Nonbelievers on Capitol Hill

Many posts have discussed the role of religion in American life.

Mark Z. Barabak at LAT:

[California Democratic House Member Jared] Huffman is the rare American — one of only about 10% or so — who flatly state they do not believe in God, or any higher power for that matter. What makes him rarer still is his place in Congress. Huffman, who represents a sprawling slice of Northern California, reaching from the Bay Area to the Oregon border, is one of just four members (out of more than 500) who are openly agnostic or religiously unaffiliated.

He is, by far, the most outspoken.

Huffman, who publicly revealed his nonreligious status in 2017, helped form the Congressional Freethought Caucus, which consists of about three dozen members of various religious stripe, each dedicated to the proposition that church and state should be distinct. He’s written a book, due out next month, raising an alarm and summoning Americans to fight the rising tide of Christian nationalism roiling our divided land.

An overwhelming favorite to win an eighth congressional term in November, Huffman, a Democrat, calls himself a humanist and described it this way:

“To me, it means good without God. It means you don’t need the inducement or fear of an afterlife to have a moral framework and to know your place in the universe. You’re sort of at peace with the reality that, as far as we know, this is it. You get one time around.

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Ignoring the counsel of family, friends and political advisors who, to a person, warned against it, Huffman revealed his religious disbelief in a series of statements and interviews in November 2017. At the time, the only member of Congress to ever publicly come out as an atheist was Rep. Pete Stark, who announced his sentiments in 2007; though the Fremont Democrat was reelected twice, he was eventually defeated by a Democratic rival who turned his lack of faith against him.

That rival was Eric Swalwell; make of it what you will.

Huffman braced for political blowback. There was none, though he’s gotten death threats and plenty of admonishments he’s bound for Hell.

(Meantime, the congressional ranks of the religiously unaffiliated have grown to include Democratic Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Emily Randall of Washington and Republican Rep. Abraham Hamadeh of Arizona.)

Gallup January 26, 2024:

Take these numbers with some skepticism.  In the poll, 70% said they would not vote for a convicted felon, but on Election Day, nearly half of voters did so. 

Air Force One

 

Anyone with eyes could tell you the ex-Qatari plane lacks the same countermeasures, as I explained in this video for @Independent https://t.co/sAhaeNuWRi pic.twitter.com/UQLjZygSjg

— Andrew Feinberg (@AndrewFeinberg) July 11, 2026

Fewer Believe God Granted America a Special Role

 Many posts have discussed patriotism and American exceptionalism. Religion is part of the story.

From PRRI:

Just 44% of Americans agree with the idea that God has granted America a special role in human history, compared with a slim majority who disagree (52%). Agreement with this idea was relatively high in the early and mid-2010s, around 60 percent. Beginning in 2020, however, agreement dropped significantly to 40% and has since remained relatively stable in the low-to-mid 40s through 2026.

The partisan gap on American exceptionalism has widened sharply over the past decade. While Republican agreement that God has granted America a special role has remained relatively stable — dipping from 75% in 2012 to 63% in 2022, with about seven in ten agreeing today — Democratic support has collapsed, falling from 60% to just 27%. Independents declined as well, hitting a low of 35% in 2020 before a modest recovery to 40% in 2026.

In 2012, majorities of nearly all religious groups agreed that God has granted America a special role in human history. Today, only four religious subgroups hold this view. Most Latter-day Saints (80%), white evangelical Protestants (75%), Hispanic Protestants (64%), and Black Protestants (52%) agree that God has a special role for America. By contrast, less than half of every other major religious group agrees with this statement, including 49% of white Catholics, 47% of white mainline/ non-evangelical Protestants, 44% of Hispanic Catholics, 34% of Jewish Americans, 32% of other non-Christians, and only 21% of religiously unaffiliated Americans. Since 2022, white evangelical Protestants (from 68%) and religiously unaffiliated Americans (from 16%) have become more likely to agree. 

Prayer and the Continental Congress

Many posts have discussed the role of religion in American life.

