A recent poll sponsored by YouGov and the Economist, conducted in January of 2016, found that close to 20 percent of Donald Trump’s supporters disapprove of freeing slaves. The poll also found that Trump’s supporters were more likely to hold racist, sexist, and anti-gay attitudes than supporters of other presidential candidates.
One question respondents were asked to answer was whether or not they approved of “the executive order that feed all slaves in the states that were in rebellion against the federal government”. That order, better known as the Emancipation Proclamation, freed all slaves in the Confederacy, and was an important step in putting an end to slavery in the United States. Nearly 20 percent of Trump supporters said they disagreed with the Emancipation Proclamation, with an additional 17 percent saying they were uncertain. For comparison’s sake, only five percent of Marco Rubio supporters were against freeing slaves.
When compared to the supporters of other Republican nominees, such as Rubio and Ted Cruz, Trump’s followers have demonstrated bigoted attitudes on a consistent basis, and in large numbers. For example, nearly 30 percent of his supporters either believe that whites are a superior race or are uncertain. Anyone who follows Trump’s Twitter account can clearly see his ability to mobolize his mass of followers to do his bidding, but these polls reveal a lot more. Those polled are hiding behind egg avatars – they firmly believe that they are right, and in some cases are proud to put their names to their beliefs.
The same poll measured the opinions held by Trump fans on other important issues, such as immigration. Almost a third of his supporters in South Carolina say they would support banning LGBTQ+ individuals from even entering the country, which is nearly twice that of Cruz and Rubio supporters. Another 41% of Trump supporters are behind a temporary ban on allowing non-US citizen Muslims into the country. 40% would also support shutting down every mosque within America’s borders.
Their bigotry also extends to opinions held on interment camps. A third of Trump supporters also believe that interning Japanese-Americans during World War II was a brilliant plan, contrasted with only ten percent of Rubio supporters feeling the same way.
I’ve long said that Trump, his supporters, and his ideology have far surpassed funny, and have moved way beyond rubbernecking at a train-wreck. This recent data shows exactly how bigoted his fan-base is, and how far they will go to retain those values.