Impacting Russia without military action

An interesting article on how democracy is doomed: https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/08/shawn-rosenberg-democracy-228045 The basic premise seems to be that democracy depends upon people being tolerant and willing to do the hard work of being good citizens, and the facts say otherwise. There is a theory that all governments, including democracies, evolve to be dominated by an oligarchy, just by the simple human nature of succeeding generations knowing their parents path and following it. This newest interpretation basically that evolution is what saves democracies from themselves. As Mencken said "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard." This paper basically agrees (without quoting Mencken) and the "common people" really will make bad, simplistic choices and eventually destroy democracy. I understand the position, and am not sure I agree. First, the only emphasis is on "right-wing" simplistic solutions appealing to the common people, completely ignoring the appeal of "left-wing" simplistic solution (Free Health care, free education, your problems are all because the rich have cheated you, etc.). The hope for democracy is the tension between these two view, and ability of elected official to compromise. The news does not help this by emphasizing the differences is positions rather than how often bipartisan success occurs (see, for example, https://www.axios.com/bipartisan-legislation-comeback-congress-quorum-3d926313-5d1d-4d9d-95f5-17bed890bf02.html). The US Constitution avoided direct democracy for exactly this reason - to assure that compromise was necessary, requiring understanding and at least tolerance of other positions. Which gets back to my opposition to the current push to avoid the elector college and have a common vote elect the President. This strikes me as exactly the kind of simplistic political solution that rejects a balancing of interests throughout the country.