I didn’t think that my first real blog post would be one criticizing a fellow atheist. But that is exactly the position that I find myself in.
The current president of American Atheists, Ellen Johnson, has posted a video on the group’s website explaining her intent not to vote this November because politicians don’t pander to we atheists. If this weren’t a bad enough message, she is also encouraging all atheists to not vote. Yeah, that’ll show ‘em. Since when has someone made a difference in an election by doing nothing? All that does is lower the amount of voters who are not going to vote based on what the Bible says. Would she rather we leave it to the Religious Right to choose who the next leader of our country is? This is just bad logic. How should we expect to get noticed by doing nothing? This will not even be a blip on most politicians radars. You want to know how to get their attention? By making our presence felt, dammit! We atheists are finally coming to the public’s attention. With so many young people coming out as atheists should we really disenfranchise them by telling them not to vote? This may be their first election and she’s telling them to sit it out. You’ll get a lot more done working to change the system from within than trying to change it from the outside. We need to encourage every atheist and freethinker to get out and vote for the candidate that most closely aligns with their position on the issues. I don’t care who you vote for (I’d prefer you not vote for Ron Paul), but you do need to vote. In the interest of full disclosure I do plan on voting for Obama. I was planning to vote for Kucinich but, alas, that ship has sailed. Times are changing for us atheists. There is even an atheist congressman. We are finally getting more organized. Let’s not lose this advantage by sitting on our asses and doing nothing.
Starbix
“Individualists of the world! Disperse!”
-Source Unknown
Tags: American Atheists, Atheism, atheist, Democracy, Ellen Johnson, Voting
February 22, 2008 at 5:35 pm
I’ve had problems with this woman in the past, and I’m not actually too fond of the entire organization.
Telling people to not vote is a fairly dumb idea. The USA certainly isn’t ready for a presidential candidate who openly sides with atheists, so it’s unreasonable to withold voting at all just because nobody is standing up and saying ‘I agree with atheists’. Any candidate who did that would be committing political suicide.
June 29, 2008 at 12:55 pm
With very few exceptions I have felt disenfranchised my whole life, but to not vote is just childish–if you won’t play with me nicely I’ll just take my toys and go home. Come on! Abandoning the field cedes it to the enemy. I’m not saying we will win but just the fight is empowering. I am appalled with the degree of religiosity in both politics and the media but to not take part is to embrace hopelessness. Bush may not consider atheists citizens, but when you don’t participate in the democratic process you go some distance toward making his (offensive) argument true.
June 29, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I agree totally. Apparently she was removed as president of American Atheists not too many months after.