Australia

Non-religious is growing and is going to be the majority but herding cats is an unsolved problem in politics. It is hard to work out how to appeal to them as a block. It is easier to talk to religious lobby groups, make mega church appearances, fund faith based schools, dog whistle stuff that appeals to faith based prejudice.

If Labor doesn't go after the faith vote then other parties will. And Labor isn't just putting on the faith stuff to win votes. It is a long standing part of the party. There is pipeline from Catholic school through Catholic dominated unions to the Labor Right faction that goes back decades.

A group of Libs tried very hard to be the Christian party with branch stacking and factionalism and likely hoped to ride a wave of Christian nationalism to Trump-like victory. They couldn't get the numbers and that is in part because Labor's very strong Christian (predominantly Catholic) Right faction with people like Minns and Malinauskas are more authentically mainstream Christian than some hack playing Christian to get votes. In the US there isn't an expectation that a person's lifestyle and their politics should align. So many of the biggest proponents of the White Christian Nationalist stuff clearly don't live Christian lives. Their politics is more like professional wrestling. The character you play is more important than who you are.

Most people of faith aren't all that extreme in their politics. This is not the US. We have the mega churches and hate preachers but we also have a lot of thoughtful moderate mainstream religious voters and we want them to have options in the center supporting moderate policies that benefit everyone.

The only thing I respect about One Nation is they wave the flag and the white nationalist bullshit and muslim hate but not so much the cross so far. Though they have recruited people like Bernardi now so things could change.

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