Prominent old-line conservative John Derbyshire says “I am at a loss to know how creationism has got mixed up with conservatism.” (via Andrew Sullivan).
Mr. Derbyshire must not be paying attention, because it’s really easy to explain. It’s a direct result of Nixon’s Southern Strategy. Nixon (a Quaker) correctly reasoned that southerners would recoil at perceived liberal excesses ranging from the Summer of Love to Vietnam protests to really crazy stuff like, you know the Voting Rights Act. So he used code words (“states’ rights”) to win the formerly Democratic “solid South” in 1968. Reagan solidified the Republicans’ appeal there by embracing Jerry Falwell and other people on the religious right, and then they only had to sit back and watch as Democrats either a) converted to Republicans (Strom Thurmond being exhibit A) or b) were forced to defend anti-God values like abortion rights, the ban on prayer in schools etc.
Let’s call a spade a spade. The “solid South” was a direct artifact of slavery and Jim Crow laws. While we have progressed from the days of separate water fountains – I don’t think any mainstream politician would support such a thing, not even privately – there is no doubt that some of the same acrimony that drove Jim Crow laws drove the conversion of millions of Democrats into Republicans.
It may be that conservatism as a philosophy would normally have nothing to do with creationism, but the ascendance of conservatism as a political force –manifested in the Republican Party – rests in large part on the ignorance and bigotry often found in rural areas of the country, particularly in the South.
(By the way, I grew up in rural Georgia. I saw plenty of bigotry and ignorance on display while growing up, and I still see it when I visit. No, it’s not as overt as burning crosses on front lawns (or, honestly, as consequential), but it definitely exists. During that time I watched the the Republican Party morph from Dwight Eisenhower into Ralph Reed.)