I don't think that is universally true, unfortunately.

I am under the impression that representative democracy as we know has slowly shifted from promoting and defending ideas, to promoting and defending a representative. and a consequence of that is that it creates a false dichotomy, because people will be in favor of/against a representative. while ideas provide a more granular basis of consensus.

I actually think people agree far more onany issues. and they are being distracted by a popularity contest