Trump s presidential push renews fears for US science

Donald Trump s promise to dismantle the deep state moved one step closer to reality last week as he cruised to victory in New Hampshire s Republican presidential primary. Faced with the possibility of Trump winning the US presidency for a second time, science advocates are gearing up to fight what they see as an existential threat to the future of science in the US government.

If he wins, Trump, who now dominates the Republican party with his far-right following, has promised to revive a plan to reclassify tens of thousands of federal employees. These include scientists and others who are currently shielded from politics in permanent professional positions. This plan, known as Schedule F, would allow his administration to more easily fire rogue bureaucrats those who he says oppose his political agenda and are part of the deep state . The administration could then appoint replacements, regardless of their scientific or technical expertise, who are aligned with Trump politically.

via www.nature.com

I’m not sure scientists like the idea of democracy so much. Probably because it’s not “our democracy,” which often means their democracy. Scientists, or actually just virologists, in particular have not covered themselves in glory of late, except in their amazing ability to evade responsibility for, well, unleashing a hugely destructive pandemic on the world just so they could keep getting the big bucks from government. Bad scientists. Bad.