CGS-authored
One of the big problems with the trench warfare that passes for American politics today is the tendency to judge everything by its label.
Nothing illustrates that more clearly than Proposition 71, the measure that calls for the state to borrow $3 billion for stem cell research.
In a state that will go handily for the Democrats this year, this measure has cult status: If the Republican administration restricts stem cell research, the argument goes, we Californians should chart our own course. We're big thinkers.
Forgive me if I loudly disagree. Stem cell research is a worthy pursuit. But Proposition 71 is the wrong tool. It puts forward an economic rationale that reminds me of an Internet IPO prospectus.
To grasp just how misleading the campaign for this measure is, you have to begin with the issue of who benefits.
If it succeeds, stem cell research will not reward Californians alone. It is not like a bridge across the bay or a new freeway into the Central Valley. It has the potential to help Alzheimer's patients in Orlando as much...
Nothing illustrates that more clearly than Proposition 71, the measure that calls for the state to borrow $3 billion for stem cell research.
In a state that will go handily for the Democrats this year, this measure has cult status: If the Republican administration restricts stem cell research, the argument goes, we Californians should chart our own course. We're big thinkers.
Forgive me if I loudly disagree. Stem cell research is a worthy pursuit. But Proposition 71 is the wrong tool. It puts forward an economic rationale that reminds me of an Internet IPO prospectus.
To grasp just how misleading the campaign for this measure is, you have to begin with the issue of who benefits.
If it succeeds, stem cell research will not reward Californians alone. It is not like a bridge across the bay or a new freeway into the Central Valley. It has the potential to help Alzheimer's patients in Orlando as much...