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Painter Jeffrey Baumgartner says he would like to portray Lee’s statue while it is still standing. You think you can sell it to a regular customer who is a Republican. Photo: Gisle Oddstad
CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA (VG) Donald Trump’s reaction to the riots in Charlottesville prompted Democrat Joe Biden to bet everything. Now the city is divided in two in its support for the two candidates.
“It’s okay to be white,” reads the sticker attached to the statue of General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The monument has been here for almost a hundred years, but in the last three years it has been the subject of heated discussions. News broke this week that Charlottesville will again ask permission to remove several of the controversial statues honoring the generals from slavery. The monuments divide the population in two, just as the presidential election has done. On the bench next to the statue are two friends.
– I voted for Trump, and I tell him why? I heard someone say that Biden abuses children. And that it would shut down our finances, when we have enough challenges with money, Lynn Emmen tells her friend Chris.
– What, did you vote for Trump? He says. Chris is African American and says he could never vote for “someone who is obviously racist.”
The choice was even here, as in many other states. Even after Biden delivered his victory speech and said he would be the president of all Americans, including those who did not vote for him, the gap between those who voted for him and those who wanted four new years with Trump seems at least the same. big.
NOTICE: “It’s okay to be white,” reads the sticker on the controversial statue of General Robert E. Lee.
Charlottesville became the catalyst
The small town of Charlottesville suddenly caught the world’s attention when a self-proclaimed neo-Nazi ran into a group of anti-racists and killed a 32-year-old woman in 2017.
At least as much attention was paid to President Donald Trump’s reaction to the attack: “There are good people on both sides,” Trump said of supporters of white power. It was this comment that was absolutely crucial in getting Joe Biden to take over the presidential race, he said.
“Charlottesville was the moment I decided I had to ask. It was a wake-up call for us as a nation. And for me, a call to action,” Joe Biden said of his motivation to become president.
SYMBOL: When local authorities decided to remove the monument to Southern General Robert E. Lee because he was associated with slavery and black oppression, riots broke out in Charlottesville.
Trump will not give up
This first week after the elections, Donald Trump has said that he will hold new public meetings where he will discuss his demands to change the electoral result, according to anonymous sources from both the right-wing television channel Fox News and the Axios website.
– Do not admit defeat, Mr. President. Fight hard, urged Sen. Lindsey Graham in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. Also prominent Kentucky Republican Senator Mitch McConnell has come out and said that Trump is “100 percent within his right” to challenge the election result.
Therefore, many of Trump’s supporters believe that the election is not over at all.
– Right now there is a great division in the question of who is chosen. When all the votes are counted and verified, then we know, but the process is not over yet, because they still count. The president has the opportunity to legally challenge the result. So that these questions are not answered, nobody helps, says the chairman of the Republican Party in Charlottesville, Daniel Moy, to VG.
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Terrorism analysts in the United States warn that Trump’s remarks create an “us versus them” polarization, which can reach a dangerous level. Experts even fear the threat from the far-right could be amplified by Biden, he writes. e.g.
Biden doesn’t have very good cards on hand to land a partnership, says US expert and adviser at Civita Eirik Løkke.
– The divisive rhetoric and modus operandi of Donald Trump as president, among other things by actively undermining the democratic process in the US, means that Trump can destroy a lot for Biden. Trump still has a large following with a dedicated following, and if they decide to oppose Biden, it will be difficult for him no matter what, Løkke believes.
QUIET: Charlottesville is actually a beautiful and very quiet city, but it became known for riots in 2017. Photo: Gisle Oddstad
-Too much hate
Across the quiet street of the Charlotteville parade an elderly couple walks in identical T-shirts with the inscription “All lives don’t matter until black lives matter.”
This city was long heavily Republican, before the Democrats won it in the 2000s in several elections in a row, and then ended up in the divided state position it has today.
There is a distrust between Republicans and Democrats that will be difficult for Biden to overcome, says US expert Løkke.
Biden has yet to try, he says.
– You have a history in which you have managed to get a meeting to cross party lines, although in times that were less polarized than now. But he must show over time that he is serious when he says he wants to unite America and be president, even for those who did not vote for him.
SEE A LOT: The couple Perry Jones and Glenny Stanny say they have experienced a lot in their lives and suffered discrimination, but that the country has never been so divided as it is now. Photo: Gisle Oddstad
The T-shirt boyfriend and girlfriend do not believe that the citizens who voted for Trump will reconcile with Biden, not even in the long term.
– No, then there wouldn’t be so many protests now. In fact, it is good that they are protesting. It should have been us. Because they are the ones who have hurt us, they have kept us as slaves, then there are those who should protest, then it is us! ” Glenny Stanny tells VG.
– There is too much hate here, and four years cannot change that. I have lived here for 63 years and have seen what it is like. Hate runs in families, says his girlfriend Perry Jones.
