Insulated from electoral and economic reality, they are free to espouse the most bizarre and nihilistic doctrines their fevered imaginations can dream up. Unless people are literally and certifiably insane, there must surely be some kind of payoff for their behavior, however counterproductive it may seem. Bill and Hillary Clinton are perfect examples of the liberal syndrome. It is well-established that they are liars, crooks, and hypocrites. True intellectual superiority means having native intelligence, and actually using it.
Liberalism requires neither.
Reciting the party line, like a Buddhist spinning a prayer-wheel, is the easiest thing in the world. All Leftists live in the mental prisons of their respective ideologies. To them, the utopia projected by their ideology seems more real than reality. Whenever reality deviates from the utopia, they either ignore reality or condemn it for not living up to their utopian fantasies. When it comes to crime and punishment, for example, non-liberals understand that criminals are vicious thugs who deserve good long terms in the slammer, and maybe even a ticket on the Third Rail Express.