In case you’ve missed the news, the new Executive Director of the Secular Coalition of America is Edwina Rogers who’s more than 20 year political career has involved working for both President Bushes, four US Senators (including some of the more conservative ones), the GOP, and a few other groups. The fact that she’s a Republican and has worked for Republicans and Republican political causes has a few people in the blogosphere ranging from skeptical of her to disgusted that she got the job.

I’m actually optimistic about this. Sure, we should be weary of anybody who’s new to the position of our chief non-theistic advocate on Capitol Hill, but the fact that she’s a Republican shouldn’t be a problem. It’s not like the freethought movement is a subset of the Democratic party. Besides, she’s an experienced lobbyist with a reputation that will be a lot more likely to gain her the ear of Republican politicians than if we had another liberal in that position.

Sure, most atheists vote for Democrats most of the time, the vast majority of us are social liberals, and it would probably be safe to say that a large majority is are also fiscal liberals, but there are also a lot of us who are moderate or even conservative. We are not a political movement, we are a social movement. The only political aim that we can all agree on is the firm separation between government and religion and the Secular Coalition exists to support that aim. Her job, as our lobbyist, is to promote that one idea.

We also have to keep in mind that in a two party system, most people vote for a party not for individuals. So politicians are left in the position of having to sell out some of their values in order to get the vote of the party they most closely fit with (or are stuck with if they’re in a de facto one party state, like Idaho) and for those on the right, to get elected they currently have to pander to the Religious Right. Similarly good lobbyists can sell any idea, if its one they actually believe in, then all the better. Rogers claims to believe in secularism and professes to be a non-theist, and I don’t think we have any justifiable reason to doubt that. Her political views on all other topics (such as health care and economics) are completely irrelevant.

Sure, she could fail, just like anybody else. If she does, I would hate for the reason to be because the people she works for can’t get past he political affiliation.