Graduate students are viewed as apprentices, not as a source of cheap labor. Academics often boast about how arcane their research is. The institution of tenure has created a dominant expectation about what an academic career should be. But this is not surprising given that the people who do most of the training of the next generation are the people with tenure. The traditional reaction to politics by many scientists is one of condescension and disdain.
Science is objective after all.
Politics is just demagoguery. This attitude illserves young scientists and science in general. As mentioned above, doing science is political for better or for worse. You have to convince people of the correctness of what you are claiming. Perhaps of more importance is that scientists must have a political voice.