By Dave Workman
With political divisions widening and rhetoric only heating up as midterm elections loom, Rasmussen Reports has revealed the results of a new survey which says 71 percent of likely voters say “Americans are less tolerant of each other’s political opinions than they were in the past.”
Rasmussen conducted the survey of 1,081 U.S. Likely Voters July 7-9. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence, the polling firm said.
According to Rasmussen, this actually represents a decline of animosity since a similar survey was conducted back in 2021 after Joe Biden became president. At that time, 77 percent of voters believed Americans had become less tolerant.
This time around, 46 percent of survey respondents said “political disagreements in the past few years have negatively affected their personal relationship with a friend or family member, while 47% haven’t had relationships affected by political disagreements.” Rasmussen said.
Breaking things down politically, and probably ideologically, 49 percent of Democrats, 46 percent of Republicans and 42 percent of Independents said “their personal relationship with a friend or family member have been negatively affected by political disagreements in the past few years.” This suggests Democrats are a bit less tolerant than Republicans or Independents, but there’s more to it, apparently.
Rasmussen also reported that 77 percent of Independents, 70 percent of Republicans and 68 percent of Democrats “believe Americans are less tolerant of each other’s political opinions than they were in the past.”
On the racial front, Rasmussen said, “78% of whites, 59% of black voters, 63% of Hispanics and 46% of other minorities think Americans have become less tolerant of each other’s political opinions. Hispanics are most likely to say they’ve had personal relationships affected by political disagreements.”
Sixty percent (60%) of self-identified liberal voters say their personal relationships have been negatively affected by political disagreements, compared to 42% of conservatives and 43% of moderates who say the same, according to Rasmussen’s survey results. Also, older voters are more likely to say Americans are less tolerant of each other’s political opinions than they were in the past, the veteran polling firm revealed.
“Slightly more women (48%) than men (42%) say political disagreements in the past few years have negatively affected their personal relationship with a friend or family member,” Rasmussen added.
Workman is editor-in-chief of TheGunMag.com.
