Nobles and knights were obliged to protect those who lived on the manor and provide personal and military service to the king.
The wrong person gets elected and could lead to unwanted fights, drama, destruction, people would outrage.
They only had to defend their land. The south also had great military generals compared to the north in the civil war.
The main difference between being poor in America and Europe in the 19th century etc. was that America offered much more opportunities due to the fact that it was a nation that was being built up from the ground. This meant that poor people and people of low education could at least get various jobs in construction and related things whereas in Europe, the opportunities for such people were much smaller.
