The last four remining candidates in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination vehemently reject the fundamental findings of modern climate science. They tirelessly repeat climate myths, the refutations of which are easily found on websites such as www.skepticalscience.com. In order to obtain political and financial support, especially from sources allied with the fossil fuel industry, they may conclude that they must attack mainstream climate science. Yet science is the best process that humanity has developed to learn about natural laws. These laws show us that today's generation has its hands on the thermostat controlling future climate. Mother Nature, or the physical climate system, is not concerned with anybody’s values or convictions or political litmus tests. Mother Nature is concerned with natural laws. She always wins.

This chapter shows the limits of political Manichaeism with reference to the career of Maximilien Robespierre and his fellow Jacobin leaders during the French Revolution. It criticizes the use of litmus tests and the search for purity in political life, it also engages with the rhetoric of key members of the Claremont Institute whose radical agenda shows disturbing similarities with that of the Jacobins.