American Democracy: Chatter as the Opiate of the Masses

Is the idea of democracy delusional? 
My grandparents lived in what today would be called poverty; being penniless in America, they were virtually powerless. They lived in fear of the landlord, the police, the authorities. They were immigrants.
But they were intensely political. My grandfather, once retired, when out every day to "the benches" in the park, where he argued all day long with his friends and neighbors, most of whom were union members (retired) and leftist, and I wondered what they could argue so ardently about, given their shared political inclinations. (I could not understand what they were arguing about, because they were not speaking English. Occasionally, one would notice me and pat me on the head and then go back to the raucous fray.) This was about mid 20th century.
Thinking back on these men, I sometimes think: What fools. They could argue all day long whether Eisenhower or Stevenson should be President, but these men had no effect on the choice. 
In a capitalist society, there are people with money, who can amplify their opinions, voices and thinking and there are the great unwashed masses, whose opinions are never heard and whose opinions do not influence others, apart from a dozen other men on a park bench.
Now, in the 21st century, with the blogosphere, everyone has an opinion and everyone seems to be heard, just as Andy Warhol predicted: In the future everyone will be famous, for 15 seconds. 
Even the once mighty television networks are no longer all that influential. And that is a good thing. In the 1960's CBS, NBC and ABC prolonged the war in Vietnam by looking to profit from reporting on it. In the end, the coverage probably helped to turn the tide of American opinion, but had there been the proliferation of channels we now have, the end of that war might have come 25,000 American deaths and 250,000 Vietnamese deaths sooner.
Now, it's Obama vs Romney and I hope the blogosphere makes a difference; I hope it helps thwart the Republicans. But I'm not sanguine on this point. It appears, from here, there is just crowd noise and that doesn't get you either here or there.
Even a clarion voice, like that of Andrew Hacker, who has written with such clarity about government and about education, is mostly ignored because he is just one voice in the stadium. 
So why are we all still talking?
Is anyone listening?