How Wealth Co-opted Conservative Politics

In the 1970s, neither my friends nor I would have flinched if any of the fathers in our upper-middle-class social circle had gone out for a beer with the gas station attendant who changed their oil. Our mothers shared a cup of coffee with the cleaning lady before going grocery shopping. Such interclass encounters didn’t register with us kids. We were too busy mowing lawns, parking cars, and stocking shelves to pay for Led Zeppelin albums and subscriptions to National Lampoon. Besides, the gas station guy’s son played shortstop on our high school baseball team. And the cleaning lady’s daughter shared makeup tips with our sisters.