Are you so sure it's only conservatives? I lean left and a healthy dose of skepticism is needed in science.

I've read too many abstracts and papers where the methodology sucked, the sample size was a rounding error, incorrect conclusions were made, etc.

Let's not forget it was a hokey scientist who pushed the antivax shit. His license was revoked but the damage was done.

Science needs to be good, proper science to be regarded as anything approaching the truth. That's why science is like medicine, a practice.