The political polarization of religious and non-religious people in America

[DemPGH]

At this point in time, I think this has to do largely with two things. First, it's pretty much established scientifically that religious people are more likely to be conservatives and Republicans. That certainly is not universal or absolute, but rather "most likely." Okay.

So, I think 1) in the last 30 years we've obviously seen religion merge with the political right. That actually has driven people away from church, the mixing of right wing politics and faith - Jimmy Carter said a lot on the subject actually, and in one of his books he said it's why he finally left whatever church it was that he belonged to (Baptist?- there's a strain of that that's radically conservative), which was at one point, he said, unthinkable. And I also know people who have left church because of it. Undoubtedly, at some level, it would have to challenge their faith. 

2) I want to say that people who identify with the left are less likely to see a need to follow a strong leader and tradition for tradition's sake; again, not an absolute, but I see liberalism as naturally skeptical and also critical of spiritual leaders and tradition and so on.