After watching the Capitol building being sacked and looted by fools who were lied into a mindless frenzy; I had to pause to reflect on how we became so lost as a country. Trump’s criminal rampage was fed by the political party he joined to run for president based on the consistent use of racism to turn out white voters. The Southern Strategy (designed to appeal to white grievance) was successful for Nixon in 1968, and continued to be successful for Republicans going forward. Trump had to make a calculation that he could use the Republican’s sea of lies and subtext of racism against them, and he did. He sold himself as the angriest and most genuine white supremacist candidate for 2016, while labeling the other Republicans as the real con-artists. Republican voters bought it despite never examining Trump’s own lies because they wanted fighter who would bring white supremacy beyond the wink and a nod, to a focused mainstream. Trump is undisciplined, but he knew that he was a match for the desire of his voters and gave them what they wanted. We are now dealing with the fallout of our democracy allowing this racist demagogue to run our great nation into a ditch, because hatred and laziness do not make good leaders. People of goodwill should be vigilant and elect leaders who work towards liberty and justice for all.