Can democracy work in an egocentric society?
You wonder why voter turnout is so low in the US. I think it's because of people who prioritize feeling good about themselves over understanding society around them, thus avoid following politics because they feel the issues are just too complicated. That's one way people are self-centered. Another way: people who buy into the right wing low-taxes, limited government "I've got mine, f*** everybody else" message with sprinkles of "Democrats want to take my guns away" or "Democrats want to send Christians to FEMA camps" paranoia.
Also, it seems that conservative media has mastered the art of messaging through instant gratification. How? People know that society has problems, and right wing pundits like Limbaugh master snarl words and purr words to elicit emotional reactions in their audiences. Snarl words for example being "liberal", "socialist", "redistributionist", "academics", "food police", etc. while purr words being "Christian", "family", "patriot", "traditional America", "heartland"...they know how to reduce complicated concepts to loaded language. Not so much with left wing media.