The antivax movement got its start from Andrew Wakefield's Lancet article of 1998, which has not only been widely discredited it was actually retracted. That took 11 years, however, and in the interim Bobby Kennedy wrote a piece tying vaccines to autism in Rolling Stone, Jenny McCarthy set up a PAC against vaccination and white liberal women in wealthy areas of Los Angeles managed to bring back measles. http://tallguywrites.livejournal.com/148012.html I call the anti-vax movement a "disease of the left" because I see it every day. My wife is a midwife for the affluent in Los Angeles. She makes a not-insubstantial amount of money every month holding seminars on vaccines. These women are her clients, and not a one of them has ever voted republican. Ever. Those are the facts. There's nothing absurd about them. If you think there is, it indicates that your understanding is lacking.
That said, it is mostly these people that are the most vocal proponents: http://www.hubski.com/pub?id=5705
I was referring to your introducing political affiliations into the discussion as out of left field and irrelevant. Not the antivax movement. Also, you're completely incorrect to suggest that Bachman didn't preach an anti-science message, and that it was only a problem of overreaching government. She got on the Today Show and told millions of viewers about how it could cause mental retardation (her source, a tearful mother). Let's be real here for a second and not pretend this didn't happen, and what her message was. Finally, all it takes for antivax to not be branded a 'disease of the left' is for the right to share in it. Kind of takes away your ability to honestly brand it that way. Again, not that this whole left/right thing has anything to do with the climate change deniers being appropriately labeled as such.
I no longer see any point in continuing this conversation. You have a malformed idea in your head based on a limited exposure to the issue and you're going to go to the mattresses with that. Have fun. I'm out.