Lucas (#158197):

Yes, I admit that my views are colored by the fact that I live in the beating heart (or, as I call it, the open sore) of the Bible Belt.

The recent surveys I've seen are indeed encouraging (eg, the Pew study), but even your USA Today graphic shows that non-believers range from about 7% to 20% of the population, depending on the state. Good, but still far below European levels. Don't forget that surveys also show that 50-60% of Americans are creationists, and that's scary.

I assume that you live in the West coast or New England, so you may not realize the power that the Christian Right still holds on local and state politics and culture across the country. And the rise of Christian homeschooling promises more generations of brainwashed clones in the future (statistics here: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/statistics.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeschooling#United_States)

You're right about the key question: how can US secularists/atheists organize and lobby more effectively? Thanks to the success of Richard et al., we're making progress, but it's going to be a long road...