The Non-Religious Are Becoming The New “Values Voter”

Last month’s national election results saw more openly non-religious people elected to state and federal office than ever before. All of this are Democrats, which isn’t surprising given that the current incarnation of the Republican Party opposes science, bodily autonomy, LGBTQ rights, education, logic, reason, and reality.

While all of that sounds promising, it only really matters if that leads to passing sensible legislation. What qualifies as “sensible” is obviously subjective, but there are a number of general positions most Secular Americans would support. Evidence in this election of a new kind of “values voters.”

Many religious people hold some firm beliefs and are motivated to vote those beliefs. Secular Americans also maintain their own strongly held values. My research suggests they vote on these values with just as much motivation as the religious. These “values voters” cared about a referendum promoting sex education, which passed in the state of Washington, an increasingly non-religious state. These “values voters” decriminalized drugs in Oregon, a position that Secular Americans overwhelmingly support. These “values voters” funded science programs in Colorado and stem cell research in California. These voters wouldn’t all identify as atheists, or even non-religious. But their values are a far cry from the irrational ones espoused by religious conservatives… because, in the case of the non-religious, the results actually make people’s lives better.

For years now, we have seen a rise in the percent of non-religious Americans, but there was a question of when that would translate to political power. Perhaps we now getting our first real glimpses of it. We need to keep pushing harder.

Thanks to “The Friendly Atheist” Facebook group