Will they ever learn?

The deep thoughts of Al Gore fisked by Rocket Man below in “Gore gone crazy” and explored capably by Whiskey in “The abyss gazes into Gore” over at Captain’s Quarters deserve much further reflection.
Their bizarre distance from reality, their twisted imputations of malignity, their excess, their luxuriance in defamation and falsehood, are obviously symptomatic. I think it is a mistake, however, to attribute them narrowly to Gore’s mental imbalance or the bitterness of his close defeat by Bush.
They resonate with Gore’s intended audience, and they therefore signify a widely shared frame of reference. What is it?
Coincidentally, the Claremont Institute has posted William Rusher’s review of Mona Charen’s take on the left’s Cold War politics, Useful Idiots: How Liberals Got It Wrong in the Cold War and Still Blame America First: “Will they ever learn?”