Seven months past the November election, Donald Trump's supporters are still talking a big game about an electoral “mandate.” Justifying their actions under Trump’s largely unconstitutional executive orders, cabinet members sing a constant chorus about a November “landslide” and voter “blowout.” Trump's spokes-child repeats the phrase, “President Trump’s resounding mandate” ad nauseum, like a talisman that makes critics disappear.

But counting by the Electoral College vote or the popular vote, it was anything but. The election results reflect a nation nearly split down the middle, with 49 percent voting for Trump and 48 percent voting for Kamala Harris.

If there is any insight to be had about why the US is veering dangerously close to fascism, the most pressing — but under-analyzed — question isn’t why people voted how they did, but why a plurality of qualified voters didn’t bother to vote at all. Trump won 77,304,184 votes compared to Harris’ 75,019,616, but an even greater number than either candidate won — 90,000,000 qualified voters — stayed home. We need, urgently, to understand why.

Disengagement may be personal more than political

Scholars are examining loneliness as an independent predictor of electoral abstention. Loneliness is defined clinically as a subjective perception of a misalignment between one's expectations and the actual state of social relationships. Researchers at MIT report that political participation becomes less likely among people who suffer from loneliness due to alienation from society, real or perceived.