Increased anxiety grips both rural and urban voters in the heart of Pennsylvania as a rising tide of political rhetoric reflects broader frustrations ahead of elections. It’s no wonder that residents from rural Lancaster County to urban Dauphin County are growing increasingly alarmed about the violent, divisive, and angry discourse bellowed across Pennsylvania by politicians hoping to ride the state’s centrist sentiment toward the White House.
In the small town of Wakefield, just north of the Maryland border, Marsha Peterson and her husband run Peterson’s Grocery Outlet. Peterson sees it as a continuous attack by the left on former President Donald Trump’s image as it continues to define him as an extremely dangerous threat to democracy.
It’s like for years, there’s been this effort to get people to believe that Trump is a menace that has to be stopped, Peterson said. You even see people chattering online about violent acts against him, and somehow that’s okay.
Peterson added though the political environment charged with the real issues pressures her, she also worried about the rising cost of living. “Operating a small grocery store has given me an eye-level view of price rises and economic problems,” she says.
“There are times that we have seen prices go up even considering COVID. Things were not this bad when Obama was president,” she noted.
Outside the flea market, a favorite among Lancaster County residents, Eric Beezer, who is running for the state legislature, expressed similar sentiments about rising costs and division in politics. Beezer was originally slated to face longtime Democratic State Rep. Mike Sturla but found himself unopposed when Sturla unexpectedly withdrew from the race in August.
“Lancaster’s problems are the same as everybody else in the state: housing, affordability, and keeping taxes low,” Beezer said. “That’s what I’m hearing from voters day in and day out.”
Sam and Kate Mylin, a Willow Street couple, passionately vented frustration about the current political climate during a visit to Quarryville. A retired artist, Sam Mylin suggested that the tone of political discourse has become too strident, particularly against incumbent Trump.
“It’s wrong,” Sam said. “Just flat-out wrong. That’s not what America’s about. We can disagree, but calling for violence isn’t right.”
As they spoke in terms of the larger political scene, Sam also expressed a wish for truer candor from politicians, particularly in all military matters: “We’re not supposed to be at war, but it pretty well looks that way. The truth would appear to be even rather hard to find,” he said.
In another rural pocket of Lancaster County, Tim Gochenaur and Michelle Williams were sounding off while enjoying the Solanco Fair. Both in their mid-40s, they feel that political rhetoric has been at least partly to blame in two attempted assassination plots on Trump.
“It’s dangerous. Some people may already be unstable, and hearing this kind of talk pushes them over the edge,” Gothenburg said. On the fairness of elections going forward, Williams tempered his hope with caution: “The system is designed to have integrity, but if it’s not properly upheld, it won’t be fair.”
Meanwhile, in the state’s capital, Harrisburg, a man identified as “Minister Fifty” spoke of political rhetoric while waiting for a bus to go downtown; he added that heated discussions are damaging the fabric of this nation.
Of course, all this rhetoric does have its impact, argues Minister Fifty. But “when we allow our emotions to dictate the agenda and focus more on real issues, we have lost the aim of what we’re trying for”.
He believed the country still had the opportunity to show decency and equality, while Minister Fifty, showing optimism, said that the electoral system was just too big to fail.
Nearby, Lisa, who described herself as “a proud Black woman for Donald J. Trump,” said: “We could all use more tolerance on both sides.” That message also referred to a wider need for civic discourse to be civil.
For many voters, dissatisfaction with both of their parties played a role in their positions. Pam Hower is a former Republican who has become increasingly disenchanted by the GOP, which she says is “using crazy rhetoric.” Most upsetting to her has been Trump’s words on sensitive topics, including immigration and disability rights.
A disabled individual himself, Hower is offended the most by Trump’s 2016 incident involving a disabled New York Times reporter incident Trump repeatedly denies as mocking the reporter’s condition.
Hower, who has a family history with guns, criticized the near-widespread access to semi-automatic weapons, referring to the shock of mass shootings. “My daughter is a speech therapist in an elementary school, and every day, I fear for her safety,” she said. “I grew up around guns, but these assault rifles, they’re a different story.”
Hower said in addressing the housing crisis that the often-forgotten issue is the accessibility of wheelchair houses. “Only a fraction of new homes are accessible, and it’s leaving people with disabilities, like myself, without options,” she said.
“It gets dirtier every year, and it feels like we’ve lost sight of what matters,” he said. Rudolph remains skeptical of the political process, questioning fairness in the electoral college but admitting Trump’s business savvy, especially in his dealings with China.
“Trump made us stand up to China, and that was good. But his rhetoric divides us. And that’s dangerous because we’re all in this together,” Rudolph said.
As Pennsylvania heads into another high-stakes election season, voters from both sides of the political spectrum are united in their shared anxiety over an increasingly divided nation. But their solutions for healing the divide remain as varied as their backgrounds.
