"He lies," huffed Janet Foster. "And he's a dirty old man," chimed in her sister Jean as they discussed Donald Trump's flaws a few days before he was elected the new president of the United States. "Well, I am with him," their brother Paul, 60, interjected, raising his voice over snacks of cheese, muffins and crackers in the family's living room. "Hillary Clinton is like a puppet — you know it's all scripted." The 2016 US election was unprecedented in the way it turned Americans against each other, according to dozens of interviews in rural United States and across some of the most politically charged battleground states. It divided families like the Fosters in rural Ellsworth, Maine, broke up friendships and turned neighbor against neighbor. In a recent Reuters/Ipsos survey, 15 percent of respondents said they had stopped talking to a family member or close friend as a result of the election. For Democrats, this shoots up to 23 percent, compared to 10 percent for Republicans. And 12 percent had ended a relationship because of it. There was no comparative polling data from previous elections. But interviews with relationship counselors and voters suggest this election stood out by summoning passions, anger and a divisiveness in ways that will make healing difficult after Clinton's loss to Trump on Tuesday. Sarah Guth, a Democrat in Colorado, says her father — an ardent supporter of Trump — no longer speaks with her after they clashed on Facebook over their political views. "He crossed a line," she said. After attending a Trump rally, Guth wrote on Facebook that she saw 10 minorities among thousands of people. "I'm increasingly convinced that this election is about race," she wrote. "I mean a fear among the white majority that their rule is coming to an end." Some posters told her "to go to hell," she recalled in an interview. "And then my dad very publicly attacked me, telling me that I should be ashamed of myself." The two have not spoken since. Ty Turner-Bond, a 35-year-old black man in North Carolina, says he lost friends because of his support for Trump. Some called him an "Uncle Tom," a slur for African Americans accused of deferring to white people; others threatened violence. In Springfield, a city on Ohio's Mad River, Duke Level, 57, voted for Trump because he wanted "a wrecking ball" to hit Washington. The owner of Un Mundo Cafe isn't surprised this election created divisions, and he fears they could get worse. "This is one of those crossroads crisis moments in history," he said. Hours earlier, Trump rallied about 5,000 supporters a few miles away in a dirt-floored livestock arena. He blasted Clinton as "the most corrupt person ever to seek the office of the presidency," drawing chants of "lock her up," as well as a few of "string her up." — Reuters
