Virtually everyone is paying attention to this year's presidential election. Yet, this could be the most-depressing-to-watch (and talk about) race to the White House ever.
Over the past several months, the battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has turned increasingly bitter. Tension is also up among voters — pitting family members, friends, and Facebook posts against each other. A new AJC poll shows Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are deadlocked in Georgia.
And while people have strong feelings about this year’s high-stakes election, many voters share a common thread – regardless of who they plan to vote for. They are disheartened by the negative tone of the race. It is wearing them down. They are ready to get the election over with.
Here are some thoughts from Georgia voters on this year’s race:
Michael LeDuc
Michael LeDuc, 52, called the race for the presidency “a mess,” and he is disappointed in both candidates.
“It’s like two 5- year-olds arguing on a playground” he said. “And it bothers me to sit there and watch them and they won’t have a substantive debate.”
LeDuc, a Republican who lives in Forsyth County, will vote for Donald Trump, but without much enthusiasm. Trump was not LeDuc’s first choice (Florida Republican U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was) and probably not even his second. Even so, he has strong reservations about a Hillary Clinton presidency and he doesn’t trust her. He also likes the idea of having a president who is not part of the establishment, someone he says who, “will shake things up.”
LeDuc said he refrains from posting anything about the presidential race on Facebook, and he believes most of his family and friends are voting for Trump, “but I know a couple people so fed up they are staying home” and not voting.
One of LeDuc’s biggest frustrations is how both candidates have been demonized, and the lack of compromise between the two candidates and their respective parties.
“I am pro-life and certainly understand some are pro-choice so my thing is that it’s not an all or nothing. When you talk to people about late-term abortion, most people say that is disgusting and here is the problem: the left is not willing to go with banning late-term abortion because the thought is if I give you an inch you’ll go after Roe versus Wade. They don’t trust each other,” he said, adding the same is true for guns, with some on the right seeing any restriction on guns as a step towards total evisceration of 2nd Amendment gun rights.
Anthony Lopez
Originally from San Antonio, Texas, Anthony Lopez was a petty officer in the Navy, stationed on an aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf during conflicts in Somalia and Iraq. Lopez now owns a used-car sales business in Woodstock, and he finds political discussions hard to avoid, even with his customers.
“I had a lady come in other day from Canton on a test drive,” said Lopez, 45. “She and her and daughter were trying to buy a Jeep, and she said something like, ‘I hate to get into your business, but who are you voting for?’”
Lopez told her that a grade school teacher named Mrs. Stroud assured him that votes were private, and he should never have to reveal his.
“Well, she was taken aback, and she said, ‘I just can’t buy a car from somebody who supports Hillary Clinton.’”
On this occasion, Lopez was willing to bend Mrs. Stroud’s rule and reveal his true colors as a Trump supporter, because, first of all, he agreed with the customer, and second of all, “I made the sale!”
Kelly Guris, 34, of Roswell, has two children and one on the way, due right around Election Day, but other than that blessed event, she's not looking forward to Nov. 8.
“While I’m very interested in what’s going to happen, it’s really just, ooh, we’re not going to be happy no matter what happens,” she said. “We try not to talk about it too much in our family, because it seems to be a bit of a divisive topic.”
Other than joking with her husband about moving to Canada, Guris also doesn’t often bring the topic up with friends.
“You just don’t know what’s going to set someone off, and, honestly, I don’t want to be disappointed and find out that this person had bad judgement based on who they’re supporting. I’m going to not talk about it so I don’t have to realize we really fundamentally disagree about some things.”
While her parents are Republicans, Guris is supporting a third-party candidate, which means friends and relations are busy telling her she’s throwing her vote away.
“I’m a poli-sci major from college,” she said, “I understand how voting in elections works, how third-party-candidates can steal votes, so to speak, from one candidate or another.”
But in the end, she said, her vote is for her conscience, not for expedience.
Ansley Hobbs
Ansley Hobbs, 22, a recent graduate of Georgia Tech, supports Hillary Clinton, but with reservations.
Both candidates have flaws, she said, but added that Trump’s flaws are bigger.
“I tend to avoid discussion with the people who are so staunchly supporting Trump,” she said. “To me if you’re so far on one side it’s hard to have a true interesting civil discussion about it.”
Even though she doesn’t argue online with Trump supporters, she also doesn’t delete them from her Facebook page, and the arguments spring up among the commenters.
“I enjoy reading their posts,” she said. “I like to see people arguing about it in the comments. It’s like passing a car crash. You have to watch.”
She’s also found that the current election season has brought her some new allies. “I like talking to my boyfriend’s dad. He’s a long-time conservative and Republican and he’s been totally horrified by this election. The things Donald Trump stands for are not the things he cares about. It’s interesting talking about our political leanings, because policy wise we have different, separate, distinctive views.”
Laura Hodges
Laura Hodges plans to write in Marco Rubio’s name for president.
The 76-year-old Douglasville resident considers her decision to be a way of silently protesting both of the candidates put forth by the major political parties.
“I know good and well that there’s a lot of people who are saying that I’m just throwing my vote away and that’s possibly true, but it’s also a protest against the direction that either of the other two candidates would take us as a country,” Hodges said.
While she hasn’t faced any fallout with friends or family members regarding her decision, it has certainly elicited disapproving remarks.
“They have said that I’ll be throwing my vote away and [asked] why I’m even going to the polls,” she said.
Hodges believes her decision to write in a candidate is better than opting not to vote at all.
“I have never not voted so I don’t plan for this to be any different,” she said.
Eddy Finney
Eddy Finney, 71, isn’t concerned about the fact that his golfing associates are sometimes upset by his opinions about the presidential election.
To him, the idea of voting for anyone but Hillary Clinton is “sillyness.”
“Every now and then someone will make a comment and then I’ll say something, and they’ll get upset with me,” Finney said.
Still, he hasn’t disagreed with any of his close friends or family regarding the election and tries not to take any of the disagreements on the golf course personally.
“You have a lot of acquaintances in your life, you have few friends,” he said.
The Augusta resident said he tries not to make a habit out of arguing with people about their political views. When he was in the military, he would tell his soldiers to “pick a fight that you know you can win and make sure it’s worthwhile.”
Arguing with someone in an attempt to change their outlook on politics is pointless, he said.
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