As Joe Biden steps in, Ohio residents reflect on political divide

After a year of pandemic and turmoil, of divisions that continue to tear at the country, what do Ohioans hope for in 2021 and beyond after President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris are sworn into office on Wednesday?

Reporters from the USA TODAY Ohio Network posed three questions to Ohioans from varying socioeconomic, racial and ideological backgrounds:

• After Biden and Harris take office, do you think the people of this country will be able to unite for the good of the U.S.?

• What do you think they and all of us need to do to mend the frayed fabric of the country?

• What are your hopes for the next decade for yourself and for the country? Is there still an American Dream?

Jacob Chang

Chang, 20, grew up in Nanjing, China, a city of 8.5 million. Columbus seems a little small, though he said he loves Ohio. “Ohio shows me hospitality,” he said. The Ohio State University junior is majoring in psychology and political science, pursuing a pre-law track and serves as senior director of operations for the Undergraduate Student Government. 

Electoral College objections: How Ohio's delegation voted on certification

Chang wonders whether anything will really change once Biden and Harris are sworn in.

“For me, that’s a really interesting topic,” Chang said. “The current dynamic in politics is so polarized. And because the victor, with the winner-takes-all two-party system, will have so much agency when it comes to developing policy."

He doesn’t think the country’s torn fabric can be repaired, at least for now. “The people are too polarized,” he said.

A lot of those issues, including those related to health care, need debate, he said.

He said both parties need to acknowledge their imperfections, that there is no one-size-fits all policy.

“With 300 million people, it take a lot of self-education to explore people’s different identities,” said Chang, who is gay and describes himself as left-leaning.

“Another thing we share here is a common future,” he said. “We’re talking about climate change. Impacting the entire planet. And coronavirus. They are human rights issues, compared to political issues.”

Chang, who wants to become a civil rights lawyer, said he learned about the American Dream in high school, with a reference point being a teacher who told him about “The Great Gatsby,” the F. Scott Fitzgerald classic novel about 1920s America following World War I, and wealth and hedonism and problems on Long Island.  

Chang wants to see America flourish and prosper.

“They call the United States a great experiment,” he said. Many European and Asian countries are more homogeneous, he said, with one race or ethnic identity not interacting with each other.

In the U.S., while many think opinions are polarized, people are debating and society is advancing, he said.

— Mark Ferenchik

A Cincinnati Trump supporter

In the final week of 2020, the Cincinnati woman still hoped the presidential candidate she voted for would win. 

Her canaries — Donald, Melania, Barron and Rush Limbird — chirped and hopped in their cage as she sat on her couch in her two-story house in Cincinnati's Hyde Park neighborhood. 

Will the country unite behind Biden and Harris?

"I wish I could say yes, but I have to say no," she said. "I thought long and hard about it. The reason I say no is because what’s been going on the last four years since President (Donald) Trump got in."

The woman believes most of the media has treated Trump and his supporters unfairly. The news she trusts is from Trump-friendly Newsmax and the Epoch Times, Fox News and The Wall Street Journal.

"I don't ever do CNN because it's all personal hate against Trump," she said. "It's just foul-mouthed hate against him."

The 59-year-old became a fan of Trump on a cold afternoon in March 2016. She waited six hours outside an event center in suburban West Chester just north of Cincinnati to hear Trump speak during a campaign stop. Everything Trump said "sparked" her.

"It was a gut feeling," she said. "This guy is the guy. This guy gets it. He's not doing it for himself. He's not doing it for the power. He's definitely going to lose money."

That passion only increased over the next four years. In July, volunteered full-time for Trump's campaign, calling donors, organizing meet-and-greets, and waving flags along the side of the road.

It's that experience that led her to think the country can't come together under Biden and Harris. As she waved Trump flags on roadsides in the Cincinnati region, passersby hurled water bottles and profanities at her, she said. She doesn't wear her red Make America Great Again hat for the same reason.

"It wears on you," she said. "Why would we say, 'Oh sure, we welcome Biden into the White House and will be very helpful and sit with him?' The other side has treated us like total garbage for four years. They assume all Trump people are racists, sexists and bigots. That is so not true."