From Tikvah:

In September of 1774, the First Continental Congress gathered at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia. The delegates were divided by geography, culture, and religion—uncertain whether so fractious a body could act as one. When a proposal to open with prayer met with resistance, Samuel Adams rose and declared he would pray with any man who was a friend of his country—and they opened the session with Psalm 35. Rabbi Soloveichik reflects on what that moment reveals about the Hebrew Bible in American civic life, illustrating how faith serves not as a source of division, but as the unifying foundation of our national covenant.

Tocqueville and Dogs

Many posts have discussed social capital, volunteering and civic virtue.

Tocqueville (p.189 of the Lawrence/Mayer edition) on neighbors in the United States:

If some obstacle blocks the public road halting the circulation of traffic, the neighbors at once form a deliberative body; this improvised assembly produces an executive authority which remedies the trouble before anyone has thought of the possibility of some previously constituted authority beyond that of those concerned. Where enjoyment is concerned, people associate to make the festivities grander and more orderly. 

Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, and Avery Shields at the Survey Center on American Life:

Being out and about is a good way to meet your neighbors. One of the strongest predictors of neighborly interaction is also the most obvious: spending time in the neighborhood. Americans who report that they take walks or run through their neighborhood are much more likely to converse with neighbors. A majority (55 percent) of Americans who walk around their neighborhood at least once a week say they talk to their neighbors at least a few times a week. Americans who walk less often report much less neighborly interaction. The share of Americans who talk with their neighbors at least weekly is only 29 percent among those who walk only once or a few times a year and 19 percent among those who do not walk around their neighborhood at all.

Dog ownership is also associated with increased social engagement with neighbors, but only for those who walk their dog. Half of Americans who own a dog and walk it regularly report that they talk with their neighbors at least a few times a week. In contrast, only 33 percent of dog owners who do not walk their pets say they talk to neighbors this often.

Saving Social Security

Many posts have discussed Social Security and Medicare.

 Jessica Riedl at The Atlantic:

Since the mid-1990s, Social Security trustees have warned lawmakers that insolvency was coming in the 2030s. Why are lawmakers seemingly content to wait until we reach that cliff, now projected for 2032? Because so many voters misunderstand how the system works and steadfastly refuse to accept the changes needed to fix it. Interest groups have capitalized on those fears, savaging any politician who dares to touch senior benefits or taxes. When House Republican Leader Paul Ryan proposed reforming Medicare, opponents ran a television ad portraying him pushing an elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff.

 As policy, Social Security is not complicated. Closing the gap between revenues and benefits involves three broad levers: raising payroll taxes, hiking the eligibility age, and trimming benefit formulas for wealthier seniors. Fixing Social Security is a matter of negotiating how far to pull each lever. I’ve attended policy dinners where Republican and Democratic lawmakers quietly outlined, with relative ease, a plausible deal that would gradually raise the normal eligibility age from 67 to about 69, trim benefits for higher earners, and raise the annual earnings limit for the Social Security payroll tax to somewhere between $250,000 and $300,000.

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Social Security actuaries calculate that eliminating the wage cap (without those taxes accruing additional benefits) would keep the system out of deficit for just three years and close only about half of its long-term shortfall. So additional major solvency reforms are still necessary.

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Even liberal economists estimate that additional tax revenues begin leveling off as marginal tax rates reach the high 50s, and they begin losing money at rates somewhere between 60 and 73 percent. This leaves room to raise marginal tax rates on high earners by perhaps 6 to 12 percentage points. Raising the rich’s rates past that point may provide spiteful satisfaction but could reduce tax revenues, as high earners either stop earning additional wages or shift their compensation to lower-taxed investments or foreign jurisdictions.

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Myths, Misinformation, and the Founding

 

Many posts have discussed myths and misinformation. 

View on Threads

There's something odd about being so self-righteous when you're so wrong. Mamdani is, of course, correct, and Posobiec is wrong - New York was the first capital of the United States of America. pic.twitter.com/ytYUU9tHXr

— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) July 6, 2026

No…the Declaration of Independence says all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights including Life, Liberty & the pursuit of Happiness. “Made in the image of God” is from the Bible. I guess its easy to confuse 2 things you’ve never read https://t.co/x729uCghhP

— Andrew—#IAmTheResistance (@AmoneyResists) July 5, 2026