by Chris Bodenner
A reader counters McWhorter:
Isn’t evolution the perfect metaphor for politicians changing their positions? Those who evolve on gay marriage, given the new political reality where opposition to gay marriage could threaten one’s political career, are better adapted to new selection pressures in their environment. Those who fail to evolve (e.g. patriarchs within the Republican party like Boehner and Chambliss) will fall to those same selection pressures – and they might bring down the entire party with them. It only takes small changes in an environment to render some organisms’s adaptive practices moot!
Here’s my cynicism on display. Regular people do change their minds, deliberate, and engage their practical reasons. Politicians, on the other hand, only care about survival – so like an ideal Darwinian entity, they’re only capable of evolution. And that’s precisely why regular people have to put the pressure on, with their voices and their votes.
The Dish 