Propaganda efforts large than we can imagine operating for decades. How has the rural poor identity morphed from union men and worker solidarity to backing military and police? It got too dangerous and they stomped it out with myths of foreign adversaries. I’m of the mind that we need to reach across political lines to overcome this, we can’t allow them to split the country evenly in half or we’ll be in a deadlock forever that just lets them do what they want. It can seem herculean but there are shades of it when a CEO is killed on the streets or a bunch of politicians work together to protect pedophiles; political identity fades and it becomes more obvious that it’s us against them

Also a lot of the most disenfranchised are kept from voting at all. Either they have to work, polling place is too far away and they don’t have a car, polling place getting changed, don’t have a permanent address