The best part about science that could be used by politics is empiricism. There is so much talk of right and wrong, as if the policies of the next guy are going to be written in stone forever. Our nation is a human construct, the constitution a written document, amendable, changeable. A good scientist would look at the problems facing this nation and say, "Well, let's see what this policy does."

We try hard to make good policy, but the universe is complicated, people are finicky, and policies can fail. We need a political environment that encourages this kind of empiricism, and rejects the absolutist assumptions that seem to underly all political debate.