His comment was “Muslims scare liberals.” A true statement, IMO. If, elsewhere he broadened that to all liberals, that would be an untrue statement.
There are more than outliers. Remember polling in the 60s that showed a rapid flip in the percentage of white folks who were wary of black families moving into their neighborhood? I know that polling has come up on this or predecessor boards. We know there’s a strong element of social pressure behind that polling. Suddenly admitting you’re a racist was uncouth.
I think we’re still in that moment on most things LGBTQ+. It’s unfortunate, but many people in their 40s and 50s who grew up using homosexual epithets didn’t expel their bigotry becuase of social pressure. Sure, you can back them down if they drop a slur or tell a terrible joke, but there are liberals not repulsed by Dan Patrick’s bathroom fascination.
Humanism moves ahead of the populace. Obergefell dropped and new battle lines were formed, seemingly the next day. That’s a good thing. We need to be pushed to treat more and more people as human. But for electoral politics, that tendency leaves left-leaning parties very vulnerable.
W/r/t Muslims, I will say I have more limited anecdotal data. But, every one of the guys I’m talking about did openly say quite inappropriate things about Tlaib and Omar. Like I said, I don’t view them as particularly good people. But a big tent needs shitheels, too.