It was obvious ... that something could well be done to cause the emotions of the primitives to flip and flop politically if only the right nerve spots were touched." -T.H. White, The Making Of The President 1964.
The "primitives" Mr. White was referring to are the same conservative fraction of the Republican electorate that Dr. Newton Gingrich whipped up into a frenzy with his attacks on the "elites" while mentioning Saul Alinsky no less than three times in his speech last night. These grassroots were the folks an insurgent wing of the GOP harnessed to move Barry Goldwater to the fore.
Maybe Dr. Gingrich does know a little about history. (One would hope so, since he used to teach it.)