Trust in Medical Scientists Has Grown in U.S., but Mainly Among Democrats | Pew Research Center https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2020/05/21/trust-in-medical-scientists-has-grown-in-u-s-but-mainly-among-democrats/

This is troubling
The deep partisan politicization of science in the US has been around for a while, but mainly confined to some high profile issue areas, and not science in general
But Pew poll suggests in the era of Covid19, partisan views on scientists may be expanding ...

An important part of the dynamics is the perception (and likely the reality) among the public that scientists are also partisan actors in policy debates

So Ds see scientists as “on my side”
And Rs see then as “not on my side”

That is jet fuel on a fire in 2020

The highly educated (including scientists) are different than other Americans

This creates an important context for how scientists engage policy and politics

The politics of communities in which the highly educated live are different than other places
Look at how strong the relationship of 2016 Trump vote and advanced degree %

It is undeniable that the highly educated have left other behind
The income of PhDs has skyrocketed while those with HS degrees have tread water
Add in assertive mating and the trend is accelerated

As scientists have become more left & wealthier than overall population, some have been spoiling for a partisan brawl
Bring it on!

Bad idea

There are almost 60m Americans with terminal HS degrees compared to <5m with PhDs

The Pew data suggests we haven’t yet figured this out

Bottom line

It is not enough for scientists to communicate science, much less complain about Republicans, curse out Trump, mock people on Twitter

Scientists need to learn how to make peace with America, all of it, if we wish to defuse the growing partisan divide on science
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