Many young people, between the ages of 18 to 29, are
claiming to be agnostic, atheist, or religiously unaffiliated and it affects the
way they vote. The Democratic Party’s philosophy is liberal while the Republicans
are conservative and that’s giving President Obama a slight advantage in this
year’s campaign. Although, the amount of young people that are registered to
vote has decreased significantly, he has not lost the support of the young
voters, as the Republicans have speculated. In 2008 75% of non-religious voters
supported Obama while only 23% supported John McCain. Atheist voters are more
inclined to vote for the Democratic Party because they both share liberal
views. Romney chose Ryan as his running mate in an attempt to win the vote of young
voters. However, this attempt may have failed him because Ryan is much more
conservative than most young people.
In 1990, 8% of people
considered them to be religiously unaffiliated while today that number has rose
to more than 20%. Religiously unaffiliated
is slowly becoming a trend among young people. Their views are more relaxed
than ever before and they feel that they shouldn’t have to live their lives
according to someone else’s perceptions of good and bad. President Obama has a
way of connecting with young voters because of his youthful persona and
willingness to connect with Pop culture. This appeals to young people more than
anything because they feel as though he can relate to them. The president (and some
Democrats) supports issues such as Gay Marriage and abortion; which coincides
with the views of many non-religious youth. Rachel Mariman, a religiously
unaffiliated college student, stated “We don’t want to be told that we can’t
accept gay marriage or that we can’t support birth control or abortion. You can
still be moral and you can still be a good person without being religious.” This
statement incorporates both pathos and logos because any rational person can
agree with Mariman when she says that religion does not constitute whether or
not you are a “good” person; religious people to things that aren’t morally
acceptable as well. The unaffiliated strongly believe that there’s a separation
between church and government and that the government should not have the
authority to tell people how to live their lives. Many Americans feel that it is imperative for presidential candidates to have solid religious views. Yet, when it comes to atheist, they feel that candidates should shy away from these views. Conservatives claim to have better “moral” values than the liberals; and by moral values I mean religious values. They oppose issues such as Gay marriage, abortion, and they are concerned with redefining women’s rights. Many believe that Romney is trying to push Americans further back rather than move us forward and that not the direction that Americans want to go. Our current youth will not allow that to happen because people are more accepting and open to others who don’t share the same views as they do and less concerned with their differences. They are less likely to persecute someone because their religious views are different or mistreat a person because of their sexuality. Therefore, due to the fact that many young voters associate church and religion with the Republican Party they are more likely to vote against Romney in the 2012 election. Religion may have been a determining factor for candidates in previous elections but due to the growing trend of unaffiliated youth, it is non-religious views that may start to win the votes of many young American voters’ in the future Presidential Elections.
- 80% of white Evangelical protesant young voters favor Romney
- 55% of Young Catholic voters favor Obama
- 68% young unaffiliated voters favor Obama
- Obama leads young voters 59% to 35%
http://www.christianpost.com/news/youth-turned-off-by-religion-and-politics-turn-away-from-church-71688/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/october-12-2012/none-of-the-above-who-are-they/13386/
