Through controversy after controversy, Wanda Raper’s faith in Donald Trump has remained unshaken.
And the McDonough resident is sticking with the Republican presidential front-runner after his recent pledge to temporarily block all Muslims from entering the United States, despite the backlash from leaders in both political parties and around the globe.
“I do agree that we need to take effective action even if it is blocking as Trump states,” Raper wrote in an email. “If we currently had effective people in Washington they would be doing a more effective job and they would be taking action. This is not the first time in our history that a strict action had to be taken.”
Raper, who stood in line for hours to see Trump in Norcross earlier this year, is far from alone. Two new nationwide polls show plenty of support for Trump’s idea — particularly in the GOP primary — though the picture is mixed.
A Bloomberg Politics/Purple Strategies survey showed 65 percent of likely 2016 Republican primary voters support Trump’s call, and more than a third say it makes them more likely to vote for him. Among all likely voters, 37 percent supported the plan. The online survey conducted Tuesday had a margin of error of plus-or-minus 4 percentage points.
“We believe these numbers are made up of some people who are truly expressing religious bigotry and others who are fearful about terrorism and are willing to do anything they think might make us safer,” Doug Usher, who runs polling for Washington-based Purple Strategies, said in his analysis of his poll’s findings.
“This indicates that, despite some conventional wisdom expressed in the last 48 hours, this is unlikely to hurt Trump at least in the primary campaign.”
An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Thursday found 38 percent of Republican primary voters support the idea, while 39 percent oppose, with a 4.4 percentage point margin of error. Meanwhile, among all adults, 25 percent agreed with Trump and 57 percent opposed the plan.
Trump first announced the plan in a Monday press release, saying it was in response to terror attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. The real estate magnate has defended the idea in rallies and interviews all week.
The proposal stoked strong feelings on both sides among Georgia voters interviewed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Even those who were opposed to Trump’s plan acknowledged the need to address rising terrorism fears
“As a daughter of Holocaust survivors this proposal is very disturbing,” said Goldie Bertone, of Atlanta, in an email. “Trump is certainly too extreme but I understand which direction he is coming from. Terrorist(s) play on fears which we certainly have now.”
Frank Blackburn, of Alpharetta, called Trump a “blowhard” who he does not plan to support — unless Trump is the only option against Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“America is all about giving people a chance,” Blackburn said. “It’s what our basic tenet in life is here. You judge people not by what they say or how they look, but what they do. … I’m sure there are some good Muslims, but we need to make sure we’re vetting the hell out of them.”
Ken Murdock, of Atlanta, is fed up with all politicians, so he is considering Trump for president, along with fellow non-officeholders Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. He’s skeptical a Muslim ban would prove effective, but Murdock is impressed with Trump’s ability to leverage his outlandish statements.
“I don’t really believe in my heart of hearts that The Donald is as crazy as he acts,” Murdock said.
“He just sucks the air out – the PR air out. He has got you guys (in the media) just sucked up to where you’re rushing out to write up every terrible thing he says, and by doing that he has just put most of the other Republicans completely off the page.”
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