If you were to guess...

...how likely a person was to vote Republican or Democratic, what demographic would you use? Gender? Age? Race? How about income? How about none of the above? The correct answer is frequency of church attendance. Apparently, the more often a person attends church services, the more likely they are to vote Republican. Conversely, the less often they attend, the more likely they are to vote Democratic. Go figure.

In a post yesterday in the Daily Dish, Andrew Sullivan talks about the fastest growing religious affiliation in America today: none. He cites a recent study that estimates that in twenty years, the "Nones" will make up about 25 percent of Americans.

So what does this mean for the future of the Republican and Democratic parties in America? It's hard not to picture the GOP as getting increasingly southern, rural, white, and religious--not a winning demographic. The Democrats, on the other hand, would appear to have the advantage in the West, Midwest, and Northeast. They should also have the advantage among the non-white segment and the growing secular population. So more and more, like the current debate over health care reform, I would expect future debates in this country to take place not between the two parties, but within the Democratic Party itself. At this rate, the Republicans may find themselves shut out of the national conversation altogether.