But here's the thing: there are a lot of people who love that he says "Exterminate the Jews" out loud. And they're not going to vote for someone who doesn't say it out loud.
That was the entire reason he won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan in 2016. There are a ton of people in those states (and across the country, really, but those states were the ones that were sufficiently close to be decisive) who fucking hate The Jews, hate The Blacks, hate The Gays, hate . . . pretty much any group you could reasonably put the definite article in front of.
And they never felt like they could participate in American politics. For them, there are just two parties that are really one (e.g., the "Business Party" or the #uniparty), because neither party is willing to say out loud the things they believe. So they never voted. I mean, what's the point, really? If you fucking hate immigrants, why would you vote for George W. Bush, who talks about immigration reform and creating a path to citizenship?
Trump spoke directly to those people. He called them "very fine people," and they loved him for it. They had never voted before in their lives; they voted for him.
But if Trump is not the nominee, and it's someone like DeSantis--i.e., someone who has the sense not to call Nazis "very fine people," then we just go back to the status quo ante. Why the fuck are these people going to vote for either party, when neither says what they think? A lot of them will just fade back into the woodwork. They're still there, shooting up electrical substations in rural North Carolina, mind you. But you're not going to see them at the ballot box voting for someone like Ron fucking DeSantis.