Letters to the Editor
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Not familiar with Armstrong
But what I read here is spot-on. As others have noted, however, science has been politicized by the Right Wing, twisted, demonized, and turned upside down (read The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney).
Armstrong is really addressing larger social issues in our culture. America has always had an anti-intellectual streak running throughout, stemming from our frontier mentality, where elitist Europeans and their East Coast counterparts were viewed with suspicion. The frontier mentality, where more emphasis is placed on a "can-do" outlook, has been adopted by the working class, and sometimes by upper class silver spoon types who want to be "regular guys" (Bush), mostly because they've historically been shut out of higher education due to socioeconomic factors.
I used to teach chemistry to freshman. It always came as a shock to many of them when I would heavily criticize their lab reports. Yes, I graded grammar. During my first year, I was appalled at how many students could not write basic sentences. I hear from my friends who teach high school that many parents, "helicopter parents", they're called, constantly harass teachers to intervene in their children's performance, as if failure is something that their children cannot endure. It filters up to the university campuses the freshman year, where many students either adapt or drop out.