Give every leftist intellectual a party card, and let them only appoint commissars to staff politburos, which then issue dictats to the rest of us. Enforce them with a police state. Simple, direct, to the point, only the intelligent and informed are consulted. Guareenteed to produce "progressive" decisions.
Whoops, tried that, didn't they?
They know they can't get away with doing this, yet. They are trying a more insidious route for now which will give exactly the same outcome as you described ;).