I can't stand behind that statement. It's akin to putting all conservatives in the same boat as Dennis Hastert; it's not true and it does a disservice to those who are on our side.
But I agree with what you said about what's true isn't always what's popular and what's popular isn't always true. So much truth right there.
I believe there are good and decent people who have fallen in with the left and the right through lack of interest in knowing how the world works, but in the end, the results are what matter, good intentions pave a path to uncertainty, if not hell. Most of them are salvageable. I'm not declaring them irretrievably, irrevocably evil for all time. All but the actual psychopaths have hope, and we may soon understand how to help psychopaths, if they want it.