Godless Americans Endorse John Kerry

GAMPAC, the GODLESS AMERICANS POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE, has endorsed Sen. John Kerry and Sen. John Edwards for President and Vice President of the United States.

The November election is a crucial one for our nation, and in particular the First Amendment separation of government and religion. The winner will likely be in the position of naming key appointees to the U.S. Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary. Other important legislative issues, as well as the fate of the faith-based initiative — a dangerous experiment aiding religious groups and imposing a “Religion Tax” on the American people hang in the balance.

In determining who to endorse, GAMPAC took a long, hard look at the voting records and statements of all the major contenders. Some third party candidates including Ralph Nader seem to represent our interests better than the Kerry-Edwards ticket does. Ideally, these would be the types of political hopefuls GAMPAC would support.

But as election day approaches, it’s clear that we do not live in ideal political circumstances. We find ourselves in the midst of a very tight race where every single vote is crucial. The loss of even a few votes could cost a candidate the election.

If the GAMPAC endorsed a third party candidate, we would simply be helping the Bush-Cheney campaign. Republicans know this; they are contributing heavily to the Nader organization, not because they agree with Ralph Nader’s principles, but because they see his run for office as a way to drain votes from the Kerry-Edwards ticket, especially in key states like Michigan.

All of us need to mobilize every vote we can for the Kerry-Edwards campaign in order to make sure that George W. Bush is not in the White House next year!

Some of you think that there is not much difference between the Republican and Democratic tickets. In some respects that may be true. But let’s not forget that by having the opportunity to appoint even one or two new Supreme court justices, the winner in November could reverse all the gains that have been made in the area of state-church separation over the last 40 years, including the prohibition on organized prayer and coercive Bible verse recitation in the public schools!

Can we — can the First Amendment ? — survive “four more years” of George W. Bush dismantling the wall of separation, and promoting the unconstitutional faith-based initiatives and pro-religion legislation like vouchers? I don’t think so.

Our job isn’t over after the votes have been counted. Even with a Kerry victory, the real work of building an effective political organization representing our nation’s active Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists and other nonbelievers will continue, and become even more important! Our first priority though, is working to make sure that George W. Bush is a one term-president. And that means voting for Kerry-Edwards on November 2, 2004!

Harry Binswanger (prominent in Objectivist circles) has this endorsement of President Bush, wherein he makes a good argument for why atheists have nothing to gain by allying with the left:

Nor is it the case that the left offers any alternative to the threats to the mind offered by the religious right. Censorship? We already have the shocking McCain-Feingold abridgement of the right of free speech--and in regard to political elections, no less. The left is no longer composed of liberals and no longer even supports free speech. The left has slid further than the right down the abyss into shackles on the mind, with "hate crimes," government-controlled pseudo-science ("global warming" and all of environmentalism), and general "political correctness."
Further, bear in mind that the left remains firmly in control of the universities, the educational system, and, to a lesser extent, the mainstream media. The growth of religiosity, frightening as it is, is a grass-roots phenomenon. The citadels of the intellectual leadership remain, unbreached, in the hands of the skeptic-nihilists. In the intermediate term, we have more to fear from the Rorty's than from the Jerry Falwells.
On a world-historical scale, measured in half-centuries, the power of the skeptic-nihilists is indeed spent. But in the intermediate term, they have the power to do much more damage to this country than does the religious right.
I agree with Robert Tracinski's point:

"The growing influence of the religious right at home is indeed an ominous threat to liberty. But whether or not America retreats in the War on Terrorism will be decided in the next four years. Whether or not America maintains the separation of church and state is an issue that will be fought over a much longer time. It is a threat that is gathering strength, not one that has come to a head." ("Anti-Bushites for Bush," The Intellectual Activist, Sept. 2004)

The fact that the left is now philosophically bankrupt and has no further place to go does not mean that they are not a tremendous threat culturally and in terms of our physical safety from terrorist attacks.

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