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WA State 2025: Newcastle conservatives promote creationist wedge strategy [1]
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Date: 2025-09-16
Hi everyone, in my previous article, I mentioned how the “Newcastle First!” MAGA city council candidates for 2025 (Sarah Goodman, Kevin Kirkaldie, Maggie Lo, and Jim Quigg) have ties to Steve Buri, former Newcastle Mayor and President of the Discovery Institute, a prominent creationist think tank.
It’s extremely telling that Goodman actively sought an endorsement from Buri, but not from current Mayor Rob Clark. Not because the Buri is more recognizable among Newcastle residents, but because he isn’t.
I don’t know if the “Newcastle First!” candidates actually agree with Buri’s views on creationism, but the alternative is even worse: They know Buri is wrong, but they’ll still promote his agenda anyway because they really don’t care. It’s easy to dismiss the Discovery Institute as irrelevant, ignorant crackpots pushing outdated ideas, but the leaked “wedge document” from 1999 reveals that they’ve been playing the long game all along:
The overarching goal of the Institute in conducting the intelligent design campaigns is religious; to replace science with "a science consonant with with Christian and theistic convictions." … The Discovery Institute argues that science, due to its reliance on naturalism, is an inherently materialistic and atheistic enterprise and thus the source of many of society's ills, and that "Design theory [intelligent design] promises to reverse the stifling dominance of the materialist worldview."[12] None of the campaigns are aimed at directly influencing the scientific community, which the Institute considers dogmatic and hidebound, but rather are focused on swaying the opinions of the public and public policy makers, which, if effective, it is hoped will respond by forcing the academic institutions supporting the scientific community to accept the Discovery Institute's redefinition of science.
The goal was never to undermine science to push creationism, the goal was to push creationism to undermine science. They want total rejection of reality (“materialism”), so that no one knows who or what to believe anymore, so you end up having to turn to God. Or, more accurately, you turn to the religious authoritarians like Trump claiming to speak on God’s behalf. That’s the playbook of the intellectual dark web, to sow doubt and confusion to push people towards to religion.
The Discovery Institute may have lost the battle in Dover, but they clearly won the war for the country, and that’s why RFK Jr. is now in charge of the Department of Health, warning people not to vaccinate. Because relying science instead of prayer for disease is bad.
In 1984, the movie “Ghostbusters” was revolutionary because it showed how superstitution could be overcome by science, rather than the other way around. The wedge strategy is an attempt to move backwards, promoting the more common trope that only magic can defeat magic.
And we can see the wedge strategy play out here in Newcastle. Here’s a recent excerpt from the Urbanist:
Among the broad number of changes made: removal of a policy directing Newcastle to merely consider the “protection[s] for renters in residential and commercial spaces to mitigate displacement,” as well as another policy referencing the fact that development regulations should be based on the “best available science.” “Best Science? Biology is a science that maintains there are 2 genders, male and female. However, social justice warriors ingnore [sic] the science they don’t like. Who determines the science. Take this out,” the document adopted by the planning commission states, in language that exactly mirrors Mayor Clark’s suggestions, typo notwithstanding.
The phrase “best available science” should not be controversial. Clark campaigned on his engineering background, so it should be easy for him to explain the science backing his policies. But since he knows his science is garbage, he instead dismisses the entire concept of science as an SJW conspiracy. For the record, actual science doesn’t back his claim regarding gender, but that’s the entire point of the wedge strategy, replacing science with dogma.
The problem isn’t simply that Clark is factually wrong or bad at science, the problem is he doesn’t care, and that’s not something you can correct. Being wrong is the point, like the Nigerian email scammers still announce they’re from Nigeria. Holding true to your opinion despite contrary evidence is just further proof of faith for getting into heaven.
Newcastle conservatives know they can win low turnout elections if by appealing to evangelicals, who will believe anything you say as long as they’re convinced you’re on the side of God. That’s why the council voted down the pride flag, and that’s how they were able to mobilize so much support. Many people watching the livestream speculated that Clark coordinated with evangelicals to grant them priority speaking time.
The “Newcastle First!” movement knows they can’t win on policy, so they’ve created a platform where policy doesn’t matter. And that’s why they sought Buri’s support. They don’t know how to fix they budget, or how to fix traffic, or how to fix crime. It’s all just an appeal to authority, “trust me, bro.” It doesn’t matter if they bankrupt the city because they’re not going to be there when it happens. No one’s going to hold them accountable when they fail, certainly not God, because God was the one who told them to do this in the first place!
If you’re tired of living in a world where facts and science don’t seem to matter, then please, don’t let Steve Buri win. Don’t let the Discovery Institute win. It’s easy for people on the left to feel completely hopeless in modern America, but Newcastle is a city where you really can make a big difference.
Here are links to the candidates worth supporting: Andy Jacobs, Chris Villasenor, Paul Charbonneau, and Karin Blakley.
The biggest thing they need help with are donations, which will go towards campaign mailers and yards signs. If you’re local, you can volunteer to knock doors or attend a campaign event.
But even if you can’t do either of these things, it also helps to simply spread the word and share these posts, because MAGA can’t win Newcastle if Newcastle knows who they’re voting for.
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