The last line of the article seems to imply that it is shame keeping people from voting. "If fewer people need the safety net to get by, the stigma will fade,

The last line of the article seems to imply that it is shame keeping people from voting. "If fewer people need the safety net to get by, the stigma will fade, and low-income citizens will be more likely to re-engage in their communities — not least by turning out to vote." I don't see it as an issue of shame, it is more likely to be apathy. What their neighbors saw, the pollsters are also now seeing: the poorest are also the most disengaged. The nurse at the dialysis center looks on in bewilderment as otherwise able-bodied people go in on the government dime. The Democrat leaders look on in bewilderment as otherwise government-dependent areas continue to turn Republican. What breeds this apathy? I think if you ask why people become dependent on government benefits in the first place, you get the answer: because there are very little opportunities. When the most they can aspire to is surviving day to day, they have little motivation to do anything, much less go vote. Indeed, the article mentions economic opportunity in the last paragraph as a means to combat this apathy. "The best way to reduce resentment, though, would be to bring about true economic growth in the areas where the use of government benefits is on the rise, the sort of improvement that is now belatedly being discussed for coal country, including on the presidential campaign trail." For this, there seem to be two competing approaches. On the Democrats' side, the idea is to fund clean energy, transition the Kentucky and West Virginia economies to clean energy, and help former coal workers transition to working in clean energy. On the Republican side, it's reducing costly regulations on the coal industry, the goal being to make more money available to expand operations and hire more people back. On this issue, it seems voters in Kentucky and West Virginia prefer to stick with the devil they know.