Red State Rabble

Red State Rabble is old, but we are, apparently, still somewhat naive. That's why we were astonished when we initially heard the charge from those on the religious right, who are the mainstay of the intelligent design and creationist movement, that Darwin and evolution are somehow connected to Hitler and the Nazis.

RSR has had a long-running exchange with Dr. Richard Weikart, a History professor at California State University, Stanislaus. He is the author of From Darwin to Hitler: Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics, and Racism in Germany. Weikart contends that Darwinism played a key role not only in the rise of eugenics, but also in euthanasia, infanticide, abortion, and racial extermination, all ultimately embraced by the Nazis.

The charge that Darwin and evolution are linked to everything bad in the world is part of the "Wedge Strategy" developed at the Discovery Institute in Seattle, where Dr. Weikart is a fellow. This imagined link is straight out of the right's political playbook which recommends demonizing political opponents rather than debating their ideas honestly.

Now, a real link between those on the religious right, including those who support the teaching of intelligent design, and the notorious racist David Duke has been reported on Daily KOS and AmericalBlog.

It seems that the Family Research Council, headed by Tony Perkins, paid the former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, David Duke, $82,000 in 1996 for a "who's-who-of-racist-America mailing list."

Is there any real link between the Family Research Council and intelligent design or creationism? While the Family Research Council is probably best known for its anti-gay, anti-abortion positions, in its list of core principles FRC has this to say:

"God exists and is sovereign over all creation. He created human beings in His image."

And, in the section of the FRC website that lays out the group's education policy on creationism versus evolution, you'll find this: a report on last month's Kansas science hearings. Here's what they say:

"Although intelligent design proponents are the ones accused of injecting religion into science, it now appears that it is the evolutionists who treat their theory as unquestionable dogma, and their critics who are persecuted as heretics."

Right out of the old playbook, wouldn't you say?

Here's RSR's question. Will the Discovery Institute -- and Dr. Weikart -- who have been so assiduous in promoting the utterly false myth of a link between Darwin and Hitler -- now dissociate themselves from the racists in their own ranks?

Only time will tell.