In all of this, we may be tempted to cynicism, because “there’s no one to check/ It’s all a stacked deck,” but surrendering to cynicism ends up empowering politics as usual. A friend of mine in college used to say that religion may be the opiate of the masses, but cynicism is surely the opiate of the intellectuals. Bona fide and enduring hope, we must remember, comes from a source both higher than politics and deeper than the best understanding of intellectuals.