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I really don't buy the "economic insecurity" argument for why people latch onto Trumpism, but this is interesting nonetheless. The Capitol rioters aren't generally poor; they seem more likely to have a kind of precarious-middle-class set of money problems https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/10/capitol-insurrectionists-jenna-ryan-financial-problems/
Things like bankruptcy and tens of thousands of dollars in tax liens and big judgments from lenders are not generally the issues facing the nation's poorest; they are issues facing people who present (and think of themselves) as being in the middle and even upper-middle class.
Does that explain why these folks latched onto a conspiratorial, racist, misogynist demagogue? No it does not. But it is part of the bigger picture: People who feel like their status is slipping. That's largely racial. But of course money factors in, too.
You can see why Trumpism might appeal to folks who have not lived up to their own expectations and stories about themselves -- who were promised an American dream and told individual hard work would equal success, and instead failed over and over.
And if I am being honest I see a lot of entitlement in these stories -- a lawyer who apparently doesn't think he has to pay federal taxes; several people who take out far more in loans than they can pay back; people who face IRS liens and bankruptcies and screw over others.
Then Trump comes along and says, "You're great! Everything you were promised was deserved, but someone else stole it." Blame immigrants, blame Black people, blame poor people, blame liberals.
There's a kernel of truth in there -- "hard work will result in success" is increasingly a myth, the ladder up is growing taller and harder to climb. Democrats tell this story, too. The question is who you blame for it. Trump and his followers blame the more vulnerable.
The Trump story is of what Arlie Hothschild called "line-cutters" -- the perception that people who are less deserving are cutting in line and pushing those who waited their turn to the back. (Without questioning why, exactly, white people were always at the front of the line).
But of course this story of deserving white people having their American dream stolen by Black and brown people and immigrants and liberals resonates with people who already feel entitled to an upper-middle-class life and keep getting in trouble for not paying their taxes & debts
This also explains why all the stories of Trump screwing over his lenders and employees and not paying his taxes weren't all that damaging. Many of his supporters were doing the same thing.
