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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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What About Kerry and the Atheist Vote?
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| Contributor | None Entered |
| Last Edited | None Entered Nov 29, 2004 02:03pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Tuesday, November 9, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | While liberals complain about the religious vote that went for George W. Bush, they refuse to discuss—and perhaps happily accept—the non-religious vote that went for John F. Kerry. Which ought to be considered a greater liability for an American president: to receive the overwhelming support of devout Protestants and Catholics or to be backed by atheists? Which speaks worse? Don’t we have this backward?
We’re hearing plenty about President Bush’s huge advantage in the 2004 election from evangelicals, and (less so) about the extremely significant fact that Catholics who attend Mass weekly voted for Bush by 55% to 44%, which is a startling religious rejection of John Kerry, a Catholic. Yet, the one aspect of the November 2 vote that is being completely ignored is the behavior not of the most devout but the least devout.
According to CNN exit poll data, those who attend church more than weekly made up 16% of 2004 voters, or 18.4 million voters, and they went for Bush by 63% to 35%, or by 11.6 million to 6.4 million, a difference of 5.2 million votes. However, those who never attend church, which equaled 15% of voters, or 17.3 million voters, went for Kerry by 64% to 34%, or by 11.1 million to 5.9 million, also a difference of 5.2 million votes.
This was much like the 2000 vote, when those who attended church more than weekly went for Bush by 63% to 36%, whereas Vice President Al Gore bagged those who never attended by 61% to 32%.
Ten percent of those who voted on November 2 claimed no religion at all. They made up nearly 15 million voters. Of those, 68%, or 10.2 million, voted for Kerry, but only 30%, or 4.5 million, voted for Bush—a Kerry advantage of 5.7 million votes.
In other words, religious voters who won the day for George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential contest were countered by non-religious Americans who tried to win the day for John F. Kerry. |
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