rhetoric lesson

Robert Moses, inveighing against the rigid elitism of the board of the Metropolitain Museum of Art in the early 1940s, called them:

"snooty trustees who do not know and care what the public is thinking."

The lawyer in me wants to amend this to "snooty trustees who do not know or care..."  But then read these in alternative and see why Moses had it right: the and points to the public, while the or reaches back to the trustees.  The forward-leaning emphasis is more effective: it is still cutting, but more prescriptive - there is a stronger hint of constructive principles.  My alternative is merely cutting. 

It is a small word that makes a small but perceptible difference.