The faithless under attack

An article in today's NYT put into words a feeling I imagine is shared by many an atheist beside me. In the article "Faith vs the faithless" the Op-ed columnist writes:

When this country was founded, James Madison envisioned a noisy public square with different religious denominations arguing, competing and balancing each other’s passions. But now the landscape of religious life has changed. Now its most prominent feature is the supposed war between the faithful and the faithless. Mitt Romney didn’t start this war, but speeches like his both exploit and solidify this divide in people’s minds.

This confirms my impression of the direction the umwelt has taken. America is trying to make it uncomfortable for all of those who, like me, do not adhere to any form of religious dogma. He mentions how Romney, in his latest speech describes the faithful as being united in

a tribe, marked by ethnic pride, a shared sense of victimization and all the other markers of identity politics

which brings nothing to mind as the Nietzschean postulate about the weak claiming victimhood status, though their numbers clearly deny such a claim. 90% of all Americans adhere to one form of religious belief or another: wherein lies the threat?

From where I sir - and Romney's speech does warn about the faithlessness of Europe (why, pray tell? What horrible excesses should America be worrying about? A vibrant culture and economy, greater tolerance for differences that feed the vibrancy?) - it seems clear that what we should be worrying about is the way the U.S. is preparing to wage war against the "faithless". Will we soon be so reviled that we will no longer be allowed to set foot in the "land of the free"?