Why politicians must know their science

In a recent article for Politico Magazine, Michael Shermer wrote criticized Republicans and Democrats for failing to exercise reasoned analysis and scientific inquiry when discussing important issues.

From his article:

Three centuries after the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment gave birth to the principles that drove the American Revolution, we are forgetting that it is scientific facts that should settle such issues, not partisan politics. In these examples the data are quite clear and the jury is in: Global warming is real and humans caused it, GMOs are safe and we need all the sources of energy we can get to meet the demands of our ever-increasing population. Why, then, are we so politically divided on these points? It seems that, in our rush to find support for what we want to be true (it's an effect called "motivated reasoning," which is driven by the confirmation bias in which we seek and find confirming evidence for what we already believe and ignore or rationalize away disconfirming evidence), we have forgotten how to discern what actually is true. We've forgotten how to use science and reason to solve problems and instead we've turned to moralizing about scientific issues.

Shermer joins MPR News' Kerri Miller to discuss the topic.