I would argue that the number of people leading comfortable lives today

That is not what is happening today, though, that is what was happening in the 1950s–1970s, which perhaps not coincidentally is when the civil rights movement was happening.

What is happening today is that neoliberalism has reached a stage where even the low-to-mid tier petit bourgeois are feeling economically precarious, and that is where a fascist base is rising from. Trumpism: It’s Coming From the Suburbs