Bizarro America

Elias Isquith says Newt Gingrich's rise is based on his ability to tap into the Republican base's resentments-resentments which he was one of the main molders of:

His challenging the President to multiple hours-long, Lincoln-Douglas-styled debates is a brilliant stroke, playing on the resentment and insecurity many hard-right partisans feel over a national media and political mainstream that, in their eyes, considers them ignorant and stupid. What better way to prove Them wrong than by eviscerating the President — a man who, in the GOP base’s universe, is an empty-suit tongue-tied hack, completely adrift without a teleprompter — and thus vindicating not only Newt and conservatism, but conservatives. It would be like the moments during the GOP debates when Gingrich has bickered with debate moderators and earned the audience’s approval in response; but bigger, on a far greater scale and with far greater psychological potential.
Ditto his plan to established WWII draft board-styled community councils that will look at every undocumented immigrant in their midst and determine whether or not they’d be allowed to stay (though, of course, still not as citizens). Besides referencing WWII — the time of the Greatest Generation, when America was pure and righteous, the savior and redeemer of the world — Gingrich’s plan also taps into the belief among many on the right that they are the victims of unfair accusations of being racist.

Andrew Sullivan follows with this analysis of Gingrich:

In the campaign for the president of talk radio, he's miles ahead. But his genius flattery of his audience and cooptation of their total contempt for Obama is where he soars.

From talking to neighbors, I get the impression that they hate a Barack Obama who doesn't really exist.  The man they hate is dumb, is Muslim, was raised in luxury, only got ahead by affirmative action and hates them and America.  I've never seen this Barack Obama.  Likewise, these folks believe that people poorer than them have better lives because they don't have jobs and get government assistance.  They believe that black folks are better off than whites because of affirmative action and government assistance.  They don't believe whites get any favortism by "the system" and they believe that government is the cause of all their problems. 

I have a hard time arguing with them, because I find all of these claims to be ludicrous.  I had a discussion with one of my smarter friends a few weeks back, right as Herman Cain was imploding and before his poll numbers started to drop.  I asked him who he would vote for if the election was that day, and he hedged away from Cain and leaned toward Gingrich.  I asked him about Cain's harrassment charges, and he indicated that he didn't really believe them.  I asked what the Republican base's reaction would be if Obama faced the same charges. He didn't really answer that, but what he did indicate was that Obama rose mainly because of the system's favoritism for blacks.  I asked if he thought that Cain's rise in life could be attributed possibly even more to his skin color than Obama's.  He didn't think that was the case.  Finally, I asked him if he thought blacks had it easier in America than whites, and he indicated that they did.  At that point I was gobsmacked.  I asked him if he thought he would be better off if he was black.  Probably luckily, we were interrupted by another friend who had walked over to say hi before we could continue the conversation. 

Thanks to right-wing media, people have been led to believe that the world they want to think exists actually exists.  Sullivan is right that flattery and cooption of the base's contempt for Obama is what moves the needle on the right.  These folks are told over and over that they are hard-working, patriotic, God-fearing and they are what makes America great.  They, and by extension, Republicans have done nothing wrong and have no hand whatsoever in our economic problems.  Likewise, they are told that Democrats, unions, the government and minorities are stealing from them and keeping them down, and happen to embody ALL of the problems with the country and the world.  To me, the message is insultingly patronizing, and obviously false, but for some people it works like a charm.  I'm at a loss to figure out how to convince people that this isn't the world as it really exists, but is instead an alternate reality.

Update: Andrew expounds on Newt, and, as usual, says more impressively what I was getting at:

But I suspect Kathleen under-estimates what many readers have argued: that the appeal of Gingrich to many Fox News viewers is that he will finally reveal Obama as that empty-suited, know-nothing, affirmative action dunce that they believe him to be. Gingrich's genius ingredient is this Lincoln-Douglas debate idea, which combines a historical luster with the hint that Obama couldn't handle it. Of course, when you actually imagine a Gingrich-Obama debate, and you are not living in a cocoon that insists that Obama is both dumb and a commie, you see how fatal a trap this could be for the GOP.

It's not just that Obama is a smart person whereas Gingrich is simply a dumb person's idea of a smart person. It's that Obama has always excelled up against a volatile, angry opponent. He is a master of allowing them to self-destruct. He got that Houdini-like master of political survival, Bill Clinton, to blow up in the primaries. In a matter of days, he got McCain to destroy his bid with his frantic response to the Lehman collapse.

I might not go as far as saying a dumb person's idea of a smart person, as I know some pretty smart people who would describe him as a smart person, but overall, the point is made.