The environment, gun laws and education are three of the key areas identified by University of Exeter students as being overlooked in this year’s US Election campaign. Upon closer examination, the direction of the campaign, in terms of its focus, has been largely dictated by Trump.
Of those that responded to an XMedia survey on the 7th and 8th of November, climate change was singled out as the issue which received the least attention during the campaign by far, with 49% finding this to be the case. A further 31% found that the issue of gun laws hadn’t been adequately addressed, and 27% believed that education had also been given insufficient attention.
Donald Trump, who has formerly denied the existence of climate change, has shut down environmental issues in his presidential campaign. The Republican candidate has vowed to cut US funding for UN climate change projects, claiming in a rally at Gettysburg that “we’re going to fix our own environment”.
On the other hand, immigration, abortion and euthanasia and gender equality scored lowest in the poll, indicating that students felt that these topics had enjoyed significant focus. These themes appear to coincide with a string of controversies surrounding Republican candidate Donald Trump, including his plans to build a wall on the Mexican border, his suggestion that there should be “punishment” for women who have abortions and, most recently, recordings uncovering the presidential candidate bragging about sexually assaulting women.
