Economics/Class Relations

A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Over ten years ago, I predicted the sinking middle class would be part of the basis of future insurgent movements. I generally got the socioeconomic and demographic factors right, although the political realignment along system/anti-system lines I was hoping for never happened. Instead, the Red and Blue Tribes are developing insurgencies within their own ranks and the wider society is fracturing into a multiplicity of tribes.

By Todd C. Frankel, Washington Post

Jenna Ryan seemed like an unlikely participant in the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. She was a real estate agent from Texas. She flew into Washington on a private jet. And she was dressed that day in clothes better suited for a winter tailgate than a war.

Yet Ryan, 50, is accused of rushing into the Capitol past broken glass and blaring security alarms and, according to federal prosecutors, shouting: “Fight for freedom! Fight for freedom!”

But in a different way, she fit right in.

Despite her outward signs of success, Ryan had struggled financially for years. She was still paying off a $37,000 lien for unpaid federal taxes when she was arrested. She’d nearly lost her home to foreclosure before that. She filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and faced another IRS tax lien in 2010.

READ MORE

Categories: Economics/Class Relations, Fourth Generation Warfare

Leave a Reply