Sagan, Carl
1934–1996

Carl Sagan's framework was scientific literacy as a civic practice: 'The Demon-Haunted World' (1995) treats critical thinking as a democratic prerequisite, his climate-change warnings began in the 1980s, and his religious skepticism was balanced by 'profound reverence' for the human capacity to ask questions. Cornyn earns more Sagan credit than Paxton on the institutional-respect-for-evidence dimension (no climate-denial litigation, no anti-science institutional posture, support for the National AI Research Resource and CHIPS Act as science-investment frameworks). He loses ground on Sagan's secular-public-square framework (Cornyn's Republican social-conservative voting record on church-state cases is closer to Paxton's than to Sagan's preferred neutrality) and on climate science (Cornyn opposes the IRA's most aggressive renewable framework). Talarico's fact-based discourse, opposition to book bans, religious pluralism, climate policy, AI regulation framework, and his teaching of media literacy as a middle-school teacher align closely with the Sagan model. He loses some points because Sagan was libertarian-skeptical of state-power expansion of any kind.