# Can someone make sense of these polling charts about race and the civil war
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [March 13, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830 "2016-03-13T03:11:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2016, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/1 "2016-03-13T03:11:35Z")
> **[Exit Poll Says 20 Percent of Trump Supporters are Pro-Slavery?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-supporters-pro-slavery/)**
>
> An article in the New York Times' 'The Upshot' maintained one in five Trump supporters opposed freeing slaves after the Civil War.
[ ](https://media.snopes.com/2016/02/PPP_Release_SC_21616_pdf2.png)
There are polls asking republicans whose ideology goes from very liberal to very conservative questions about race and the civil war.
Apparently, according to the results, ‘very liberal’ republicans are more likely to wish the south had won the civil war and to think whites are a superior race. More likely than very conservative voters.
So what gives? Is this just trolling or is there something to this? My main question is why would liberal republicans have more conservative views than very conservative ones.
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### Author:  [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2016, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/2 "2016-03-13T08:40:46Z")
Seems strange to me. In addition to your questions, I’d like to know what Republicans these days self-identify as liberal or very liberal. There used to be a liberal wing of the Republican Party, but that’s long-gone.
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### Author:  [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2016, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/3 "2016-03-13T09:46:22Z")
Why would a true “liberal” be voting in the Republican Party at all? Perhaps Republicans who self-identify as “liberal” do support sensible fiscal policies, but prefer the GOP _because_ of their racism.
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### Author:  [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2016, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/4 "2016-03-13T09:54:46Z")
> [@septimus](#):
>
> Why would a true “liberal” be voting in the Republican Party at all?
Two reasons: to try to make the election the best Democrat vs. the best Republican so that you win even if you lose; or to try to make the election the best Democrat vs. the worst Republican because you’re trying to create a _de facto_ one party state. The latter would certainly be compatible with somebody voting for Trump and then being as racist as possible to discredit the opposition candidate.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [March 13, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/5 "2016-03-13T10:14:56Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#):
>
> In addition to your questions, I’d like to know what Republicans these days self-identify as liberal or very liberal.
People who answer polls don’t necessarily understand everything they’re asked.
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### Author:  [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)
#### Post date: [March 14, 2016, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/6 "2016-03-14T19:39:37Z")
Yeah, I don’t get it. Who are the liberal Republicans? It could be people that were just confused by the survey which could yield strange results.
But it is interesting that “The same question was not asked of likely Democrat respondents.” I wonder why?
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### Author:  [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2016, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/7 "2016-03-15T00:34:10Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Apparently, according to the results, ‘very liberal’ republicans are more likely to wish the south had won the civil war and to think whites are a superior race. More likely than very conservative voters.
>
> So what gives? Is this just trolling or is there something to this? My main question is why would liberal republicans have more conservative views than very conservative ones.
“What gives” is poorly explained methodology. The chart cited by Snopes comes from [this PPP poll](http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2015/PPP_Release_SC_21616.pdf). It’s a poll of 897 Republican voters; of those 897, 40% are “very conservative,” 36% are “conservative,” 19% are “moderate,” 3% are “liberal,” and 2% are “very liberal.” So your “very liberal” Republicans are like 18 people, of which six say they think whites are a superior race, and ten wish the South had won the Civil War.
I personally suspect that most of these 18 people are trolling, but even if they’re not, I don’t think there is a large enough sample to confidently compare the views of “very liberal” and “very conservative” Republicans.
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/8 "2016-03-15T03:34:40Z")
Are people being asked to self-identify as liberal or conservative? Or do the pollsters have their own methods for judging which respondents are to be classified as liberal or conservative?
Understand something: most of Donald Trump’s fans aren’t particularly conservative or particularly religious, and a LOT of them are registered Democrats.
A “typical” Trump fan would sneer at anyone calling him a liberal, but in many respects, he IS. He’s a blue-collar Caucasian who likes the goodies he gets from the government, and will fight anyone who suggests his favorite benefits should be cut. He doesn’t really care about abortion of prayer in school. His own taxes aren’t all that high, so tax cut pledges from guys like Cruz and Rubio don’t have any strong appeal to him.
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### Author:  [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2016, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/9 "2016-03-15T19:33:41Z")
> [@zut](#):
>
> … 3% are “liberal,” and 2% are “very liberal.”
given the poll’s sampling error, that’s statistically the same as 0%.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2016, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-someone-make-sense-of-these-polling-charts-about-race-and-the-civil-war/748830/10 "2016-03-15T23:43:59Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#):
>
> Apparently, according to the results, ‘very liberal’ republicans are more likely to wish the south had won the civil war and to think whites are a superior race. More likely than very conservative voters.
I just had to laugh when I saw the phrase ‘very liberal’ Republicans.