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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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