She says she doesn't know whether the American Dream is still alive and fears America will become a socialist country. She believes Trump won the election, even though there is no evidence of widespread voter fraud.

Do conservatives bear any responsibility to bring this country together?

"For conservatives to help this country, a lot of them would say they would love to work across the aisle," she said. "But when the aisle doesn't want any part of what you ever have to say, it doesn't want you in the room, it's fruitless."

— Scott Wartman

Ann B. Walker

Walker, who has lived near Franklin Park for more than half a century, is an integral part of Columbus history, having worked as a journalist with the Ohio Sentinel, an assistant news director at radio station WVKO-AM (1580), and at WLWC-TV, Channel 4 (now WCMH-TV, where she held several titles over her two decades there, including community services director.

She also was special assistant to the director of the White House public affairs office in 1980, appointed by President Jimmy Carter.

The 97-year-old knows it will take a lot to mend the country after Biden and Harris officially take over for Trump.

“It’s not going to be an easy task,” said Walker, who is Black and a Democrat. “I really think it’s going to be difficult simply because of the opposition. It isn’t just black and white. You white folks look at just Black folks and white folks.

“One of the problems we also have is we don’t know our history. I think it’s very important we learn our history so we don’t repeat the same mistakes, and develop plans and programs that move us forward.”

She believes Biden is sincere about working with Harris as his vice president and giving her responsibilities.

“You are going to see a difference in this country,” she said. “The fact that Trump is out, the leaders of other countries will come back and want to be in a partnership with the USA.”

As for the American Dream, Walker said, “What is the American Dream? I think that I’m not sure what the American Dream is. I think there are those who will continue to believe that they’ll have their equal rights."

She hopes people will be able to get the kind of education that makes a person more productive. But she said the same problems her children, now in their 60s and 70s, endured when they went to school survive today.

TV schedule: How to watch Joe Biden-Kamala Harris Inauguration Day specials

She pointed to the divide between schools in rich and poor areas, such as between schools in Clintonville versus schools in Linden, where resources differ.

“Libraries that have very few books and the books are old. That’s what I'm  talking about,” she said.

—Mark Ferenchik

Larry Titus

Titus believes it will be very difficult for people to unite after Biden and Harris take office because of the stark divides in the country during the past four years under Trump.

“Our president needs to do a better job of reaching out,” said Titus, the 54-year-old owner of Air Quality Solutions in Grove City.

Titus, a Republican, is very involved in his community. He is a past president of the Grove City Chamber of Commerce and a current member of Grove City’s planning commission.

Titus said what he wants from the federal government is not complicated.

“Less talk and more action,” Titus said. “I don’t think it’s just the president. Congress needs to drop the hate and propaganda. They need to drop all this stuff and work together.”

He said that he and his wife, Mary, turned off the TV and social media before the election because they were worn down by the political battles.

“Both sides were talking about what they were not going to do, not what they were going to do,” Titus said.

Titus also has had to deal with a bout of COVID-19. “For two days I never felt so bad in my life,” he said. “Headache. My joints were on fire. I wanted to sleep but couldn’t."

But he recovered, and went back to work.

It’s clear what is important to Titus.

A “wall of honor” in the office of his business on Broadway in Grove City is covered with more than 50 crests of the military units his employees have served in over the years. Titus, although he didn’t serve himself, is a big supporter of the military, with family members serving in various branches, including his wife, who was a colonel in the Army National guard, served two tours in Iraq and retired after 24 years. His son, Ashton, was an Army corporal who served in Afghanistan.

His father, Lowell Titus, also served.

“My father was one of the proudest Marines you’d ever run into,” he said.

“I completely think this is still the greatest country in the world,” Titus said. “I’ve just seen the drive of these young heroes. We’re going to be OK.”

— Mark Ferenchik

Jamahl Jones

When he was 9 or 10 years old, Jones couldn’t imagine being consumed by a presidential election. 

Now, the 26-year-old coaches his fourth-grade students at KIPP Columbus by webcam — KIPP has been in virtual learning since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 — to work through the stress and paranoia that can come with politics.

