The thing is, democracy doesn't work on a scale as large as the United States. (By not work I mean the people are far to the left of the elite with their redistributionist policies, and that's unacceptable to the people in power.) So either you have countries directly managing public opinion like China/Russia, or you have countries covertly managing public opinion like the United States. Essentially, you have to choose Brave New World or 1984 if you want to manage a "democracy".