Atheists and Agnostics Should Vote More

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Christopher Ingraham takes a look at a recent survey of atheists and agnostics and asks, “Why don’t the unaffiliated vote?”

As Pew Research Center’s Greg Smith told me earlier this year, “It could be the ‘nones’ are not connected, almost by definition, to religious institutions, which can play an important role in spurring turnout and interest in politics.” It’s also the case that the unaffiliated tend to be younger than the population as a whole. And younger people in general are less likely to vote than their older peers.

As President Obama likes to say, “Don’t boo, vote.” If you’re unhappy with the influence that conservative Christians have on American politics, go out and vote for someone who’s more likely to favor evidence-based policy than faith-based policy. If you’re not willing to do that, then don’t gripe the next time some yahoo manages to get evolution expunged from your local textbooks.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate