"Smart people" are generally not rich people. They are coerced into labor like anyone else. Sometimes their labor is even useful.

They generally don't have the time or reason to participate in a counter-productive popularity contest.

Because with educatio comes a sense of ethics and responsibility. Anyone with ethics will never get accepted into any political party.

Because to be successful in politics it's much more important to be charismatic and well spoken than to be actually smart. It's a dsad state of affairs.

Because there's no valid nor sound singular-pecking-order, and typically those "smart people" respected as "so smart" are "smart" in other aptitudes than the social aptitude and ruthlessness to so social climb and manipulate to be "in charge".

I very often say: we can all be polymaths in the making, not slaves in training. If/when we do so proceed that way, we'd catch more of these follies, and seek better protections and implementations and systems, than just leaving it to the most ruthless social climber, the most effective liar, getting in charge.