TRUMP'S BIGOTED SUPPORTERS are played off as average angry Americans. The Big Lie.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/notalltrumpvoters-medias-new-big-lie-lets-racist-donald-trump-backers-hook?akid=14156.294211.E2jJxA&rd=1&src=newsletter1054313&t=26

A Pew Research Center national poll released Thursday found that 59 percent of registered voters nationwide think that an increasing number of people from different races, ethnic groups and nationalities makes the United States a better place; only 8 percent say this makes America worse. But among Trump backers, 39 percent say diversity improves America, while 42 percent say it makes no difference and 17 percent say it actually makes America worse. Supporters of GOP rivals Ted Cruz and John Kasich were significantly more upbeat on diversity.

This was no anomaly. The week before, my Washington Post colleagues Max Ehrenfreund and Scott Clement reported on a Post/ABC News poll that asked whether people thought it more of a problem that African-Americans and Latinos are “losing out because of preferences for whites” or whether whites are “losing out because of preferences for blacks and Hispanics.”

Trump had the support of 34 percent of Republican-leaning voters overall, but among those who said that whites are losing out, 43 percent supported Trump.

In the weeks and months to come, there most certainly will be additional polling data and other research which confirms the great role that racism has played in Trumpmania.

Of course, this information is important. However, it should not be surprising. The influence of racial animus on public opinion and other political behavior is one of the most-repeated findings in all of the social sciences.

Unfortunately, just as The Atlantic’s Conor Friedersdorf did in his recent piece “How Emory’s Student Activists Are Fueling Trumpism,” Dana Milbank makes the choice to offer the following qualifier:

That ugly moment comes to mind in describing how many of Trump’s supporters have bigoted motivations: Not all — but a lot of ‘em.

Just as it’s unfair to paint all Trump backers as prejudiced, it’s impossible to ignore a growing volume of public-opinion data showing that a large number of his supporters are indeed driven by racial or xenophobic animus.