A number of conservatives hold strange anti-science positions and the same number of progressives do.  The non-social-authoritarians of the political spectrum, mostly those with that liber root word, mostly only deny science when it really bugs them.

No wonder that liberal science academics seem to like libertarian Ron Paul.  Paul — and libertarian philosophy in general — tackles government policy the same way a researcher tackles an experiment.

Scientists and libertarians deal with the world the way it is, rather than the way they want it to be. Obviously that makes it tough to get elected to national office. A weirdo fringe person like Al Franken can get elected at the state level but outsiders have a harder time buying it and so it goes with libertarians, who can't figure out how to be libertarian and still have a police force.

Alex Berezow makes the case at USA Today.