As a middle-class person, when I talk to other middle-class people, many make decisions/vote like they are going to be wealthy some day. Actively arguing against their own interests out of this weird fear that it would someday bite them when it's their wealth being taxed etc.

one of the best protections the wealthy have in the US is the poor and middle class voting based on an imagined and unlikely future for themselves.

This is mostly a problem with GOP adherents. The people that actually control and are served by the party are too few to win elections on their own. They have constructed a rhetoric that is meant to appeal to rural working class voters for the sole purpose of winning elections. Hence the phony demonstrations of Christian faith and donning of the trucker cap. The genius is that their failure to execute on promised benefits for all is blamed on the other guys so there is a built in feedback cycle bringing more sheep to the flock every two years.