Republicans Don't Care About Minorities, LGBT Rights Or The Environment: Poll

Here’s a short list of things that Republican voters, compared to Democratic ones, don’t really care much about: the environment, gay people and minorities.

That’s at least according to a new poll from Pew, which shows that, while the two parties are strikingly close in terms of the gravity they assign to most issues, there’s a wide divide between the two when it comes to those three issues. Hillary Clinton supporters think the treatment of minorities, the LGBT community and the environment are equally important. Donald Trump supporters, comparatively speaking, just don’t.

For anyone paying attention to the 2016 race so far, those results may not be all that surprising. Trump rose to the top of the GOP pack to a large degree because he wasn’t afraid to call Mexicans rapists and criminals while calling for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. And, while Trump has said he lets transgender people use whatever bathroom in his buildings that they want, he opposes marriage equality.

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, favors marriage equality, immigration reform and has not called on a Muslim ban.

By the numbers, 79 percent of Clinton supports said that they think that the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities is a “very important” issue, compared to 42 percent of Trump supporters who said the same. For the environment, Clinton’s crew said they think the environment is an important issue, compared to 32 percent for team Trump. And, when it comes to the LGBT community, their treatment is an important issue for 54 percent of Clinton supporters compared to just 25 percent for Trump supporters.

The poll also showed a pretty stark divide between how black and white voters perceive American presidential discourse. When respondents were asked if they think there’s too much, too little or the right amount of attention being paid to issues of race, 41 percent of whites said there was too much attention being paid to the issue. Just 22 percent of black voters said too much attention was being paid. And, while 27 percent of white voters said there wasn’t enough attention being spent on that issue, 58 percent of black voters said the same.