Nobody is gonna argue that voter disenfranchisement doesn’t happen. But you would be naive to think it accounts for all, much less most, of non voters. Certainly a distressingly large amount don’t vote out of laziness, however an even larger percentage don’t vote because they don’t feel they’re heard or cared about. Because politicians don’t speak to them and their needs. Call them discourage voters if you want call them abandoned voters if you want, call them whatever you want but the point is they’re out there and they’re being ignored so they stopped bothering.

Not that that absolves them of all guilt though. These people didn’t show up at primaries. They didn’t force the political discourse to follow them, and it is hard to do especially without billions of dollars to help, but that’s the only way to keep it.