To contextualize this passage, I was searching for links related to the history of our Constitution and sources for determining its original intent. I stumbled into the works of Lysander Spooner and find it quite refreshing and very neutral.
The ostensible supporters of the Constitution, like the ostensible supporters of most other governments, are made up of three classes, viz.: 1. Knaves, a numerous and active class, who see in the government an instrument which they can use for their own aggrandizement or wealth. 2. Dupes – a large class, no doubt – each of whom, because he is allowed one voice out of millions in deciding what he may do with his own person and his own property, and because he is permitted to have the same voice in robbing, enslaving, and murdering others, that others have in robbing, enslaving, and murdering himself, is stupid enough to imagine that he is a “free man,” a “sovereign”; that this is “a free government”; “a government of equal rights,” “the best government on earth,”2 and such like absurdities. 3. A class who have some appreciation of the evils of government, but either do not see how to get rid of them, or do not choose to so far sacrifice their private interests as to give themselves seriously and earnestly to the work of making a change.
Of course I wouldn't presume to limit the choices to one of three answers. There are over 314,000,000 (that's million) ways to be an American. Recent figures suggest about half of us are legal voters, and out of the half that can vote, a quarter don't bother to vote.
I wonder if there are polls that provide a statistical analysis of reasons why around 40,000,000 legal voters choose to abstain.