Make America 'normal' again - New Yorkers weigh in on Trump versus Biden

As U.S. election day approaches on Tuesday (November 3), some New Yorkers told Reuters they are hoping to make America "normal" again.

On Staten Island, the only one of five New York City boroughs that U.S. President Donald Trump won in 2016, a war hero's father is getting flak for supporting Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

"My reason, to get some sort of normalism back to the country," said 73-year-old Robert Ollis. "Let's stop fighting."

The community united behind Ollis in 2013 after his son Michael, a U.S. Army staff sergeant, shielded a wounded Polish lieutenant from a suicide bomber in Afghanistan and died saving his life. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army's second highest honor.

News of Michael's death came like a punch in the stomach "and you can't get your breath, for hours," Ollis said.

In an outpouring of love, his street was renamed SSG Michael H. Ollis Way and one of the upcoming Staten Island ferries will be named after his son.

All that changed in recent years.

"I don't understand it," Ollis said of the partisanship. "This is America. This is what my grandfather, my parents fought for."

Scott LoBaido, 55, an artist who calls himself Trump's biggest supporter on the East Coast, said the president saw that America's worst enemies are "those who want to inject socialism and change everything that made this country great."

"He's the man that stepped up, gave up his livelihood, his income, to fix it," he said, sipping on a martini outside his Staten Island art gallery.

LoBaido's legal assistant friend Peggy Padovano, 63, said countries dare not take advantage of the United States under Trump.

"I feel a little bit safer with him because I feel like people are not going to want to mess with him," she said.

Despite their differences, the Staten Islanders all say they want to return to normal after the Nov. 3 election.

"I hope for this country's sake and for my grandchildren's sake that we get back to some peace and harmony and get back to normal, to respecting one another," Ollis said.

"We just want to live and feed our kids, pay our mortgage, make sure my community is safe. It's that simple," LoBaido said.

If Trump loses, "I still have bills to pay and dinner to cook and a house to clean and people to love," Padovano said. "The world is not going to end, either way."

In Bellmore, a suburb of New York City on Long Island, graphic designer Torrence Browne, 27, designs stickers, T-shirts and tote bags in pastel pink and blue and green images of Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris, for website Hot Merch for Biden.

"I'm voting for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris," Browne said. "They are not perfect, they are our best option. I'm fearful of what another four years of the Trump administration will look like to the American people, especially marginalized communities."

In Long Island City, a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, Ryan Stewart said he wasn't disclosing who he was voting for because he could potentially lose clients. Stewart founded Ryan for Dogs, a dog walking and training service.

"The fear is real and it's valid because you can lose your job and you can lose business if you fall upon the opposite side of the political spectrum of someone who can hire you," he said, surrounded by four dogs. "It's saddening to see people dislike each other just because they have a difference of opinion."

(Production: Roselle Chen, Andrew Hofstetter)