You're free to read this entire article about why conservatives the world over look to right-wing populists to reinvigorate their cause, and, ironically, to uphold privilege and hierarchy for the few, but I found this part really interesting, it lit up an "Oh, yeah, of course!" flashbulb of recognition in my mind that this was just so obviously true:
"'I think to the right-wing, Obama's rise to power was a little too, in a weird way, too traditional,' Robin said. 'He did all the right things. He worked hard, he studied hard, he went to the right schools. And he kind of did the march through the institutions. And I know there are some conservatives who credit that to affirmative action, and all the rest of it. But I think there's actually a deeper suspicion of it, which is that he's actually mimicking too much the ways of power.'"This may help to explain the persistence of exotic paranoid fantasies about Obama on the right—birtherism, claims that he's a secret Muslim, a socialist, a terrorist, some sort of 'sleeper,' etc. The more Obama conforms to traditional prescriptions, the more they suspect him, seeking for the 'real truth', the 'real birth certificate', and so on."'Someone like Cain is actually more appealing to them because he's outside of—he doesn't have a traditional path to power. He's a self-made man.' Robin explained. 'He comes up through the marketplace, which is the only thing—the marketplace and the battlefield—is the only places that they really trust as being the sorting mechanisms of greatness.'"
Forgive me if this observation was apparent to you a long time ago....
Rightwing populism is an integral part of the conservative project, and it requires "outsider" figures of various sorts, no matter how wacky they may be.
By Paul Rosenberg
November 30, 2011 | AlterNet
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