New on AlterNet: Courting the Votes of the Non-Religious
My latest column is now up on AlterNet, There Are Now As Many Nonreligious Americans As Evangelicals — 6 Ways Politicians Can Court Their Vote. In it, I discuss the evidence which shows that nonreligious Americans are becoming a pivotal voting bloc – including evidence that they played a decisive role in President Obama’s reelection – and pen some advice to politicians who want to reach out to us. Read the excerpt below, then click through to see the rest:
In this cycle, the specter of a Romney presidency indebted to the religious right persuaded nonreligious voters to choose the lesser of two evils. But there’s no guarantee that this will happen in every future election. If Democrats continue to antagonize atheists and other nones, they may just stay home, and that’s a prospect politicians shouldn’t take lightly. As the Republicans become increasingly ideologically purified, Democratic candidates will need, more than ever before, for their base to turn out in big numbers, and that includes the nonreligious. Anything that turns them off, that dampens their enthusiasm or discourages them from showing up, could mean the difference in a close race…
Image credit: Kevin McCoy, released under CC BY-SA 2.0 license; via Wikimedia Commons
