The community is suffering from divisive political efforts, according to African-American Democratic activist Kiisa, who has spent the past few weeks reaching out to voters in Georgia.
The state of Georgia, one of the “battlefields” where Democrats and Republicans can decide the United States presidential elections, enters the last week of the campaign in an atmosphere of doubts and distrust, even in the electoral process itself.
HE Joe Biden’s victory in Georgia in the 2020 presidential election was decisive in the defeat of Donald Trump, but its short margin (about 12 thousand votes) led Trump to reject the results and begin a challenge process that was defeated in the courts, but which culminated in the violent assault on the Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
Four years later, Trump still does not acknowledge that he lost the election, as the campaign enters a tense final stretch.
In the southern town of Kingsland, African-American democracy activist Kiisa, 54, has spent the last few weeks reaching out to voters, including knocking on doors to deliver propaganda, and has faced confused and disbelieving voters. .
Trump “managed to plant a seed of distrust in all areas: in the media, in the government, in the electoral process… he sowed doubts where there were no doubts,” the activist tells Lusa, in a pause between campaign actions.
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“Disinformation is playing a very important role” in the campaignbelieve me. “When we show [os eleitores] When they are wrong, they discredit the facts because [Trump] has already given them wrong information,” laments Kiisa.
As for the biggest errors demonstrated by voters, there is no doubt: they say that “Elections are full of manipulation, alteration of ballots, machines that do not count votes correctly,” but also that Trump “has done more than any other president.”
Both are factually unsubstantiated statements that Trump, his vice presidential nominee, JD Vance, and other prominent Republicans routinely repeat over and over again at rallies, interviews, or election ads.
Georgia’s highways and streets are lined with signs of Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris, but many avoid even talking about politics.
In a nearby town, St. Marys, the pastor of the historic First African Baptist Church ordered worshipers gathered at Sunday Mass not to discuss politics with Lusa journalists, even outside the building.
The argument put forward was the protection of the faithful and some of the leaders of the religious community invoked the fear caused by the presence of strangers at masses, in light of the recent attacks against churches with an African-American majority.
For Kiisa, the community suffers from political efforts to divide.
“There is no longer respect in many of our daily conversations and this comes from the bottom up,” he tells Lusa.
For Kiisa, even the way the president’s position is viewed is at stake, and there is a deliberate effort by Republicans, and particularly Donald Trump, to demote him.
“He has done a lot to make people think that it is normal to be so rude, to have so little respect for the office” of the presidentthe activist emphasizes.
Trump’s style – who routinely directs insults and insults at his opponent and Democrats in general – ends up undermining the enthusiasm surrounding Kamala Harris’ candidacy, turning the former president into the center of the campaign.
“It’s absorbing all the oxygen.”says Kiisa, who fears that, after Hillary Clinton in 2016, Trump will prevent the election of the first female president of the United States for the second time.
“I feel that she [Kamala] She is having challenges as a woman. I hear many people (voters and voters) who think that the country is not ready for a woman.. As long as we maintain this mentality we will never be prepared for a woman,” he adds.
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Polls for Georgia show that the two candidates are practically tied heading into the final week of the campaign.
Kiisa tries to ignore them, since she believes more in direct contact with voters, but this, she admits, does not calm her: “I am very nervous.”
Source: Observadora
