The rise of the Insurrection Index
One year after the insurrection, political analysts have come to shocking conclusions. 47 million Americans believe President Biden stole the election, and 21 million of them believe that use of force is justified to restore TFG to the Oval Office. But there’s also a shocking dichotomy to this rightwing radicalized base.
In her new memoire, former Trump advisor on Russia, Fiona Hill, who testified against him during the first impeachment hearings, makes the argument that the angry victims of the rapid deindustrialization era under Reagan and Thatcher make up the rightwing extremist base. Hill has a unique perspective, having grown up in a poor coal mining community in the UK, then earning degrees on Russian History in UK, Harvard, Brookings Institution, and other achievements. Hill once said, “Russia is America’s Ghost of Christmas Future.” Now these angry victims of deindustrialization have been weaponized to fuel the rise of the rightwing extremist movements of Putin, Trump, and Johnson, resulting in Brexit, and other chaos.
But, also, a high percentage of the base are mainstream white-collar professionals and the middle class. According to University of Chicago political scientist Robert Pape, most of those who were arrested for the insurrection are white-collar mainstream business owners, managers, and such. This hasn’t occurred since the Ku Klux Klan founded by former Confederates and revived in the 1920s by high-level members of the community attacked our democracy.
The result, the small 1% making up violent white supremist extremists who normally remain silently in the shadows now have the backing of mainstream professionals and government officials. In places like Idaho, some of them are running for office and winning.
But today, the so-called “Insurrection Index” was announced. This index identifies all those who attempted to overturn our free and fair elections on January 6, 2021. Over 1,000 in official positions funded by taxpayer dollars have been identified. The index goes live on January 6, 2022. On January 5th, AG Garland vowed to hold these insurrectionists accountable. His timing was perfect.
Chicago native Lorraine Evanoff earned her degree in French from DePaul University then became a Certified Financial Manager. She worked as a finance exec in film production for seven years in Paris, then in Silicon Valley during the dot-com era, and later for various Hollywood production companies, notably as CFO of National Lampoon. She is currently living in Los Angeles with her husband.