I remember in high school reading a book about Nazi germany. It said the support for the nazis came from business leaders and working class conservatives. At the time that made no sense to me, it seemed like those two groups should be natural enemies. The business class wants to cut wages/benefits and the working class should want higher wages/benefits. At the time though I didn’t understand that wages and economics was only a small part of what motivated people’s voting behaviors. Things like social identity, authoritarianism, prejudice are just as important if not more important.
But seeing whats happening in America, its the same two groups. Business leaders and working class conservatives. My understanding is that business leaders and working class conservatives were also the base of support of things like jim crow and slavery. The business class kept people divided and the working class found the appeals to prejudice, authority, purity and safety appealing.
Is that the natural base of fascism? What about intellectuals? What about a stable middle class?