Liberal distrust of the scientific consensus

Yesterday in my review of the recent Pew survey comparing attitudes of scientists and the general public I emphasized the fact that scientists are disproportionately godless liberals. But there are some issues where it seems that the Left is on the forefront of science-skepticism. There has been talk here on ScienceBlogs about the disproportionate Lefty orientation of anti-vaccination activists. From what I can tell this is true, but anti-vaccination sentiment is too shallow of a sentiment for it be starkly political, at least according to these data (there's little party difference). On the other hand there is a big difference when it comes to animal testing, scientists have very pro-animal testing attitudes while the public is ambivalent, with Democrats split, and Republicans favoring by a 2:1 margin. There are bigger gaps here is between men and women, and the old and young, so much of the variation might be accounted ...