So. There’s an article up about the so-called rise of the irreligious, and how they might change the political landscape. My initial reaction on seeing the headline was a rather cynical hmmm. Ever since people got all excited about the wave of ‘nones’, it’s been my experience in interacting with them that they are remarkably wishy-washy. The thing they seem to be most intensely reluctant to discuss or be involved in, activism wise, is anything to do with religion or secularism. Oh, they don’t believe, but it’s not a big deal, right, live and let live, all that jazz or “I think most religious people are okay, it’s just not my thing” or or or or or. Yeah, great, catch ya later. They don’t want to be rude. They don’t want to be pushy. They don’t care enough, in any direction. For the most part, I’ve found them to be one big shrug. Disclaimer: This is not every single person who identifies as ‘none’. Most, but not all.
I’m reading the article. Nothing I don’t already know, keep reading. Then I get to a bit I didn’t know – most nones can’t be arsed to vote. They don’t care, and even worse, most of them are uninformed about the recent election, out of choice. Fucking idiots. Thanks for fascism, thanks ever so fucking much.
The 2016 Presidential Election
Interest in the Election
Consistent with their lower rates of voter registration, religiously unaffiliated Americans express less interest in the 2016 election, compared to white Christian groups. Fewer than four in ten (37%) religiously unaffiliated Americans say they are following news about the 2016 election very closely. Three in ten (30%) say they are following it fairly closely, while more than one-third (34%) say they are following the election not too closely or not at all closely. In contrast, a majority (56%) of white evangelical Protestants say they are following the election very closely.
PRRI. Oh well, maybe when nuclear winter hits, they’ll organize a nice bonfire or something. Fuck’s sake.
Kumbaya, my friend, kumbaya!
Hahahahahahahahahahaha. Hahahahaha. Hee.
Okay, more tea now.
So long as it’s organic.
Voting’s not hip, therefore, hipsters can’t vote.
Apathy in the face of fascism really is the ultimate sign of privilege.
Well, you can’t tell if it’s fascism if no one’s put up the big lettered sign that says ‘Fascism Here FREE to a good home’.
One important thing to consider is that, as a group, the religiously unaffiliated tend to skew toward a younger demographic and younger people tend not to vote as frequently as older generations. The fact that younger people tend not to vote has been a steady pattern at least since I was doing activism in college in the first half of the 90s. Progressive politics focused on doing “GOTV” (get out the vote) among younger people because of their propensity to lean more progressively than their elders.
The good news is that “nones” also tend not to be as conservative as their religiously affiliated counterparts and “nones” form an even greater percentage of the populace than in past decades. You could view this demographic as a glass half empty and dismiss them as a loss, or alternatively, you could see them as a reservoir of potential voters which remain untapped. How do we strategize to get a wider proportion of that demographic to vote in two to four years from now? Part of that strategy must focus on mobilizing younger people toward greater degrees of civic participation, given that the religiously unaffiliated skews young. We need every percentage point of electorate we can scrounge up. We must have to plan for the long haul.