All very well said. Though I'd add that politics through the ages has had its Machiavellian tactics. Now, though, we have technology with more powerful levers.
As much as some of the thinkers of the time complained about how easy it was to sway the uninformed demos - the people - of Athens, citizens of that time took it as a duty and point of honor to be informed and to be involved in political debate. A citizen had both a responsibility and an impact on their city-state's actions. Very different for the majority population of most modern democratic republics. (Though I agree that a direct democracy of millions would be impractical and unwieldy.)
I have difficulty thinking of contemporary politics as a democratic process sometimes. When we are voting for the "lesser of two evils" or in Canada, engaging in strategic voting practices, it doesn't make one very hopeful. But I won't lament the "hoi polloi" because that is just an easy scapegoat for what we all participate in and are more or less forced to be part of. The virtues of slow and critical thinking are vastly becoming skills of the past as the rise of anti-intellectualism seems to permeate much of the masses or at least what seems to be represented on the internet.