A Lot of Trumpers Aren't Actually MAGA. They Matter Most.
Voters who are out of step with their respective parties could play a decisive role in November.
Who will win those in the middle?
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski and Jim Watson/ AFP via Getty Images
A new Pew Research Center poll on American cultural values portrays lots of predictable divisions between the two main camps of US politics — as well as some curious anomalies. The large online survey of 8,709 adults, including 7,166 registered voters, examines the competing political values of the Biden and Trump coalitions, which underlie their competing policy attitudes.
The poll, conducted April 8–14, is essentially a snapshot of the culture war, displaying enormous gaps between the supporters of former President Donald Trump and those of President Joe Biden on issues including race and sexuality. I’ll get to some of that in a moment. But the survey also reveals a sizable cohort of Trump supporters — anywhere from roughly one-fifth to one-third, depending on the issue — that seems at home in 21st-century America, harboring few of MAGA’s abiding cultural resentments. Given how comprehensively those resentments define Trump and his movement, this minority is a compelling bunch.