1789: The Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia arrives at a series of compromises to enhance the political power of slave states, first by counting slaves as equivalent to 3/5ths of a free person for purposes of Congressional apportionment, and second by stipulating presidential election by an Electoral College with a number of electors equal to the number of Congressional districts in a state.
1860-61: Eleven Southern states secede over slavery.
1865: Those eleven Southern states are decisively defeated following a bloody civil war; the 13th Amendment abolishes slavery and the 14th Amendment grants former slaves the right to vote.
1876: Reconstruction in the South ends with a compromise over the disputed Hayes/Tilden election; "Redemptionist" white supremacist governments impose Jim Crow throughout the South and block non-whites from voting.
1964-65: Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.
c. 1990's-2016: The demographics of the United States undergo a profound shift, with immigration from Latin America and elsewhere reducing the "non-Hispanic white" proportion of the population from 75% in 1990 to 63% in 2010 and an estimated below 50% by mid-century.
2008: The United States elects a black man President.
2016: Donald Trump wins the Republican nomination after running a racist and nativist campaign and promising immigration policies that have been described as "Make America White Again", and wins the Presidency in the Electoral College (which, let's remember, was originally designed to give disproportionate power to slave states).
We are where we are because America is quickly becoming a majority non-white country, and because enough white Americans are racist to give the GOP slim victories. Full stop. Racism is the underpinning of the entirety of modern "conservative" philosophy.
= new reply since forum marked as read