Who could have ever foreseen an America where its future as part of a white Russia would be preferred to being part of a mixed America? Where all political conversations would take place from fear that Americans, other than white Americans only, would matter or be counted? Where the Statue of Liberty would essentially be torn from her pedestal, and the Constitution, unread, would be relegated to toilet paper? (Words spoken by an elderly white southern American, I might add.)

I’ve struggled to find motivations for these odious beliefs beyond the three obvious ones; greed, ignorance and hate (including racism.) After a fifty-year search, I have entirely failed to find anything even remotely redeeming or elevating in the reasoning or “logic” of the right.

I’ve seen segregation, and I saw it ended. And I’ve seen all public swimming pools in the south filled with cement to avoid and spit on the best intentions of any and all civil rights dreams and legislation. And I’ve repeatedly seen what I hoped was the reversal of the Southern Strategy. I even sat on the same spot on a couch once occupied by Lee Atwater, and jumped up and moved in disgust. (But even his deathbed confession accomplished nothing of note.) But mostly I’ve watched a world fail to overcome its most petty weaknesses and failings, and often grow weaker and more petty in its very attempts not to be.

Last chance folks. Either grab the brass ring, or land in the dirt.