A Washington Post analysis of arrested MAGA rioters reveals that a majority of them had a "history of financial trouble."
"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," reports the Post, which analyzed public records of 125 people who were charged for their roles in the January 6th Capitol riots.
Roughly 18 percent of charged Capitol rioters had filed for bankruptcy, which the Post notes is twice the rate of bankruptcy compared to Americans overall.
What makes this notable, writes the Post, is that many of these same people are either middle class or upper-middle class professionals who nonetheless have reason to feel insecure about losing their status.
“I think what you're finding is more than just economic insecurity but a deep-seated feeling of precarity about their personal situation," Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a political science professor who helps run the Polarization and Extremism Research Innovation Lab at American University, tells the Post. “And that precarity — combined with a sense of betrayal or anger that someone is taking something way — mobilized a lot of people that day."
Pippa Norris, a political science professor at Harvard University, similarly tells the Post that people most vulnerable to falling for far-right extremism are middle class people who fear their prestige is waning.