Jefforson had this to say in 1820:

"I know no safe depositary of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

If Jefferson was right, then you might want to think twice about calling people in need of education "ignorant, apathetic sheep".  Calling them names probably reduces your ability to "inform their discretion." 

My guess is that Simmons was thinking more along the lines of Jefferson than advocating for a dictatorship, but I could be wrong.