Actually what we need is a "packaged politician" (sorry but that is what it takes nowadays), that carries the Buchanan torch. Buchanan carrying it submerges the message.
YEs, sadly, you are right. The news media did a number on Buchanan. The effectively neutralized him and the many who agreed in private just would not support him. The news media knows Americans will not support anyone they manage to make a laughing stock. We just don't have the intestinal fortitude.
I don't know anyone who has the backbone to say the things Buchanan expounds.
Someone called Bush a conservative - ????????