Can they not look forward and see there is no future for them?
I think they hope and dream that one day the revolution or simply "change" will bring down the evil rulers, and the future will be bright with the enlightened ones (themselves and their followers) running things. The actual future doesn't meet their ego needs, so it doesn't much enter into the the picture.
Forgive my psychobabbling :) I'm fifty-three and knew a lot of these types in college. I've been fascinated, too, as to how any reasonably intelligent modern American could buy into Marxist drivel and Clintonism. That's what I came up with.