If you don’t believe the masses can be swayed, then let’s just make it this: There’s been a lot of talk lately about the conditions for liberty, and whether America has the stuff for it anymore. Conservatives used talk a lot about how John Adams thought a “moral and religious” people were the only kind who could sustain democracy. Based on their behavior, I guess they took “moral and religious” to mean “bigoted and hypocritical, but church-going.”