Survey: Republicans Nearly Twice as Willing as Dems To Date Across the Aisle
How much do Democrats hate Trump supporters? A new survey has found that 45 percent of Democrats would absolutely positively never even think about dating someone who voted for President Donald Trump.
The Pew Research Center survey found that intolerance does not quite work the same for Democrats and Republicans.
“Among Democrats and those who lean toward the Democratic Party who are single but looking for a relationship, about seven-in-ten (71%) say they probably or definitely would not consider being in a committed relationship with someone who voted for Donald Trump,” the survey found.
On the other side, 47 percent of Republicans or those who lean Republican said that if they had the chance to date someone who voted for Hillary Clinton, they would either probably or definitely pass on that relationship. Only 19 percent said they definitely would not date a Clinton voter.
The Republican attitude toward Clinton supporters was not all that different from that of Democrats. The survey found that 13 percent of Democrats said they would not date anyone who voted for Clinton.
There were, of course, Republicans who said they would shun a Republican who supported Trump, but that was only 5 percent of those surveyed.
Dating in a time of political polarization
Even Cupid can’t bridge the ideological dividehttps://t.co/umtDAKiWQe
— Robbus Deplorablus (@hickorymtnman) April 26, 2020
Even with Trump out of the picture, 43 percent of what the survey termed “single-and-looking” Democrats said they would not date a Republican.
Only 24 percent of Republicans, however, said the same about dating Democrats.
Among Republican and Republican-leaning respondents, 47 percent said they would “definitely” or “probably” be willing to date a Clinton voter; only 24 percent of Democratic and Democratic-leaning responding said the same about their Trump-voting counterparts.
The survey found that prejudice against Trump voters was highest among nonwhite Democratic respondents.
While 63 percent of white Democratic respondents said they wouldn’t date a Trump voter, that figure was 78 percent among nonwhites surveyed. Moreover, 51 percent of nonwhite Democratic respondents said they would not date a Republican, compared to 34 percent of white Democratic respondents.
Education is also a factor in how much Democrats can’t stand the thought of dating a Trump voter. The survey found that 84 percent of Democrats with a bachelor’s degree would not date someone who voted for the current president. Among those with less education, the figure was 67 percent.
A February survey from the American Enterprise Institute also showed that opinions about the president can be a deal-breaker for relationships.
That survey found that 63 percent of respondents said they would not date someone who held a different opinion of the president than their own. By gender, that broke down to 55 percent of men and 69 percent of women unwilling to date someone with a different view of Trump.
The survey also found that 73 percent of Democrats would not date someone who viewed Trump differently than they did. Only 54 percent of Republicans said differing opinions about Trump was a romantic deal-breaker.
Among Democratic women surveyed, 79 percent said they would not date people with a different view of Trump, while only 66 percent of Democratic men said they felt that way.
Finally, the survey found that 83 percent of those with a “very unfavorable” view of Trump would not date someone with a favorable view of the president, while 59 percent of those with a “very positive” view would not date someone who “disliked the president.”
The Pew survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 2.1 percentage points; the AEI survey’s margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
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