were actual living influences to evangelicals they would never have swarmed to Trump in the first place. Trump is the voice of their malice and resentments, and most consider themselves validated by his squalid behavior.
The great divide in American life is education — and now we know what an America governed by the beliefs and so-called values of ignoramuses looks like: it’s a bleakscape of death.
#AnnihilateTheGOP