Macca wrote:

We say x, he says the opposite.
Leaving aside the individual policies for the moment - some of which I agree with you about, others not; is the concept of the role of government in a democracy.

A government is not put in place by the population to enact policy and legislation that correlate most closely with the will of the population.  Their job is to make decisions that are best for the country and its population, regardless of whether that population agrees with or is even able to understand the rationale for such decisions.  The role of the public will is made known with elections whose single most valuable contribution is in the power to NOT be governed by a particular group.

Just remember, if the average IQ is around 100, that means around half the population is smarter than that, but half are even dumber. Popularist policy is not a good idea.  While most politicians have major character flaws they are generally not stupid. A bit of fine tuning to the electoral system could help with increasing politicians motivation to actually do a good job.