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

When they cast their ballots, voters have views about the divide that are as diverse and complex as the nation itself. Perhaps no place captures this 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 2017 “Unite the Right” rally, the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, when hundreds of white nationalists and neo-Nazis felt emboldened to unleash racist and anti-Semitic violence against the community for its decision to remove a Confederate statue. They chanted “The Jews will not replace us” as they marched through the streets with tiki torches and Confederate flags.

A rally-goer plowed his car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens more. President Joe Biden has said that 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 now days away. These voters have experienced one of the most visible examples in recent memory of the vitriol and division that has long grown beneath the country’s surface, a reminder of what can happen when hatred erupts and extreme ideas are allowed to fester unchecked.

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

Extremism is not going away

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

The University of Virginia religious studies professor said that as she helped 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 polarizing or dismissive . “

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

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

Schmidt said Trump’s return to the White House poses a threat to democracy, something the founders warned against.

“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 exaggeration to say that democracy is on the way with 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.

Generally speaking, they condemned 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 a Jew, he said.

While the group had nuanced views on Trump, they all agreed that 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 difficult 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 judgment of America, that this is the best we have out of almost 400 million Americans,” he said. .

He also tries to build bridges and emphasizes to his congregants that people with different opinions should not be seen as their enemies.

Referring to the symbols of both major parties, Pochek tells them their loyalty 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 drive outside of Charlottesville, a town so small it sometimes doesn’t show up on maps.

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

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

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

But she also realized that events like what happened 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 get down to it, it’s really easy to just mouth these phrases and hold on to these ideas,” Bro said. “We have more in common than we think we do.”

‘Trump was right’ about the marches

At an early voting office in Charlottesville, Dan and Ruth Suggs said they had cast their ballots for Trump. The couple, married for 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’s still going to be the same thing,” says Dan Suggs. “The biggest difference is going to be the economy.”

They both disagreed over how the city handled the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a central park, a decision that sparked the 2017 rally. They said the city should have held a referendum on the issue and mishandled the protest.

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

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 were 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 college students and acquaintances at the University of Virginia. But they see the choice quite differently, in part because of their experiences with immigrant families.

As Soodan registered UVA students to vote on a new 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 corridor used seven years ago by the “Unite the Right” marchers. “And I think this election is one of the ways we can do that where we can say, no, we don’t want this, we don’t like this.”

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

Romero said Trump was not talking about all immigrants. He said he had seen Mexico change for the worse as more migrants began traveling to the United States. He said crime was on the rise and he doesn’t want the same thing to happen to America.

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

“The tree is still on the stove”

Born and raised in Charlottesville, Leslie Scott-Jones has lived her life aware of the worst consequences of racism. So she was baffled after the “Unite the Right” rally to see the news media present it as shocking.

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

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

Still, it was a deeply painful moment for Scott-Jones, who was at an event for artists when she heard crashing sounds that turned out to be the vehicle attack on counter-protesters. She stopped what she was doing and rushed to help.

Scott-Jones, who is a 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 thinks the system needs to be rethought.

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

She said she is voting for third-party candidate Cornel West and hopes the United States can one day live up to the ideals it espouses.

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

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

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