Terrorism Response Highlights Split Between Political Parties Republicans say national security is priority for government, Democrats name economy and gun violence By Dante Chinni
http://www.wsj.com/articles/terrorism-response-highlights-split-between-political-parties-1452650704
The revival of terrorism as a prominent fear is also laying bare divisions between the two political parties over what issues should top the government’s priority list, with Republicans citing national security and Democrats remaining focused on the economy and gun violence.
The differences mark a change from the past two presidential campaigns, in which both parties were most concerned with economic growth.
Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey data show how different the concerns of one party’s primary voters are from the other’s. In December polling, GOP primary voters overwhelmingly said national security and terrorism were the top issue for the federal government to address. Some 58% of GOP voters cited it, compared with only 26% of Democrats.
Democratic primary voters instead named the economy and jobs as the top issue for the government to address, with 33% citing it.
The parties’ differing views of the government’s top priority were reflected in other ways: Republican primary voters were more concerned than were Democrats with being the victim of a terrorist attack, 30% to 23%. Democratic primary voters, by contrast, were more concerned than their GOP counterparts of being a victim of gun violence, 37% to 18%.
The results suggest the violence in San Bernardino, Paris, Charleston and elsewhere left Republicans primary voters seeing an enhanced threat from terrorism from abroad, while Democratic primary voters worry about long-running domestic gun violence.
Another difference surfaced in how to respond to the growth of terrorism and to other world events. Among Democratic primary voters, 66% said the country needs to focus more on solving problems at home and agreed with the statement that “America cannot be the world’s policeman.’’
By contrast, 66% of Republicans primary voters said the country hadn’t been strong enough abroad, allowing Russia, China and ISIS to extend their influence.
The differences between the two parties extend to views of the economy and other matters. Democratic primary voters say the economy’s problems are being driven by the wealthy “rigging the system for the rich.” For Republican primary voters, the more pressing issue is “diminishing opportunity for average people to achieve economic stability.”
December’s polling results point to a few issues on which the two parties’ primary voters agree. Majorities in both groups believe free trade is good for America and that race relations in the U.S. are poor.
But the overarching message from the polling data is one of disagreement, including on how the two parties felt about the past year. Among Democratic primary voters, 70% said 2015 was average or above for the U.S., while 82% of Republican primary voters saw 2015 as below average or one of the worst years ever.
Write to Dante Chinni at Dante.Chinni@wsj.com
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