To close the argument, I would like to suggest that the conservative movement might be too democratic for its own good. That is, the relish with which conservatives engage in electoral politics — and their special anxiety over electoral results — is partly a consequence of their exile from, or refusal to participate in, other institutions in our society that exercise considerable power but are not entirely democratic: our universities, entertainment industry, media and the arts, and the much larger nonprofit sector of non-governmental organizations and charities, to name just a few. These institutions are not democratic — they are sometimes nearly medieval, or even institutions of patrimonial capitalism — and they are largely ceded to liberals and progressives. They produce the knowledge, give shape and direction to rising passions and moral impulses emerging in society, and while they certainly enhance and magnify the power of elected liberals and progressives, they have the ability to in some ways soften and redistribute the felt impact of that ruling. The domination of these institutions by liberal democrats and progressives pushes conservatism more toward populism, toward looking for the first 200 names in the Boston telephone book instead of Harvard’s faculty.