>>It wasn't just the Felon tapping into a base that people didn't realize was there (e.g. closeted racists)<<

And people wonder why dialogue isn’t possible anymore.

As noted before, I used to watch Hannity and O'Reilly, when I had cable, because I wanted to know what was being said at that end of the spectrum. Additionally, I had a coworker who had Hannity's radio program, playing on his work computer, apparently on auto-repeat, all day, every day. I have posted before, the clip of O'Reilly talking with John McCain, and ranting about the New York Times and the libs conspiring to overthrow the "white, male, power structure" of the US.

Yes, their screeds are racist. Hannity has some 3M viewers of his Fox Noise program, and about 20M listeners to his radio program.

Pat Buchanan reached out to that racist base in the 90s, with his "death of the west" screeds. I remember him raving at a convention about all the sorts of people "we don't want here". Fox Noise nurtured that base for years. Trump the God engaged with the birthers to verify, for himself, the depth of racism in the US. Then God and Savior Trump launched a blatantly racist campaign.

Steve