In recent response to politicians using their power and influence as a way to implement laws with only the religious population in mind. Laws that allow Public Schools to require a school prayer, laws that require teachers to give creationism the same time and credibility as evolution, certainly have a religious agenda. This campaign challenges voters to ask politicians currently running for office “What will you do for atheist voters?” This challenges the politicians to recognize us as a voting group and acknowledge the fact that they have not always voted with us in mind. http://www.usanap.org/events/questioncampaign.html/
The most recent reply to this campaign is a video from Jacob Kramer VP of Outreach of the National Atheist Party talking to Joe Walsh in an open forum. I think the response shows that this does not have to be an attack campaign and it can be a very positive movement that should be taken up by all of us

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zAQVRekQFQ&feature=youtu.be

Catey:

While I appreciate what your group is trying to do, I find single issue parties too limited to represent my views.  I am an atheist, without a doubt, but that is not the only issue or even the most important issue that I am concerned with.  If you and your associates are to found a new political party you need to deal with many more issues that affect the daily life of people in the US such as the outrageous cost of medical care in the US.  Foreign affairs, diplomacy, and the cost of the military, the “drug wars”, a fair tax system, the eroding of our freedoms due to the drastic laws that were enacted due to 9/11, the prison industry, and immigration policy are some of the issues that any attempt at founding a serious new party has to address.

I agree with all of Gary’s issue priorities and I agree with Catey’s issue of getting Creationism out of public schools.  Not to discourage efforts to establish an atheist party, but atheists are at least, I would guess, decades away from any kind of real non-perjorative status in th U.S. e.g., We will have a female President, and perhaps a confirmed homosexual President before we will have a confirmed atheist President. Generally speaking, atheists are still so looked down upon by so many, I fear that issues they support could suffer by association. But that may not always be the case if efforts such as Catey’s continue and take hold.

The National Atheist Party has several platform issues that were developed and voted on by members, nothing gets passed without 66% vote. SO yes our main stance is keeping religion a private manner and outside of our government but we also try to stand up for other important issues as defined by our members. You can see a whole list of our current platform issues on our websites usanap.org, since this is an election year it is also an opportunity for members to develop new platforms, challenge or change old ones and put it all up for a vote.

Here is another video about the campaign and the first response that its gotten.
If you’ve never seen A-News its pretty cool, it got me into other Atheist online shows and directed me to the NAP eventually.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS1pLN9fwN4

I see not many people have jumped on this but I am going to keep updating the thread with things related to the original post for any of you interested.
Here is list of how to contact all the U.S. congressmen and house representatives. For use with this campaign or any other issue you feel needs to come to their attention. I hope this resource provides to be useful
http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm

Thanks Catey:

Keep us updated.

The Party recently received a video response from Ron Paul
Though at first it is a bit hard to decipher what Ron Paul is going on about, its still worth watching and I think a great acheviement for the campaign!

Just an update at on this campaign for anyone who was interested by my initial post.
This is a video response from Ron Paul
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wt80bgUYsA
His response is not what I would call a negative response but a typical Ron Paul response. He wants the smallest government possible. So when asked what he will do for atheist voters, he replies"Nothing”

More encouraging responses come from Tara Nelson, running for Congress-Indiana District 4, and Tammy Duckworth running against Joe Walsh for the 8th District of Illinois.

Tara Nelson emailed me her response to the question “What will you do for Atheist Voters?”, how do you feel about the recent passing of Indiana SB 89, and how do you plan to support the separation of Church and State
Thank you for contacting me.  I do support the separation of church and
state.

I am surprised that SB 89 was passed by the Senate.  I am surprised by a
lot of legislative action taking place in the Indiana Republican General
Assembly.  They are shoving their far right agenda on the entire state of
Indiana. The majority assembly has proven that because they had at least
51% of the vote, they will run 100% of their agenda.

There is not a lot that I can do about that as a candidate for U.S.
Representative.  I have rallied at the statehouse with the teachers and
unions, but the only thing I can do as an Indiana resident is to vote
Democratic and ask my friends, family, and acquiantences to do the same.

The supreme court has already ruled “Creationism” unconstitutional, so I’m
not sure how Indiana G.A. will get away with this one.  It will certainly
cause many lawsuits, and eventually be repealed.

Please stay in contact.

Best Regards,
Tara Nelson
Candidate for U.S. Representative - Indiana District 4
3222 Norwegian Dr.
Lafayette, IN 47909
765-412-4850
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Jacob Kramer submitted a video response from Tammy Duckworth who expresses and open mind and a concern for all voting citizens

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC5NfDS-PRs&feature=youtu.be

I caught a lecture by John Mace Grunsfeld at the Vancouver Institute this evening.  He was talking about the NASA space program and his adventures in doing several of the space walks which fixed and upgraded the Hubble telescope at various phases of its life.
It was a very inspiring talk and revealed him to be very bright, articulate, evidence-based, and up on the major issues which if not tackled could well lead to the extinction of our species. 

It occurs to me that former astronauts are likely to be much better lawmakers than the current gang of self-serving lawyers and lobbyists running the governments.  Another under-represented group of bright, personable, generally evidence based folks would be stand up comedians.

It would be a good idea for the “reality based” folks in CFI to get behind candidates and nominate candidates for various political positions from these groups.

I very much agree. I even investigate candidates in districts of my closest family members so I can let them know what platforms and issues they stand behind. Many people vote without really giving thought to the politicians character and background. I recently read there is about 27% that will vote against their interests, just for the sake of voting strictly democrat or republican. Many people claim they dont have time to give much though to politics and voting, so I help my family with that aspect, keeping them updated on important issues and press releases.
I encourage everyone to investigate not only their district leaders but their state and federal leaders and share what you find! Spread awareness and encourage learning.
I am personally, (not officially), endorsing Tara Nelson from Indiana’s 4th District in her run for Congress. Her email to me was so open and receptive that I felt that she was a politician that put more value on the concerns of her voters than her religion. She expressed a strong interest in upholding the separation of Church and State and was confused about the passing of Indiana’s SB 89. She also seemed very interested in speaking about any other topics that concerned me as a voter. most other responses I have gotten have been an automatically generated letter and not very promising.
It would be great to see a thread about the politicians we support since we all know there are so many that we do not