Well, what do you expect? At the moment, we're a country of conservatives in the midst of a depression. Everyone's interested in markets and commerce, while great swaths of our population regard climate scientists "skeptically", as though they are purposefully deceiving us to some end; regard evolutionary scientists as liars; regard science and scientists in general as untrustworthy because they're too far removed from "blue collar Joe".<p>The decisions of our government are the result of our culture, not the other way 'round.<p>I might've <i>hated</i> the decisions to wage war in the Middle East on a number of grounds, but I had to admit that those decisions had massive popular support.<p>This is just a continuation of that same culture in action, and any historian could tell you what's likely coming next.