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While campaigning for Terry McAuliffe in Virginia today, President Obama stung Republicans with a defense of truth, facts, and science.

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The president said,

We know that investing in research, science makes sense for America. It always has, and Virginia. Part of the reason why Virginia has grown so much during your lifetimes is because this has been a centerpiece of research and development, particularly up here in Northern Virginia. We’ve seen it. So that makes our economy work better, makes our business thrive, and allows them to compete all across the world. It makes our military outstanding. That innovative drive. That’s a part of what makes America special. Terry’s opponent, I guess he’s got other ideas in mind. But I can tell you, we will not create jobs when you focus on things like attacking Social Security. That doesn’t create jobs. It doesn’t create jobs when you go after scientists, and you try to offer your own alternative theories of how things work, and engage in litigation around stuff that isn’t political. It has to do with what’s true. It has to do with facts. You don’t argue with facts.

The president was speaking about Ken Cuccinelli’s one man war on science, but the distinction that he drew applies across the Democratic and Republican parties. One of the reasons that Republicans are finding themselves on the losing end of more and more important elections is because of their rejection of science.

When is the last time that a Republican leader came out and made a public statement in favor of science?

It doesn’t happen anymore. The agreed upon basis for truth that science gives us is being rejected by the Republican Party. Republicans treat science and fact as the enemies of their beliefs. The American political party system has been broken down into a party of fact versus a party of faith. The problem for Republicans is that their position has made it impossible for people of faith who also believe in fact to stay in their party.

This wasn’t just about reminding voters of the Republican candidate for governor’s extremism. It was a reminder of how much extremism has come to define the entire Republican Party.

If Republicans lose on Tuesday they will blame the candidate, when they really should be blaming the party.