That would be better; I think the phrase "with intelligent people on both sides" especially will allow people to exclude their pet issue by thinking that everyone on the other side is stupid.

I don't think it fully solves the problem, though I think combining it with the idea of voting for parties makes it much more sensible.

As Vladimir M points out we really don't elect people to directly exercise power. Popular issues really only are pursued when a sympathetic party has a supermajority (at least in the US). But even if that is a more useful political metaphor, selecting from two parties which both have serious flaws is unlikely to create a strong signal for rationality.

While your argument is certainly valid and interesting in terms of having political arguments I don't think it's sensible to use for actual voting.