Secular Café: The political clout of the "nones" in the USA

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The political clout of the "nones" in the USA Dec 10th 2012, 11:32 http://www.policymic.com/articles/20...forever/307840 Quote: Republicans have Evangelicals, and now, apparently, Democrats have atheists. More specifically, Democrats dominate with what Pew calls "nones;" religiously unaffiliated voters that include atheists, agnostics, and people who have spiritual beliefs but don't subscribe to any particular doctrine. Analysis of the exit polls from the last presidential election shows that these 'nones' played a key role in President Obama's victory in November — and demographic data suggests their influence will only grow from here. This could have a major impact on American politics, and maybe even restore the separation that's supposed to exist between church and state. I find this interesting because IMO it's a result of the curious mix of religion and politics in the USA. Despite the secular constitution, religion is up there at the forefront of political discourse. OTOH in Europe, where there are so many state churches, religious issues come up but people aren't very likely to vote on the basis of a candidate's religious stance, nor do non-believers identify strongly with a particular political party. At the moment, the UK's Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, is launching a bill to allow same-sex marriage, and there is a strong inter-party campaign for it that involves many leading members of the Conservative Party. I find it hard to imagine something similar on the right wing in the USA. http://www.channel4.com/news/sir-joh...n-gay-marriage

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