A Secular Presidential Forum?
Not long ago, I published an article on Examiner about how atheist support for the President has dropped significantly. In the article, I point out what a strong voting bloc atheists are and how our vote really can sway the election.
This got me thinking about Rick Warren’s Faith and Values Forum in 2008. He won’t be doing that again in 2012. While I would love to believe that it has something to do with his evolution Tweet, it probably has more to do with the fact that Obama can out Christian Romney.
In any case, where is our forum? Now that the Secular Coalition for America is expanding and has a Republican Executive Officer, we can make a much stronger case for not only our importance as a voting bloc, but also as being non-partisan. We can give the Democrats the threat of possibly losing our support and we can give the Republicans the dangling carrot that our votes might be up for grabs.
Obviously, most atheists will not vote for Romney, but we can use these various factors to sell the idea of a Secular Values Forum to the two parties. SCA and The National Atheist Party can take the lead here and we can ask Obama and Romney, “How will they represent atheists as President of the United States?”
I should also add that a new Gallup Poll was just released showing that more than 50% of Americans are now ready to vote for an atheist. Personally, I think that poll is crap, but it doesn’t matter. It shows that we are gaining acceptance and that our political power is growing. 30k atheists on the National Mall also sends that message.
Is our community ready to set up such a forum or will we have to wait 4 years? I think now is the time.
Related articles
Filed under: atheism, culture war, Election, Politics