I think you're romanticizing an electorate that has never existed

Not a chance. I majored in advertising and worked in the field just long enough to be disgusted (and to realize it wasn't the world I wanted to work in, especially cigarettes and fast food).

I'm acutely aware of the impact of evolved media; the manipulation of the masses by those who can afford to produce media. Politicians or Big Macs, advertising is advertising. The more exposures to an effective ad campaign, the better.

Nobody in 1860 existed in an 'echo chamber,' bombarded with the same message from multiple sources multiple times a day, every day, with precision coordination. It couldn't be done. The technology simply didn't exist. It's a moot point.

That mix of ignorance, myth, bias, lies and propaganda used to be transmitted in different ways.

Basically 2 ways: word of mouth (pulpit or pub)or print. Neither constantly reinforced the other throughout one's waking hours as do the current electronic media.

People were never inundated by the incessant screens and speakers, the audio and visual tidal wave that has evolved.