The class war was started by the already rich for purely economic reasons to direct as much of the nation's income to themselves as possible. But obviously, it couldn't be fought in these terms by acknowledging this goal, which economically disadvantages 98% of the country. So it is being fought by dividing the people who are being economically disadvantaged against one another over other mainly cultural issues, supported by the lifeblood of conservatism; lies, fear mongering, hypocrisy, slander and conspiracy theories, a few real but most are fabricated, along a divide that has always existed in the country, the one between conservatives and liberals.
The division between liberals and conservatives historically was about the means of change and the speed of change, but with a broad consensus about the goals of what we were trying to accomplish. In fact, those goals are the very goals of liberal democracy that are the nominal reasons that justified the founding of our nation, greater individual and economic freedom, greater social justice, the rule of law, and the equal protection of human rights for all of the people, not just for the privileged few.
The class war changed slowly these goals. It was sufficient to pass laws guaranteeing equality, we didn't have to achieve equality. Social justice was eliminated as a goal because it is impossible to achieve because the poor are the ones responsible for poverty. Gender equality suffered from both, it is sufficient to write the laws making it illegal to discriminate because of gender, we don't have to then enforce those laws and it is impossible to achieve because of the biological differences in the sexes.
Government is about two things primarily, security, from both internal and external threats, and the economy, defining it and enforcing the rules to punish and thereby to hopefully prevent bad behavior. The class war says that there is a magical form of capitalism that not only doesn't need these things from government, but that can also perform better without these things from the government.
Of course, what they really mean is that profits and the incomes of the already rich would be higher without the taxes and the economic externalities that government imposes on businesses and that we could restore the supply side dominance in the economy by pretending that money is a rare and limited resource and by expanding the endeavors that require capital by having private enterprise take over the functions of the government and of the parts of the economy now in the hands of professionals like medical care, education, and jurisprudence. These are at the best doubtful, at the worst destructive.
