Yeah it's better for them when they have charismatic leader like b ...but I don't think it's about that everywhere. There is no less charismatic person then Tony Abbott here in Australia and there is no more charismatic one then Kevin Rudd...and Abbott won (even majority).
This virus goes deeper...as you said it's like a mass hypnosis when working class votes for far right...Abbott promised to turn the boats of illegal immigrants but who ever has a gram of brain knows that this is a country of immigrants and neither  Abbott or that person really care for few thousand of them coming by boat...Those that are " taking jobs from Australians" are coming by plane and legally.He promised cuts to the bone / austerity and they can't see the knife coming to their neck...they do not see themselves jobless and on a waiting list for operations of life threatening illnesses...their kids with less school staff and in crowded old schools...utility bills going trough the roof because of privatization...etc...  they are like sheep...
What is bloody wrong? If majority of the people stooped spending in this crises (supposedly because they do not have money/credit any more) how the hell one can explain that they are voting for those on the right?  

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein