Men and Christians experience higher amounts of discrimination than other groups, Trump voters claim

A new survey from YouGov and The Economist suggests that people who voted for President Donald Trump are living in a very different United States than those who voted for Hillary Clinton.

In a series of questions about the discrimination they perceive different groups to be experiencing, the respondents were far more concerned with the plight of men and Christians than with just about any other group.

The poll surveyed 1,500 U.S. adults this past Sunday through Tuesday, 28 percent of whom voted for Donald Trump in 2016. Participants were asked to share what they felt were the levels of discrimination against a variety of groups, including various ethnic groups (Arab, Asian, African, and Mexican Americans), religious groups (Christians, Jewish, and Muslim), LGBTQ people, immigrants, and men and women. And while Trump voters certainly acknowledged that various groups experienced some degree of discrimination, they expressed the most concern about men and Christians.

For example, nearly half of Trump voters (49 percent) claimed that men are experiencing “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of discrimination right now, compared to only 11 percent of people who voted for Clinton. The trend was similar for participants who identified as conservative (43 percent) compared to those who identified as liberal (14 percent).

In contrast, Trump voters were not nearly as concerned about women. Only 30 percent of Trump voters believe women are facing “a great deal” or “a fair amount of discrimination, compared to 88 percent of Clinton voters.

These numbers seem to reflect the contrasting narratives that followed the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in recent months. Trump, himself, repeatedly insisted that it’s a “very scary time for young men,” while women across the country were protested Kavanaugh given the multiple allegations of sexual assault against him.

When asked about religion, Trump voters seemed to show far more concern for Christians than for other religions. In fact, 38 percent of Trump voters responded that people who aren’t Christian have it easier in this country than Christians, while only 10 percent agreed Christians have it easier. In comparison, 53 percent of Clinton voters said Christians have it easier, and only 5 percent said other groups do, while the rest believed there was no difference.

The difference Trump voters saw shined through when asked separately about Christian, Jewish, and Muslim people. The poll found that 64 percent of Trump voters believed Christians face “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of discrimination, compared to 48 percent who felt the same for Jews, and 60 percent for Muslims. In a separate question, Trump voters also described anti-Semitism as a far less serious problem in the United States.

Only 17 percent of Clinton voters felt Christians face high levels of discrimination, compared to 58 percent for Jews and 95 percent for Muslims.

Trump-voter apathy for other vulnerable groups followed a similar pattern. For LGBTQ people, only 41 percent of Trump voters considered discrimination a big problem, compared to 92 percent of Clinton voters. Likewise, only 46 percent of Trump voters were concerned with discrimination against immigrants compared to 92 percent of Clinton voters.

The juxtaposition between their responses for LGBTQ people and Christians seems to reflect years of conservatives claiming that expanding LGBTQ equality infringes on the “religious freedom” of Christians to discriminate against LGBTQ rights. This was particularly evident in the recent Masterpiece Cakeshop Supreme Court case, in which a Christian baker claimed he should be allowed to refuse to sell wedding cakes to same-sex couples.

The poll did not ask respondents to comment directly on how much discrimination they perceive white people as experiencing, but they were asked whether white people or black people have it easier. Only 17 percent of Trump voters said white people have it easier, while 65 percent believed there was no difference. Meanwhile, 79 percent of Clinton voters believe white people have it easier.

When asked about various non-white groups, Trump voters consistently expressed less concern about discrimination than Clinton voters, including for Arab Americans (53 percent vs. 91 percent), Asian Americans (27 percent vs. 64 percent), African Americans (38 percent vs. 90 percent), and Mexican Americans (42 percent vs. 90 percent). For each of those groups, except for Asian Americans, Clinton voters were also far more likely to respond that there’s “a great deal” of discrimination, while Trump voters were more likely to state there was only “a fair amount.”

Compared to Clinton voters, Trump voters were notably less concerned with issues like gay rights, health care, Medicare, education, the environment, and gun control and more concerned about taxes, the budget deficit, terrorism, and immigration.