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

As they cast their ballots, voters have views of division 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 the Founding Fathers who warned of the dangers of political demagoguery. It was also 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 anti-Semitic violence on the community over his 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.

A rally participant drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens. President Joe Biden said the open display of racism and anti-Semitism prompted him to enter the race for the White House in 2020.

Associated Press reporters spent three days in and around Charlottesville in early October interviewing voters about the election, which is days away. These voters faced 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 hatreds flare up and extreme ideas are allowed to run unchecked.

Here’s what they had to say about the presidential election and its aftermath.

Extremism is not going away

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

The University of Virginia religious studies professor said that while he was helping Charlottesville residents prepare for Unite the Right and the other racist demonstrations that preceded it, he was told too many times ” to simply have a dialogue and not be so polarizing or dismissive.” .”

“I thought, how am I supposed to have a dialogue with someone who wants my annihilation?” said Schmidt, who is Black.

Looking back on that summer, Schmidt says she and other activists saw then what others have begun to see since — that extremists are a real danger that isn’t going away.

Schmidt said Trump’s return to the White House represents a threat to democracy that the founding fathers warned about.

“I think we have things to learn from some of the warnings we’ve been given about demagogues,” she said. “It is no exaggeration to say that democracy is on the line in this election.”

Political differences should not create enemies

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

They universally denounced the Unite the Right rally as hateful and against their values. Pochek said the protesters’ anti-Semitic comments came “straight from the pits of hell.” Christians worship Jesus, who was Jewish, he said.

While the group had nuanced views on Trump, they all agreed they could not support Vice President Kamala Harris because of her stance on abortion. Pochek said Trump’s lies, particularly 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 two candidates for the presidency of the United States is in itself a judgment on America, that this is the best we have out of nearly 400 million Americans,” he said. .

He also tries to build bridges by emphasizing to his congregants that people with different viewpoints should not be viewed as enemies.

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

“The lenses are off”

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

The car that hit the Unite the Right counter-protesters killed her daughter, Heather Heyer, 32. Bro said the summer awakened her and other white residents to the hatred black people have long known.

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

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

But he also realized that events like the one in Charlottesville seven years ago can trick people into thinking that hate is exclusive to extremists.

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

‘Trump was right’ about the protesters

At an early voting office in Charlottesville, Dan and Ruth Suggs said they cast their ballots for Trump. The couple, married 53 years, did not see Trump or Harris as an existential threat to the nation’s future.

“It’s not the end of the world. No matter who wins, it will be pretty much the same,” Dan Suggs said. “The biggest difference will be the economy.”

Both disagreed with the city’s handling of the removal of a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park, a decision that sparked the rally in 2017. They said the city should have held a referendum on this issue and that he mishandled the protest.

“I believe in freedom of expression. I don’t think anybody has the right to try to shut it down, and that’s basically what they were trying to do with the alt-right,” said Dan Suggs.

Ruth Suggs said not everyone present was there to cause trouble.

“There were people who just wanted to hear what they had to say,” she said. “Trump was right when he said there are good people on both sides.”

Students from immigrant families see a personal threat, but differently

Nineteen-year-old Kushaan Soodan’s parents are Indian immigrants. Eighteen-year-old Arturo Romero is from Mexico and immigrated legally to California in high school with his parents and younger sisters.

The two are now students and acquaintances at the University of Virginia. But they see the election completely differently, in part because of their experiences coming from immigrant families.

As Soodan registered UVA students to vote in a recent Friday, he said the election is critical to preserving democracy and making a statement that hate should not have a home in America.

“That kind of hatred — we’ve already seen what it can cause,” Soodan said, standing near the campus walkway used seven years ago by “Unite the Right” protesters. “And I think this election is one of the ways. we can do that where we can say, no, we don’t want that, we don’t like that.”

Romero said he feared a Harris victory would push the country to the point of no return. He defended Trump and said his words were often misunderstood, including when he suggested that migrants who are in the US and commit a crime do so because “it’s in their genes”.

Romero said Trump is not talking about all immigrants. He said he saw how Mexico changed for the worse when more migrants began traveling to the US. He said crime has increased and he doesn’t want the same thing to happen in America.

Romero praised Trump’s overall impact on the nation’s economy, border and international stability, and felt that Biden’s policies had failed: “If we have four more years, then this is not going to be reversible.”

“The pot is still on the stove”

Leslie Scott-Jones was born and raised in Charlottesville and has lived her life aware of the worst consequences of racism. So she was perplexed after the Unite the Right rally to see the news media portray it as shocking.

“How did you come to believe we live in a post-racial society?” said Scott-Jones, who is Black. “Because the rest of us had a very different experience.”

The violent rally was a “bubble that burst,” she said, but “the pot is still on the stove.”

However, it was a deeply painful moment for Scott-Jones, who was organizing an event for artists, when he heard booming sounds which turned out to be the vehicle attacking the counter-protesters. She stopped what she was doing and rushed to help.

Scott-Jones, who is the curator of learning and engagement at a local African-American heritage center, said she has heard pleas to save democracy with her vote, but they don’t seem convincing. She believes the system needs to be reimagined.

“This country has not worked for black people since I got here,” she said. “Why would I want to save something that has literally treated my people like property for hundreds of years?”

She said she is voting for third-party candidate Cornel West and hopes America can one day live up to the ideals he stands for.

Could the country descend into political violence and plunge into deeper division after the November elections?

“It’s a concern,” Scott-Jones said. “But I honestly don’t think it depends on who’s sitting in that chair.”

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Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.