<\/a>Recently, economist Paul Krugman wrote<\/a> in the New York Times that many Republicans act as if they were members of \u201cthe ignorance caucus.\u201d As an example, he points out what House Majority Leader Eric Kantor said in a recent speech in which he intended to demonstrate his openness to new ideas. \u00a0Kantor said that he favored a complete end to federal funding of social science research<\/a>. To Krugman, this was a real and obvious disconnect.<\/p>\n Krugman also notes that the Texas GOP recently and explicitly condemned efforts to teach \u201ccritical thinking skills<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0The Republicans\u2019 reason was that such efforts \u201chave the purpose of challenging the student\u2019s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Krugman\u2019s assertions challenge the thinking of progressives. On the one hand we are firmly committed to what President Obama calls evidence-based social policy<\/a>. On the other hand, we try to be tolerant and prefer to not engage in name-calling with those with whom we disagree. How do we reconcile this conundrum?<\/p>\n It is not easy. At the root of our dilemma is whether we consider our positions on policy issues to be merely right, or do we anoint them as being \u201cabsolutely right.\u201d If the issue is evolution, there is indisputable scientific information that Charles Darwin\u2019s theory<\/a> is right. For those who went to school a half century ago, Darwin\u2019s theory was actually exciting to learn because it was science that was so readily transparent and logical. As science was becoming a cornerstone of our society in areas ranging from the Space Race to micro-biology, we knew that science held the answers to many of the questions we had about the mysteries of the world.<\/p>\n