One of the hottest topics in public health is MRSA, methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus, a strain of Staph aureus that has become resistant to commonly used antibiotics. A handy fact sheet on MSRA is available from the state of Michigan. Factors contributing to the spread of MSRA include inappropropriate antibiotic use, including over-reliance on antibiotics by physicians and failure to use prescriptions properly by patients, the overuse of antibiotics for livestock production in agriculture, and the failure of the pharmaceutical industry to keep new antiobiotics in the pipeline. In addition, to Staph aureus, there is now evidence that poultry workers are acquiring antibiotic resistant E. coli bacteria. Bacteria evolve rapidly through rapid cell division, mutations and genetic recombination. Antiobiotic resistant bacteria are the result of natural selection.
Note the operative words - "evolve" and "natural selection". However many Americans reject the occurrence of evolution Most of those Americans are Republicans. Religious fundamentalism, partisan politics and poor science education are offered as reasons why Americans disbelieve the fact of evolution more than any other developed country in the world except Turkey.
What's this got to do with Mike Huckabee?
Huckabee sometimes talks just like an old fashioned, Huey Long type southern populist. In an amazingly un-Reaganlike statement, Huckabee demolished the central Republican article of faith, "trickle down economics", claiming that cutting the taxes of the super rich is" "a false and callous assumption that the poorest people in our nation, with inadequate salaries, lack of nutritious food, substandard housing and nonexistent or underfunded health care, can somehow afford to patiently wait while someone else's wealth eventually spashes onto them." Hell, that sounds like that other creationist, William Jennings Bryan!
So, Mike Huckabee's message resonates with the segment of conservatives who aren't privileged and well-off. "Why are so many of the poor of America, white and black, socially conservative?" David Seaton observes that in the absence of a welfare system, the only institutions that offer any comfort or protection are the church and the family. The current state of things, with a gutted welfare state and an economic system that conspires against poor families, might give many a reason for turning to ideologically extreme versions of Christianity with millennarian promises of salvation.
Creationism, which lines up with biblical inerrancy, travels all through this strata of highly religious and socially conservative folks. And being a creationist means turning one's back on modern biology. Mike Huckabee isn't the cause, but he's a sign that ignorance in the service of religious extremism is gaining strength in America. Failing to understand the practical implications of evolution, such as bacterial resistance brought about by inappropriate use of antibiotics is not a good thing. It's hard to overstate how life would change for the worse, should we allow antibiotics to fail.