Voters hear stark message in presidential race: The country’s fate is on the line

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia (AP):

Few elections in the nation’s history have provided such a divide as this year’s, with the two major candidates and so many of their supporters saying the outcome will determine the fate of the country and whether it can hold to its democratic moorings.

As they cast their ballots, voters have opinions on the divide as diverse and complex as the nation itself. Perhaps no place captures this range of perspective more clearly than Charlottesville, Virginia.

It was once a meeting place for Founding Fathers who cautioned about the dangers of political demagoguery. It also was the site of the ‘Unite the Right’ rally in 2017, the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, when hundreds of white nationalists and neo-Nazis felt emboldened enough to unleash racist and antisemitic violence on the community for its decision to remove a Confederate statue. They chanted “Jews will not replace us” as they marched through the streets carrying tiki torches and Confederate flags.

One rally goer plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing a woman and injuring dozens more. President Joe Biden has said the open display of racism and antisemitism prompted him to enter the race for the White House in 2020.

Associated Press journalists spent three days in and around Charlottesville during early October, interviewing voters about the election that is now days away. These voters have experienced one of the most visible recent examples of the vitriol and division that has long been brewing beneath the country’s surface, a reminder of what can happen when hate erupts and extreme ideas are allowed to fester unchecked.

Here is what they had to say about the presidential election and its consequences.

EXTREMISM IS NOT GOING AWAY

As a racial justice activist in the summer of 2017, Jalane Schmidt tried to sound the alarm early.

The religious studies professor at the University of Virginia said as she was helping Charlottesville residents prepare for ‘Unite the Right’ and the other racist demonstrations that preceded it, she was too often told to “just have a dialogue and not be so polarising or dismissive”.

“I was like, how am I supposed to have a dialogue with someone who desires my annihilation?” said Schmidt, who is black.

Looking back on that summer, Schmidt says she and other activists saw then what others have started to see since – that extremists pose a real danger that is not going away.

Schmidt said Trump’s return to the White House poses a threat to democracy, one the Founding Fathers warned about.

“I think we have things to learn from some of the warnings that have been given to us about demagogues,” she said. “It is not an overstatement to say that democracy is on the line with this election.”

POLITICAL DIFFERENCES SHOULD NOT CREATE ENEMIES

Rob Pochek, the senior pastor, gathered a small group of men in a meeting room at First Baptist Church on Park Street, a Charlottesville institution approaching its 200th anniversary.

Universally, they denounced the ‘Unite the Right’ rally as hateful and against their values. Pochek said the marchers’ antisemitic comments came “straight from the pits of hell”. Christians worship Jesus, who was a Jew, he said.

While the group had nuanced views about Trump, they all agreed they cannot support Vice President Kamala Harris because of her stance on abortion. Pochek said Trump’s lies, specifically about the 2020 election, and other rhetoric make it a tough decision.

“I think the fact that we have former President Trump and Vice President Harris as the two candidates for president of the United States is in itself a judgement on America, that this is the best we have out of nearly 400 million Americans,” he said.

He also tries to build bridges, emphasising to his congregants that people with different points of view should not be seen as their enemies.

Referring to the symbols of both major parties, Pochek tells them their allegiance is not to a donkey or an elephant: “We worship the Lamb,” he said.

‘THE BLINDERS ARE OFF’

Susan Bro lives in a single-wide trailer in Ruckersville, about a half-hour’s drive outside Charlottesville, a town so small it sometimes doesn’t appear on maps.

The car that struck the ‘Unite the Right’ counter-protesters killed her daughter, 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Bro said that summer awakened her and other white residents to the hatred people of colour had long known.

“I think the blinders are off,” she said. “This existed. We just pretended it didn’t.”

She said she’s terrified of what will happen to the country if Trump wins. She’s concerned about his lies, his promises of retribution and the Republican Party’s failure to stand up to him. She’s not sure whether democracy can survive.

But she also realised that events like what happened in Charlottesville seven years ago can delude people into thinking that hate is exclusive to extremists.

“We all have to watch ourselves with these virulent rhetoric paths that we go down, because once you start on that, it’s really easy to just keep mouthing these phrases, holding on to these ideas,” Bro said. “We have more in common than we think we do.”