I just finished reading
The Very Separate World of Conservative Republicans
report by the Democracy Corps (a research group lead by James Carville and Stanley Greenberg).  It was absolutely fascinating.  It is a piece of analysis done after interviewing both core Republican base and independents (though mainly focusing on the Republican base).  So much of the far Right thinking and statements are alien to me, and looking through it, the common thread in all seems to be that they are all based in fear.  Perhaps the far Right should be referred to as the fRight.  According to this research, the fRight honestly believe that they hold special knowledge that others refuse to hear, that they are being mocked and persecuted (I suppose I can see the 'mocked' part, as there are some out there that do that*), and that those in power are trying to destroy what they hold dear and even intentionally trying to destroy America. (I recommend reading the whole report.)

It occurs to me that one of the big issues in politics today that feeds this fear based attitude is how political leaders, parties, political commentators, pundits, etc. spend almost all of their time trying to get you to their side by talking about how the other guy is evil, and not about what makes their side good.  Most of them seem to be totally incapable of giving a solid "why we're good" reason, without contrasting themselves to the other guy, and that just seems sad; almost as sad as the paranoid fears expressed by the voters in that report.
But, in the end, I guess it really is all moot, as those of us in the know see that our government is a sham controlled by a secret shadow council of shape-changing Reptilian aliens anyway.

*even this post has a small edge of mocking to it; sorry!