Poll: Gaps in basic views on gender, race, religion, politics

WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 (UPI) —

A large gap exists among U.S. residents in basic views on gender, race, religion and politics, an ABC News-Fusion poll indicated.

The poll, released Monday, found wide differences among groups in their trust in government and immigration policy, as well as basic views on issues such as the role of religion and the value of diversity in politics, treatment of women in the workplace and opportunities afforded to minorities.

The poll conducted for ABC and Fusion television network by Langer Research Associates found the gaps largest among partisan and ideological groups and so enormous and so basic that they seem to constitute visions of two distinctly different Americas.

Among the poll’s findings:

Among all adults, 53 percent said they think women have fewer opportunities than men in the workplace, ranging from 68 percent of Democrats to 38 percent of Republicans.

Overall, 41 percent think non-whites have fewer opportunities than whites in society, from a high of 62 percent among liberal Democrats to 25 percent among Republicans.

Thirty-nine percent of adults say they trust the government in Washington to do what’s right while six in 10 say they don’t.

Legal status for undocumented immigrants has a 51 percent overall support, ranging from 77 percent among liberal Democrats to 32 percent among conservative Republicans.

Partisan and ideological differences of between 20 points and 50 points raise challenging questions of how political accommodation can occur in the United States, which may be gaining urgency following the 16-day partial government shutdown prompted by a political dispute over the new federal healthcare law, ABC said.

Results are based on a nationwide phone survey of 1,002 adults conducted Oct. 17-20. The margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.