My dad was a proud union member, now retired. He bought a home, cars, and raised a mess of kids...

[Warpy]

37. Wages were allowed to fall far behind inflation

starting with the OPEC oil shocks in the early to mid 70s. The PTB were able to blame labor instead of OPEC for that inflation.

Wages have been in trouble far longer than 20 years, in other words. Even with the wage increases, inflation was eroding purchasing power and so were the taxes that rose along with it as working class people started to edge into brackets that had been reserved for the upper middle class 40 years previously.

This is why they were suckers for Reagan. The GOP was successful in blaming labor for inflation and taxes for lower purchasing power, the former a total fabrication and the latter with a grain of truth. Reagan promised and delivered 3 separate across the board 10% tax cuts, something people thought was going to do them some good but which delivered pennies for working people and thousands for plutocrats.

Higher incomes didn't make them turn Republican, in other words. Taxes that crept higher year after year as their purchasing power fell is what made them turn Republican in 1980.