People are dunking on this but it forthrightly paints a picture not of impoverished white working class…but a middle class spun into debt & tax nightmares chasing status trophies. Lashing out against non-whites for loss of status. The classic story of white grievance politics. https://t.co/5itymAYtqz
— Zeddy (@Zeddary) February 10, 2021
GIMME BIGGER MORE NOW is Trump’s personal motto, and his dedication to it is a real inspiration to the worst of his cultists:
… Nearly 60 percent of the people facing charges related to the Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over the past two decades, according to a Washington Post analysis of public records for 125 defendants with sufficient information to detail their financial histories…
The financial problems are revealing because they offer potential clues for understanding why so many Trump supporters — many with professional careers and few with violent criminal histories — were willing to participate in an attack egged on by the president’s rhetoric painting him and his supporters as undeserving victims.
While no single factor explains why someone decided to join in, experts say, Donald Trump and his brand of grievance politics tapped into something that resonated with the hundreds of people who descended on the Capitol in a historic burst of violence.
“I think what you’re finding is more than just economic insecurity but a deep-seated feeling of precarity about their personal situation,” said Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a political science professor who helps run the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at American University, reacting to The Post’s findings. “And that precarity — combined with a sense of betrayal or anger that someone is taking something away — mobilized a lot of people that day.”…
In the Capitol attack, business owners and white-collar workers made up 40 percent of the people accused of taking part, according to a study by the Chicago Project on Security and Threats at the University of Chicago. Only 9 percent appeared to be unemployed…
Late Night Open Thread: Keeping Up with the (Death Cult) JonesesPost + Comments (89)