The election has been good for the godless
Offline There were a few races I was focusing on as to the gains Atheists are making in the public discourse on elections. First there was the Presidential race. Obama had been attacked for his religious views. First he was a Muslim, another was that his mom was an Atheist, and that he went to a Christian church that was considered too radical because the preacher is Black and gives firey sermons. On the other hand, his opponent rarely went to church but his Christian credential weren't questioned and he allied with a radical fundy who espouses creationism and mocks scientific research. The end result was that people didn't care about Obama's religious affiliation even with high numbers still believing Obama is a Muslim.
The second race was the Senate race in North Carolina between Kay Hagen and Liz Dole. Dole had attacked Hagen for attending a "godless" fundraiser (eventhough it was a coalition fundraiser and Hagen never received any money from a godless PAC). Dole went as far as to claim Hagen is godless and tainted with "godless" money and played ads making is seem like Hagen said there is no god. The ad backfired and Hagen gained in the polls and went on to win.
The third election is one that didn't make much headlines. It was the first re-election for Rep. Pete Stark since he came out as an Atheist. He went ahead and won with 76% of the vote, clearly being an Atheist hasn't hurt his chances.
Still I don't think it's safe for Atheist politicians to campaign on the notion that they aren't enslaved by religious dogma but it does show a weakening on the part of the Religious Reich to instantly disqualify a candidate for not towing the Jesus line. I might as well mention the first openly Muslim candidate, Keith Ellison, went on to win re-election with 71% of the vote.
While the non-Jesus candidates are still regulated to the more progressive areas of the country with more and more of them attaining higher office they may eventually spill over into the more moderate sections of the country as religious affiliation no longer becomes a single issue for voters. Hopefully in a couple more decades the voting public will become enlightened enough to avoid the more superficial aspects of a candidate such as skin color, middle names and religious affiliation. In 2012 the Republicans will probably run Romney again and if they stick to their religious bigotry and oust him for being a Mormon and stick with the loonies like Palin then the party will die unless they adapt and become more of an open tent party like the Democratic, Green or Libertarian party.
- Login to post comments
I had heard a political analyst say this marks the end of the conservative era that begun with Reagan in 1980. I would love to see the Rethug party go the way of the Federalists and have the 2 major parties be Democrat and Socialist.
Matt Shizzle has been banned from the Rational Response Squad website. This event shall provide an atmosphere more conducive to social growth. - Majority of the mod team
Don't hold your breath, Matt. What was the final number for McCain? 46%?
Probably 70% of that 46% were Christians. Those fuckers haven't gone away in 2000 years. It's unlikely that they'll forget their run of power in just four years, especially when they're going to have FAUX News, Rush, Laura, and probably twenty other neocon talking heads encouraging them on. Hate sells really well, and now they're going to get to say they're the minority.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
That is pure fantasy. Obama won by a lot of electoral votes, but not by a lot of the popular vote. We aren't on a slippery slope to socialism, though we are going to have a much more left leaning government.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
British General Charles Napier while in India
I have heard extensively of two of the examples you used, and will comment on both.
The presidential election, of course, is one of them. This will not help us in the slightest. For three reasons. One, is that the way that Obama dealt with these accusations was to fervently deny them. He acted as if they were the most horrendous titles you could bestow on a person. Just because someone labels you as something doesn't mean you support them. I'm a big white guy with blonde hair and blue eyes. Does that make me a neo-natzi white supremacist? No. And if someone called me that would that make me a sympathizer? No. Reason number two is that the democratic national convention held a convention of all faiths and did not think to have a representative for us. They pointedly said that anyone without a belief in god did not have any important oppinions on morality. And reason number three is that Obama will not go against voters. As said above, he won by electoral votes. The church (meaning religous americans) is still the dominant political power once they agree on something. The election did not change that.
I had also heard quite a bit about the Dole/Haegan election. First of all, Haegan did not rally in the polls after these ads were shown. She already had a substantial lead. If anything, these ads had a nuetral effect, which was probably because of my next point. Haegan, like Obama, did not respond with the fact that it wouldn't be so bad if she associated with atheists, because they are people, and anyone who disagrees is bigoted. She immediatly fired back that she is extremely religous, that her family works at their church, that her kids go to sunday school, and even had their preist come on and say the exact same thing.
These elections only went to show that the only way to 'defeat' an accusation of being or associating with an atheist is to deny it totally.
"Life Is Far Too Important A Thing Ever To Talk Seriously About" Oscar Wilde