For all their lip service to diversity and inclusion, the Democrats snubbed atheists at their convention and in their official party platform this election year. The convention was all God all the time, with not a word of acknowledgement for the increasingly important non-religious part of their voting base.
Is there any hope for this partnership? I argue that there is, and that atheists’ votes and political organizing has had a profound effect on the Democrats, even if their rhetoric hasn’t shifted to recognize it. That’s the topic of my new piece on the Guardian, Why do Democrats keep snubbing atheists? We help drive the party. To find out more, read the excerpt below, then click through to the full piece:
Atheists could be forgiven for feeling snubbed this election season. This, even though there are as many secular Americans as there are white evangelical Americans, and “no religion” is now the most common affiliation of registered voters, surpassing Catholics, evangelicals and mainline Protestants.
And we vote Democratic by huge margins. In 2012, the nonreligious vote put Barack Obama over the top in swing states like Ohio, Virginia and Florida. You would think that basic political tactics and electoral self-interest, if nothing else, would lead Democratic officials to do more to speak up for and celebrate this major and important part of their coalition…