On Monday, Scientific American (SA) endorsed Kamala Harris for President. It was only the second time in its 179-year history that America’s venerable general science magazine has endorsed a presidential candidate. The first was Joe Biden in 2020.
Why this recent editorial interest in presidential politics for a publication that had not officially backed a candidate in all the years before those two? For context, when the magazine’s first edition was published in 1845, James Polk was President, there were 27 states, and c.20 million Americans.
What happened to cause SA to drop its neutrality after 43 presidential elections and take a stand, first with Joe and now with Kamala? (Hint: although it did not officially endorse Hillary Clinton in 2016, it editorialized favorably for her — what did the three elections have in common?)
Crazycat