the parties want more votes for the wrong reasons, ie, to put lipstick on the pig of their voter-apathy numbers.
if they did want to do something very positive for many people, i suspect they wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the levers of power... yet. another generation or two, as others have suggested here.
there are just enough intelligent ones allowed in, to make the others' average rise to....average.
a lot of them are just functionaries for lobbyists. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
