It's not about intelligence though. Nor about the general population vs the "elite." It's just about knowledge. The average person doesn't have the knowledge to make all kinds of decisions. This isn't to say that they're dumb, but rather that knowledge is acquired through effort and dedication that most people are too busy or too disinterested to invest.

Ask most people why they voted for the party they voted for. Many will give you a negative reason, "I don't like the other candidate/party." Many others will give you a single, often local issue, "I agree with the candidates position on jobs/crime/big business." But very few can give you a well-rounded answer. Speaking of the EU, Brexit is a glittering, fairly recent example of this problem.

People aren't pixels. Countries aren't screens. And even if they were, what if the image that each of these individual pixels projected was grotesque? Would showing it in the highest possible resolution be desirable?

Again, this isn't about a lack of intelligence, and your point about ruthlessness vs intelligence is well taken (if a little too broad). I'm not arguing against democracy. I take Churchill's view that it's the worst system of government except for all the others. But I don't at all believe that everybody's input is equally valuable. Especially on topics they don't know much about.

In these areas, as Sowell pointed out, people too often confuse thinking and feeling.