“My class is 27 Black kids and one white child,” Jones said. “As a class, I think they understood coming from this summer of protests how important this election was.”

Jones thinks Biden was the obvious choice, given that Trump was the opposition, and choosing Harris to be Biden’s right-hand woman gave him a lot of hope.

“Still, I had to play devil’s advocate, and I made the kids write about the pros and cons of Trump and examine the pros and cons of the president-elect,” he said.

As a teacher and Black man, Jones refuses to sugarcoat reality for his kids. He said that history shows that the fastest way to fix inequality is through education.

“But you can’t just be all doom and gloom all the time,” he added. “They’re 9 and 10.”

Still, there are days when Jones feels a sense of deepening frustration.

“The American dream is a facade in the sense that you can do anything by pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” he said. “I think when you look at the pyramid of privilege if you’re born a white man, your parents can really say you can do anything.”

Imposing an American dream on children that hyper-focuses on work ethic and growth without factoring in circumstance can be extremely detrimental to kids, Jones said.

Running on empty: Senate Republicans ponder barring Trump from running again

Teaching his students about these layered concepts of privilege as well acceptance through DEI-based curriculum –– diversity, equity and inclusion –– is hard, but it ultimately is rewarding.

“It’s very easy to see you’re other or you’re different,” Jones said. “But trying to teach the kids, that’s my biggest hope.”

— Céilí Doyle

Yezen Abusharkh

“Is this the best we can do?”

Abusharkh is tired of platitudes. The 30-year-old self-described leftist can’t begin to stomach what Biden means for the U.S. 

“I think unity is sort of an empty word,” he said. “I don’t think Biden does the work of unifying us. I think he will continue to unify people who’ve been in power … what does Biden offer to actual working class people?”

The central Ohio native and son of Palestinian immigrants refers to the president-elect as “not the lesser evil, but the more polite evil.” Abusharkh voted for Howie Hawkins, the Green Party’s presidential candidate, in November.

“Trump and Biden voters sitting down and having a conversation, well of course we’re not all that different,” Abusharkh said. “But what’s important politically is people actually fighting the bipartisan corporate class, not to virtue signal.”

As a teenager, Abusharkh watched Biden vote for the Iraq War, and then, as a young adult, saw Trump and his “hateful rhetoric” elected.

After 2016, he sought out activist spaces in the Columbus community, which pushed him to think of his place in society.

“The American dream is verifiably dead at this point,” he said. “I don’t know that I need to believe in the American dream and the financial success it's built around — we need to shift to taking care of one another.”

Is there hope for a future in which his politics are embraced?

“You have to be an optimist,” he said. “If you have far-left politics, you have to believe someday it can happen.”

—Céilí Doyle

Breanna Napper

Breanna Napper is optimistic that Americans will unite when Biden and Harris take office. The 20-year-old engineering student at Marion Technical College said people who were upset about the 2016 election ultimately gave Trump a chance, and she believes the same thing will happen for Biden.

But for that unification to occur, Napper said it will take “real conversations” and not just debates on social media.

“I feel like anything with the internet, it’s really easy to realize you can say whatever and you can hurt people’s feelings,” she said. “When you’re talking to a real person, you realize this a real person who has lived a completely different life than me. And you could talk about how you grew up, why you feel this way instead of just arguing over the internet.”

Napper has several dreams for the U.S. over the next 10 years. These include more, and higher-paying, jobs for blue-collar workers and green manufacturing, seeing more pathways for immigrants to obtain U.S. citizenship and for people separated from their families at the Mexican border to be reunited. The Marion resident also wants to see more women, people of color and LGBTQ represented in local and federal government.

“The thing that makes America awesome is the fact that you have people from different continents, different communities, different cultures coming into one country,” Napper said. “And the thing that unites us all is we’re Americans. I think that’s what makes our country so beautiful.”

Even under uncertain times, Napper believes the American Dream is still possible for everyone, whether they are immigrants or people who have lived in the U.S. all their lives, like she has.

