By: Moon Liu

On August 1, 2023, Former President Donald J. Trump was indicted on multiple different charges, for the third time since he left the presidency. This indictment focused on his efforts during the 2020 presidential election to overturn and impede the processes to inaugurate and transfer the presidency to Joe Biden. Although the announcement of this event made waves in Washington, many of its effects permeated throughout the nation, even to a normal suburb in Cobb County, Atlanta.

Jenny Peterson, a 55-year-old resident of Cobb County, listened to the news about Trump’s indictment while getting Mexican food for her family. Although she doesn’t usually enjoy listening to the news, she believed that this was too important to miss.

“It’s important to me as a mom that my 16 and 14-year-old will see this one thing happen,” Peterson said. “Things will be improved when someone who has committed crimes in plain sight is held accountable.”

In 2016, Peterson was appalled when Donald Trump won the presidency, and she vowed to involve herself more in local politics after his inauguration. When Trump nominated their county’s congressman as his Minister for Health, she and her allies took to action and made efforts to help Jon Ossoff win their regional election for the Democrats. Even though he lost by a small margin and entered a runoff, he entered office in 2021, bringing them a much-appreciated victory.

For Peterson herself, the election played a vital role in her present social situation. Although she states that she lost some of her former Republican friends, the election helped her make new Democratic friends which have brought her many blessings as well. They joke about politics, volunteer together, advocate for Democratic representatives, and call themselves “the resisters.”

On the other side of the political spectrum, Jerry Ramsey advocates for Republicans, who he believes will govern America the way he thinks is right. Globalists, a broken election system, and other problems Republicans are concerned about all seem like threats which he believes Trump can fix. Ramsey fought in the Vietnam War, and believes that the indictment on Trump is another effort to topple the democracy the former veteran fought for.

“They just dream stuff up,” he said. “They just keep coming after him.”

Ramsey first started supporting Trump in 2015, when the presidential candidate’s charisma drew him in. From then on, he began supporting Trump and actively put effort into ensuring that he won in the local elections Ramsey could influence. With these efforts, he became Regional Supervisor of the Cobb County Republican Party and continued to advocate for Trump’s victory in 2024.

Now that Trump has been indicted, he only works harder.

Even though these two citizens live in the same county, are politically active in their communities, and love their country, they sit on opposite sides on the political spectrum. On the night of this indictment, both of these individuals tuned in to the same news channel, felt great emotion, and were determined to make a difference to get what they wanted from this event. This is post-Trump America.