A new set of public opinion survey results reveal the extent to which Trump’s current campaign success is rooted in his supporters' pre-existing religious, social and racial intolerance.
According to data gathered from YouGov and Public Policy Polling, Trump’s conflation of race and religion with current problems facing the United States has proven key to his campaign strategy. In this regard, reported the New York Times, Trump has bridged the conservative divide “uniting parts of the party that have been on opposite sides of recent nomination battles.”
For instance, Trump’s proposal to ban Muslim immigrants saw him dominate the South Carolina primary. Poll numbers revealed that nearly half the Republicans who turned out to vote in South Carolina were in support of deportation. Trump subsequently secured 47 percent of that vote.
In addition, almost a fifth of Trump voters believe it was not a good idea to free the slaves in the Southern states following the Civil War. Five percent of Rubio’s voters hold this view.
"Mr. Trump’s popularity with white, working-class voters who are more likely than other Republicans to believe that whites are a supreme race and who long for the Confederacy may make him unpopular among leaders in his party," writes the New York Times' Lynn Vavreck.
Beyond Trump’s own talking points, Public Policy Polling further revealed a grocery list of bigotry reflecting the attitudes of Trump supporters. In comparison to primary voters who support Cruz and Rubio, twice as many Trump supporters were in favor of banning gays and lesbians from entering the country, a number that is five times more than John Kasich and Ben Carson supporters.
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