Nov. 21, 2012
by Roy Speckhardt

With the election over and Thanksgiving upon us, President Obama has a lot to be thankful for. He has been able to finally put his campaigning boots away and will be enjoying a delicious holiday meal this Thursday.

But before he slips in to a post-turkey food coma, I hope the president thinks about who he should be thankful to for his electoral victory. The remarkable base President Obama built for his campaign was made up of young professionals, women, minority communities, and a progressive religious coalition that was determined to preserve the gains the president made in his first term. But the largest group within that “religious” coalition includes Americans that usually reject religious labels. And there’s solid evidence that it’s no longer politically profitable for politicians to keep ignoring this lynchpin group.

Of course, the group in question is the “nones,” people who, when asked, respond that they have no religious affiliation. The largest segment of President Obama’s “religious” coalition (23 percent) was the nones, according to a new American Values Survey by the Public Religion Research Institute. But who exactly are these nones?

To read the rest of this Huffington Post article by American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt, click here.