The traveling cavalcade of bullshit known as primary season moved to South Carolina this week, where Trump voters continue to come up with new reasons for the rest of us to say we’re Canadian when traveling abroad. This time: a new poll shows that 31% of them would back a ban on homosexuals entering the United States.
New numbers released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling show that both Trump and Clinton have generous leads in South Carolina. Among likely Trump voters, 77 percent say they’ll definitely vote for him, and PPP notes that his lead is consistent among a hugely divergent group of people: young voters, men, women, evangelicals, independents, seniors, and people who somehow describe themselves as “moderates.”
“He has a lead of some size within every single one of those groups,” PPP notes, “similar to what he was able to do in New Hampshire.”
Another fun thing about Trump voters is how racist, sexist, and homophobic a plurality of them are. Look at this. Please look at all of this:
- 70% think the Confederate flag should still be flying over the State Capital, to only 20% who agree with it being taken down. In fact 38% of Trump voters say they wish the South had won the Civil War to only 24% glad the North won and 38% who aren’t sure. Overall just 36% of Republican primary voters in the state are glad the North emerged victorious to 30% for the South, but Trump’s the only one whose supporters actually wish the South had won.
- By an 80/9 spread, Trump voters support his proposed ban on Muslims entering the United States. In fact 31% would support a ban on homosexuals entering the United States as well, something no more than 17% of anyone else’s voters think is a good idea. There’s also 62/23 support among Trump voters for creating a national database of Muslims and 40/36 support for shutting down all the mosques in the United States, something no one else’s voters back. Only 44% of Trump voters think the practice of Islam should even be legal at all in the United States, to 33% who think it should be illegal. To put all the views toward Muslims in context though, 32% of Trump voters continue to believe the policy of Japanese internment during World War II was a good one, compared to only 33% who oppose it and 35% who have no opinion one way or another.
(Bolds ours)
The fact that Trump voters skew pretty racist isn’t new. But this new poll actually raises another and more interesting question: do these folks think that gays are immigrating from somewhere else? Can the next pollster please ask where they think the gay country is?
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A Trump supporter in Greenville, South Carolina, February 15, 2016. Photo via AP Images