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In a speech today that is not getting the recognition it deserves for exhibiting political-surrealism, Sarah Palin said, "I want all of our GOP candidates to take the opportunity to kill corporate capitalism..."   One obvious observation, in response, is that if there is a place in U.S. politics for right-wing attacks on "corporate capitalism," then there would seem to be a place for left-wing attacks on "corporate capitalism"--ones free of Palin's bizarre cynicism and awful demagoguery.  This, in turn, suggests that the reason the Democratic party has, for decades, failed to provide any serious left-wing criticism of the harms done by "corporate capitalism" is not that this would not be politically viable, but that the leading figures of the Democratic party are fundamentally intent on protecting corporate capitalism.   Attacks from the right--as history shows us--really are not a threat to corporate capitalism, so from Palin and her ilk,...

All of the Republican presidential candidates, save John Huntsman, have positioned themselves as "skeptics" about both biological evolution and anthropogenic climate change.   And Rick Perry—perhaps the Republican frontrunner—has been particularly vociferous on these topics.   Attacks on the teaching of biological evolution in the U.S. have historically been linked to religion, specifically to "Christian Fundamentalism."   Yet, that climate change, along with biological evolution, is now a target of these attacks suggests that religion is not the whole story.   What, then, is it that makes attacks on "science" appealing for much of the Republican base at this time?   The answer, I think, is that in these attacks, "science" represents professional-managerial expertise and, by association, the professional-managerial classes themselves.   In this regard, it is crucial that science is generally taught in K-12 schools through appeals to authority. ...