This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, August 12, 2021.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Following the attack on the Capitol in January, it's worth understanding who was involved

what brought them to that willingness to invade the seat of federal power as it was engaged in the otherwise

peaceful transfer of presidential authority.

But it's also worth noting that the threat so many want to play up in the wake of that attack is still very small.

Abigail Hall is a professor of economics at Bellerman University and co-author of the new book,

Manufacturing Militarism.

We spoke last month.

What do we know about the people who rated the capital on January 6th?

Well, we know that obviously there are quite a few people who were involved. We're starting to see more and more of the arrest

and the now people actually being convicted and sentenced related to it.

But one of the other things that we now know about the individuals participating is that a

disproportionate number of them have some military connection. So either active duty

military or a military veteran.

Okay, so let me explain that away.

Donald Trump loves the troops and the troops, I don't know, did they vote for him in large numbers? You know I actually don't know what the breakdown would look like. My guess would be just based on historical data that you probably have a large military contender that is going to go Republican.

Okay, so there you have it.

That explains it 100%.

I would push back on that and say that I don't think that it does.

And there are a few different things that we also see

related particularly to the military-affiliated

...