The thing I keep coming back to is that the middle-class prosperity of the 1950s (rightwing dream) was largely (mostly?) due to the progressive policies. Strong labor unions enabled a single wage earner to support a family of five, with healthcare and a pension. A 90% top marginal tax rate redistributed wealth back into society. Veterans received educational financing.
We’ve become fearful of even mentioning the economic principles of progressivism – that labor is an asset, for example. We allow ourselves to be browbeaten by those who call taxes confiscation and redistribution, when the net redistribution in our society is upwards, not downwards. Far right has this opening because progressives are not stepping up to seize it.