Why Does Atheism and Left-Wing Politics Usually Go Together?

[TaraJo]

Personally, I side with the Democrats but only reluctantly. I want to see a party that's going to be serious about protecting us from abuses by corporate elites and when that party comes around, I'm jumping on board ASAP.

Enter Libertarianism. I am a libertarian, and here is why: I believe that no government should be able to tell me what I can and cannot do in the privacy of my own home. Libertarianism is the combination of a conservative economic stance and a liberal social stance, in a nutshell. Though this is not characteristic of EVERY libertarian, most would agree the USA needs to save money and minimize federal control, allowing state and local governments, who have a more direct connection to the people they govern, to do their jobs unopposed. There is no reason people in California should be governed the same, with the same laws and policies, as people in Vermont should.

How this relates: 'liberal' and 'conservative' are adjectives used to describe economic viewpoints. The ideas that the federal government should spend or save money respectively. How an economic policy could correlate with theistic views is beyond me...however...there is a correlation between party membership and religious preference. Generally, republicans tend to be more along Protestant faiths, while a large population of Catholics and Jehova's Witnesses also identify themselves as such. Democrats tend to represent an even mix of all faiths, surprisingly, with a Christian and a Jew for every Atheist you run across. Libertarians are almost exclusively protestant. You could say I'm an odd man out.

Thing is, I'm not a big fan of conservative economic policies. That being said, libertarian economics do seem to be a bit different. I saw a piece Penn Jillette did where he explained libertarianism and his economic philosophy here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2D2JE-Ae...ure=g-vrec

I agree with most of what he said. I think the big flaw is when he said he believes people are generally good, moral people. There are two important problems with that.

First, companies aren't good, moral people. Companies are subject to natural selection and evolution wherein the companies who have policies and abilities that are best for the environment they are in are able to survive at the expense of companies that aren't suited to the environment. If we have a system that allows and even rewards corruption, the companies that are corrupt survive and thrive. Honest companies crash and burn. We need to create an environment where corrupt companies are held accountable if we want to see change and we aren't doing that; the public knows about the horrible working conditions in Apple factories in China, but we're still going nuts over the iPhone5 (even though it's only slightly better than the iPhone4).

Second, while people are generally good, there are some out there who aren't and they can be very powerful people. The traits that make people successful in business are a concern for money and image, single minded concern for success at any cost, lack of empathy, things like that. Sure, you want to maintain a good image and you have public relation firms for that, but the companies aren't going to spend more on pr than they can expect to get in profit from the good pr.

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And the people lower on the economic bracket feel the opposite happening: they know that no matter how hard they work, they won't be able to get ahead.

TaraJo, I don't know what your economic/financial situation is, but don't buy into this idea. Lots of people get ahead by working hard and dramatically change their economic situation. I did it and you can too. America is the best place in the world to do it, don't believe the naysayers. Work hard, show your boss that you can be counted on to look after his/herinterests, and you'll be rewarded.

Rewarded, yes, but it's still frustrating when I can work my ass off and eek out a middle class life while rich kids never have to lift a finger and they're living on easy street. My dad has the best work ethic of anyone I've ever met; he was always excited when his boss made him work overtime and he was volunteering for more constantly. If pay were proportional to your effort, he would easily be a millionaire but, instead, he never got better than middle-class or, maybe, upper middle-class.