In Less Than A Year, The GOP Has Seen A 30% Rise In Partisans Who Disapprove "Openness"

"Freedom Is Being Unafraid. Trumpistas Are Terrified"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2019/07/freedom-is-being-unafraid-trumpistas.html

THE BIG IDEA 

by James Hohmann, The Washington Post: 

Three new polls help explain why the crowd at President Trump’s rally in North Carolina last night chanted “Send her back!” when he attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-born Muslim, as well as the reluctance of most congressional Republicans to challenge his racist tweets.

1) A Pew Research Center poll finds that 62 percent of Americans say the country’s openness to people from around the world is “essential to who we are as a nation.” That’s down six points from September, driven entirely by Republicans changing their views. Since last fall, the share of Republicans who say America risks losing its identity if it is too open has increased 13 percentage points to 57 percent, while the share who view the nation’s openness to others as essential has declined 10 points to 37 percent, according to the Pew survey, which was conducted Wednesday through Monday.

For better or worse, presidential leadership can shape public opinion. Trump’s full-throated embrace of identity politics is changing his adopted party. Pew’s poll, in the field mostly before the latest donnybrook, shows that Democratic attitudes are unchanged compared with last fall: 86 percent say America’s openness is essential.