Sorry, Media, Trump-Style Racism Is Mainstream in Republican Party
http://www.mediaite.com/online/sorry-media-trump-style-racism-is-mainstream-in-republican-party/
The mainstream media is slowly coming around to the idea that Donald Trump‘s success is fueled by racial resentment, but they’re having trouble making the same diagnosis to the broader GOP electorate. A new poll by Democratic-leaning but deadly-accurate Public Policy Polling has everyone talking about how Trump fans don’t believe President Obama was born in the United States, is definitely secret Muslim, and wants to end birthright citizenship.
But according to the mainstream media, these views are somehow not mainstream among the broader Republican electorate. Exhibit A: Politico honcho Jim VandeHei, on Wednesday’s Morning Joe, described the results as proof that there’s a “segment” of “white, hostile” voters in the Republican Party:...
Vandehei, et al, are right that Trump fans are more racist than the rest of the Republicans, but the views they’re talking about are still decidedly mainstream within the party, and not a “certain segment.” On the Muslim question, a clear majority of Republicans (54 percent) said they believe President Obama is a Muslim, but a whopping 86 percent either believe he’s a Muslim, or aren’t sure, despite the fact that his first presidential campaign was famously almost derailed over Obama’s regular attendance at a Christian church.
Not only that, the same poll finds Ben Carson‘s supporters answering that question the same way Trump’s did, at 61 percent. Republican supporters who believe President Obama is a Christian are a distinct minority across the board. The only candidate whose supporters believe President Obama is a Christian is Chris Christie.