There has been much hand-wringing among conservatives about Donald Trump possibly getting the nomination. I’m a communications guy, a media watcher, so I probably tend to give media influence too much credit. However, it seems to me that FoxNews and conservative radio (Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, and the mini-Limbaugh radio hosts inhabiting nearly every media market) deserve some credit. They didn’t create Donald Trump. But they did create his fan base. And much of Ted Cruz’s fan base, for that matter.

For 20 years, conservative media has been drilling in the same messages:

• Government is bad.
• Politicians can’t be trusted.
• America is going downhill.
• We need to take our country back.

Of the people I know who listen almost entirely to conservative media, most echo these same themes–government is bad, politicians are untrustworthy, America is collapsing, we need to retake our country. Since Donald Trump and Ted Cruz both vigorously proclaim these messages, is it any wonder that so many people are flocking around them?

FoxNews is coming to terms with Trump, but for a while seemed almost in panic mode. But I’d tell them, “Congratulations on your success. This is what you’ve been teaching people to believe for 20 years.”