Truth in what you say,
There has always been a large segment of hardcore, racist, white nationalists, existing in America.
To call them 'fringe' is a media lie.
Difference is, since ww2, America had been slowly dismantling that system. School integration, voting rights, civil rights, through the years, list goes on.
No one, on that hardcore side, has ever, or will ever, except this change as its generational in scope. They simply had been shoved into a closet, and remained muzzled for decades.
The '90's is when their true re birth began,
Newt Gingrich, mainstream internet , 24 hr news cycles, Fox news, Obama's election, Tea party, solidified the movement out the closet and into Trump's arms.
Now, its anyone who shares the Trump rhetoric to its most extreme, becomes the new MAGA darling.
Genie is out of the bottle, and in full view for all good people to see.