Secular Americans Are the New "Values Voters" and This Election Proved It
From Hemant Mehta's Friendly Atheist blog:
I pointed out a month ago that the 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.
snip
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 our case, the results actually make people’s lives better.
For years now, as we saw a rise in the percent of non-religious Americans, there was a question of when that would translate to political power. Zuckerman suggests we’re now getting our first real glimpses of it. Now we need to keep pushing further.
https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/12/22/secular-americans-are-the-new-values-voters-and-this-election-proved-it/