Trump’s real base, the actual backbone of fascism, isn’t poor and working-class voters, but middle-class and affluent whites. Often self-employed, possessed of a retirement account and a home as a nest egg, this is the stratum taken in by Horatio Alger stories.

So now self-employed plumbers and mechanics aren't working class? The point is the article is trying to paint them as more affluent and influential than they often are in reality. Most of the mechanics and plumbers I know don't pull a lot of sway with city council.

These people don't know who the living fuck Horatio Alger is, and if they did, they'd rightly call him a pedophile and be angling for his lynching.

These aren't the people who read books or are really "affluent." If you're missing teeth and half the shit you own is broken down because you piss all your money away on alcohol, scratch tickets, guns, and other adult toys, you're not affluent, you're just an idiot with just enough money to keep making bad decisions for a while.