'Middle Class' support the 1% so that they can still stand on top of those they consider beneath them. Marxist theory (oh, I know, I know, hate to bring it up) there are groups or classes that truly support the 1% and they are paid well. Perhaps not as well as they could be, but much better than everyone else.
The truly poor and vulnerable seldom are addressed in elections or anything else, because they do not possess the ability to get out and organize and then go to vote. If we pat ourselves on the back as well informed and assume that baggers are all living in trailer parks or dirt poor and voting to enslave themselves, I don't think we're seeing the whole picture.
The way that elections are set up in many states makes registering or getting to the polls a logistical nightmare. It is done precisely to keep the poor off the ballot. This year, Obama got around 65 million votes compared to Romney's 60 million. IIRC, the voting population of this country is twice those two figures combined, but we never hear from the other half that didn't vote.
From the news and threads here, historically the right has an interest in demoralizing voters of the other side, and their media, all forms of it, from teevee to radio to online conspiracy idols, get people to think if they are really wise, they won't bother to vote. Yet the right gets their followers excited in church to turn out. So there is something to be gained and something to be lost by voting or not voting and being involved in every down slate election and community.
IOW, I don't think the wealthy have brainwashed the poor that much to win to win elections. Instead, they've paid them well, with contracts of all kinds, government and private. They reward those closest to them. And even the poor are willing to take the crumbs they toss at them. JMHO.