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Fear drives out reason. Fear suppresses the politics of discourse and opens the door to the politics of destruction.
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I'd like to see the psychological research to support this claim. I think what Mr. Gore is actually describing here is phobia, not fear, and if I'm not mistaken he isn't qualified to diagnose this kind of mental disorder in other people. And even if he was a psychiatrist I'd question his motives since it is his political adversaries he is accusing of phobic behavior.
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It is simply an insult to those who came before us and sacrificed so much on our behalf to imply that we have more to be fearful of than they.
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So he's saying that those who came before us were also fearful. Did their fear drive out reason, did it suppress the politics of discourse? No, fear didn't misguide them and neither has it musguided us. It is partisanship, not fear, that opens the door to the politics of destruction, and invoking the stories of dead heroes for one's own political gain is a classic exapmle of partisanship. In a way it's a good thing our heroes are dead, because if they were alive to hear the way Gore is abusing their legacy then they really would be insulted.