National opinion: President Trump’s job approval rating plummets after Capitol attack

“I think the overall American Dream is to be able to do whatever you want — if it’s a career, lifestyle, hobby,” she said. “You have access to good education, and you can love whoever you want, as long as you’re two consenting adults. And you can have the pursuit of happiness. I think that’s the biggest part of the American Dream.”

— Micah Walker

The Vaughan Family

At 10:55 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7, Kathleen Vaughan was in an “astronomically” long line outside the Old Navy store in Easton Town Center.

She was buying clothes for her girls, Sasha, 3, and Sloan, 2, and texted her husband, Damon, that the final county in Arizona was ready to make a call that would determine the presidential election after days of uncertainty.

Kathleen, a Black woman who grew up in Linden and lives in Gahanna with her family, came home to news that Biden and Harris had won.

“We said, ‘Oh my God, we won. We’re safe. Potentially the violence will die down,’” she recollected. “It was excitement followed by relief.”

“How we think about our lives is centered around our girls,” Damon said. “This election was about intersectionality, and Harris represented hope.”

The couple feels Biden and Harris offer real change, although Biden was neither’s first choice. 

“He has a vision that enables most of America to achieve what they want in comparison to Trump,” said Kathleen, who is the dean of student life at KIPP Columbus’ elementary school . “Harris was a deeply meaningful choice. This is the woman who’s going to support me. And Damon and I talked about how this is (our girls’) new normal.”

But the magic of Nov. 7 is still clouded by what the Vaughans saw reflected in their own neighborhood, which was packed with political paraphernalia, including several Trump signs and banners, leading up to the election.

“There’s somebody not far from here that I’ve hugged before who had all these huge signs that were in support of somebody, an idea, a person, who hates my family,” Kathleen said.

“Discrimination,” Damon said, “gets cloaked in the guise of politics.”

As a marketing professional, Damon’s experienced that discrimination firsthand — both in the workplace and growing up in rural North Carolina.

“If we look at defining the American dream as no matter where you come from you can find success … I’m concerned I don’t feel a large part of America is in position to do the same,” he said. 

The Vaughans juggle their fears and aspirations for the future with respect to what they envision their daughters will achieve.

“I hope they feel like they’re fulfilled and have every opportunity to be great and seen as great,” Damon said. “And they are judged by their character and not how they look.”

— Céilí Doyle

Bryce Kurfees

If Biden and Harris had to ask themselves one question every day, Kurfees hopes it would be this one: "How can I earn the trust of the populace today?"

Kurfees, 58, is a steadfast Christian and reluctant Trump voter. He is a man preoccupied with moral responsibility who challenges himself to think outside his own echo chamber.

"I 100% hope and want Biden to unify the country," he said. "We all lose when we're throwing rocks at each other."

Sitting inside his favorite coffee shop, the Upper Cup — a Black-owned business in downtown Columbus — often surrounded by fellow patrons who do not share his politics, Kurfees said he was afraid.

He justifies his decision to vote for Trump based on concern that Democrats under Biden will embrace socialism, which in his mind is a swift step towards totalitarianism.

A self-described "Republicrat," Kurfees is shaped by his faith.

Kurfees said he can't speak on behalf of all Christians and knows most won't agree with his decision. 

But part of the American dream is being a part of a healthy republic, Kurfees said, one that provides support and takes care of its citizens, but also does not leave them reliant on the government for everything. 

The real issue, he said, is that there are so many unwilling to compromise.

"There's confusion over what's more important: party or citizens," he said. "For me it's citizens."

— Céilí Doyle

Tim Basel

Basel, 24, said he is doubtful much will change under the new presidential administration. Though he has seen the strides that Biden and Harris have made, he said Trump will need to extend an olive branch for a real shift to take place. 

Basel said one of the ways for the country to mend is if Trump voiced his support for the incoming administration.

But Basel doesn't see it happening.

As a self-described “left-leaning Independent,” he stepped away from politics during this year’s election. After countless debates on social media, Basel said he came to the realization that people’s mindsets won’t change.

"A lot of social media interactions got combative," he said. "It got to the point where I'd see 10 notifications on my phone, and it's eight different people cursing out. It was pretty rough."

Basel, whose family is from Turkey, was raised both there and in Westerville. After living in Turkey for eight years, he moved back to Columbus with his family, eventually graduating from Ohio State University in December with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. 

In the coming years, Basel said he hopes the country can destigmatize the thoughts around mental illness and come together for the greater good. 

— Earl Hopkins

Senay Daniel

Despite 81.2 million people voting for Biden, Daniel said the 74.2 million who voted for Trump still mean something. Instead of a country favoring blue or red, the Pickerington resident said the division surrounding the election exposed America’s purple-ish hue. 

Daniel, 25, a first generation Eritrean-American, said that although such discord has been longstanding, he believes residents can unite to solve the existing challenges. This will happen once the government addresses the economic recession, social unrest and the health care crisis.

"I think once we listen to each other, embrace our neighbor, embrace our commonalities and seek to collaborate on those, we'll really embrace what it is to be an American and celebrate our shared humanity,” he said. “I think that is the ticket."

Daniel said he is “cautiously optimistic.” There will be roadblocks that will hinder progress, which he attributes to the country's past shortcomings in addressing similar societal issues. But once there are efforts to properly address these obstacles, resolutions will come to fruition, he said.

Over the next decade, Daniel said he will continue to help mobilize voters and advocate for public officials, on any level, to support the people of this country. And in that time, he is hopeful that his children’s generation will push him and his peers to make further progressive social, political and economic strides.

"I think in 10 years, we'll become a kinder country where we understand that we are more alike than different,” he said. “Not only in race or religion, but our shared citizenship and humanity."

— Earl Hopkins

Christine Rhoades

When disappointed and discontented Americans began saying that Trump was "not their president" after the 2016 presidential election, Rhoades was bothered.

"Of course he's your president!" she said.

The 57-year-old from the Youngstown suburb of Canfield said she has always respected the office of the presidency. When the votes are in and the public has spoken, Rhoades said that everyone needs to respect the people's choice, whomever that may be. 

So even though Rhoades, a Republican, didn't vote for Biden for president, he will be her new president regardless, she said.

That doesn't necessarily mean she thinks he can unify the country, however.

Rhoades said she has never seen the U.S. so divided in her lifetime. She is confident that the vast majority of people all want the same things –– peace, good health and happiness –– but the folks on the extremes distract everyone from working together.

It will be a challenge for Biden and Harris — or any politician, for that matter — to unite Americans without compromising, she said.

Before retiring early, Rhoades worked in human resources for Mercy Health in Youngstown, recruiting physicians. A big part of her job was negotiating contracts between the health care system and physicians, listening to what both parties wanted and helping them meet in the middle. 

Politicians, Rhoades said, need to do the same thing if they want to unify Americans.

"They need to put politics aside. They need to sit down and listen," she said. "What do I have to give up and what do you have to give up to make this work?"

— Sheridan Hendrix

Alex Gaddis

To say that Gaddis was dissatisfied with his choices in the 2020 presidential election would be an understatement. 

Gaddis, a 24-year-old social-work student living in Lancaster, felt a tremendous sense of hope in then-presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders. He was less than thrilled by the Democratic Party's decision to nominate Biden, but Gaddis ultimately voted for him.

Gaddis said that lately, he has been in a swirl –– thinking about where to focus his energy over the next four years, what level of government is best to engage for real change, how his Appalachian upbringing ties into his current view of the world, what hope and unity really mean. 

He said he knows there will always be suffering in this world, so the idea that a new president will miraculously unite a nation isn't realistic. He is unsure if we will ever have "this groundbreaking American moment" of unity that some may dream of. The temperature is so high right now that our only hope at the moment is to lower it a little, he said.

"But that still doesn't reconcile the differences of our country," Gaddis said.

If we are to unify in any way, he said, it won't happen at a national level. It will happen through personal relationships.

The most effective thing Gaddis said he can do right now is work with people he disagrees with. Building relationships has to take precedent over politics. Understanding each other's goals and values must happen to bridge the gaps that divide us, he said.

"It's not going to come from anything other than someone we love and trust," Gaddis said. "That's where unity is going to happen ... if at all."

— Sheridan Hendrix