Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Guide For Our Times: Herbert Hoover's Critique Of Supreme Court Expansion, Matthew Chopp

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Former President Herbert Hoover’s critiques of FDR’s plan to expand the Supreme Court are useful for defending against contemporary calls to enlarge the composition of the Court, such as the Judiciary Act of 2021.

Critique Of Hayek's Liberalism And The Rule Of Law, Kacper Mykietyn

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

In this paper, I raise a few doubts about the adequacy of Hayek's liberal theory and the rule of law in the twenty-first century. I argue that the theory 1) fails to be morally neutral by not giving proper attention to the harm experienced by the minorities, 2) does not acknowledge a satisfactory account for the exploitation of the working class, and 3) operates with a parochial definition of freedom.

Liberating The Truth In Augustine’S Confessions And Douglass’ Narrative, Vincent Hanrahan

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

In this paper, I explore how Frederick Douglass’ and St. Augustine's understanding of the corruption of God's word produced their respective achievement of freedom. In examining Augustine’s Confessions and Douglass’ Narrative, we come to understand the moral imperative of public service both thinkers promoted; the idea that individuals have a distinct social obligation to share their knowledge in a promotion of the greater good.

Unwilling Gamblers And Loaded Dice: Considering Recession And Crisis As A Natural Effect Of Financial Capitalism, Darlene N. Moorman

The Downtown Review

Under financial capitalism, ordinary people are increasingly becoming 'unwilling gamblers' of a risky and unstable system. This paper explores the social and institutional change behind the neoliberal movement and considers how the politics and policies of neoliberalism have contributed to a certain environment of financial instability. Looking at the changing nature of the economy, the rapid expansion of the financial sector, and the persisting issue of moral hazard underlying risky and speculative behaviors among other items, reveals a financial system in which recessions and crises can be considered a natural, although not inevitable, effect.

Black Lives, White Kids: White Parenting Practices Following Black-Led Protests, Allison P. Anoll, Andrew M. Engelhardt, Mackenzie Israel-Trummel

Arts & Sciences Articles

Summer 2020 saw widespread protests under the banner Black Lives Matter. Coupled with the global pandemic that kept America’s children in the predominant care of their parents, we argue that the latter half of 2020 offers a unique moment to consider whites’ race-focused parenting practices. We use Google Trends data and posts on public parenting Facebook pages to show that the remarkable levels of protest activity in summer 2020 served as a focusing event that not only directed Americans’ attention to racial concepts but connected those concepts to parenting. Using a national survey of non-Hispanic white parents with white school-age …

The Influence Of Religion On Immigration Public Opinion, Olga Alvertos

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

This study explores the ways in which the religious beliefs of individuals influence their opinion on immigration and immigration related policy. While seemingly separate topics, the two are interwoven through variables such as party affiliation, education level, and age. Previous studies show a clear correlation between frequent attendance of religious services and positive views on immigration and related policies. This topic has yet to be explored in depth and with reference to frequency of religious attendance. Using ANES data, my goal with this research is to determine if a strong attachment to religion affects public opinion of immigration policy and …

Biopolitics And Belief: The Impacts Of Religious Attitudes On Reproductive Rights In The U.S., Katlyn Barbaccia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

On June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade (1973)—a groundbreaking case that legalized the right to have an abortion—which signified a deep rift in the nation between the opinions of its lawmakers and citizens in the wake of a widening partisan gap. Biopower, according to Foucault, can be defined as the governing of bodies wherein citizens are stripped of bodily autonomy and are closely regulated by the nation-state. Manifested in political consequences, this can be defined as biopolitics, or when the nation-state’s ideas are made into a reality in the political realm. …

Predictors Of College Student Support Toward Colin Kaepernick’S National Anthem Protests, Brooke Coursen, Nicole Peiffer, Sakira Coleman, Philip Lucius

VA Engage Journal

Racial discrimination and inequality have perpetuated within the U.S. since its inception. In 2016, Colin Kaepernick initiated the national anthem protests to oppose the oppression of people of color in America. This study was developed in 2018 to identify social determinants of health underlying discriminatory beliefs and behaviors. The objective was to investigate the impacts of college students’ race, gender, political ideology, socio-economic status [SES], NFL interest, patriotism, and general protest support on support for the national anthem protests. We administered paper-and-pencil surveys across locations on the James Madison University campus using a convenience sample. There were 408 participants included, …

Model Minority Or Myth? Reexamining The Politics Of S.I. Hayakawa, Vivian Yan-Gonzalez

Asian American Studies Faculty Articles and Research

This article problematizes the model minority myth as an analytic in discussions of Asian American conservatism by reassessing the personal and political development of S.I. Hayakawa, Acting President of San Francisco State College during the Third World Liberation Front strike of 1968–1969. Contemporary activists and Asian American studies scholars influenced by the strike’s legacy have seen Hayakawa as a staunch conservative and an advocate of the model minority myth. However, Hayakawa was primarily motivated by his lifelong identification with the liberal tradition and his work as an advocate for racial equality. His realignment as a neoconservative Republican reflected the shifting …

How Do You Vote? Breaking Down Party Identification By Racial Resentment, Stellarose B. Emery

Student Publications

Racial resentment has long existed in the United States, with the idea that Black people receive unfair advantages by exploiting their race thus negatively affecting White people. In a time in which politics is drastically polarized, a focus is put onto an individual's political identity. The purpose of this research is to determine under what conditions does race influence vote choice by examining how racial bias influences political affiliation. Using data from the 2012 and 2016 National Election Study, the results revealed that ideological thoughts do have an impact on a person’s political party identity as individuals with a higher …

An Alternate Route: How Ronald Reagan Defied Expectations With His Approach To The Crosswinds Of The Patco Strike, Brock Bellinger

Bound Away: The Liberty Journal of History

One challenge which reveals an executive’s leadership ability involves making the decision to fire an employee. President Ronald Reagan did not enjoy firing employees, due in part to his own father struggling to maintain employment. When the 1981 PATCO strike occurred, several obstacles arose which tested Reagan’s ability to act. The Professional Air Traffic Controller’s Organization (PATCO) had publicly supported Reagan during his 1980 presidential campaign when other unions did not. Additionally, Reagan was sympathetic to unions, even serving as President of the Screen Actor’s Guild. These potential obstacles proved challenging from a political and personal perspective. However, when the …

Operation Lone Star: The Spectacle Of Immigration Federalism, Danielle Puretz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 to respond to the “crisis” at the United States/Mexico border. While in the US immigration is usually thought of as a federal responsibility, different states have worked to expand their capacity to welcome or exclude immigrants. Operation Lone Star is an example of how one state is working to restrict immigration to the US and build notoriety for its republican governor. Drawing on press releases, executive orders, news articles, opinion pieces, and other sources I highlight the performative politics within this initiative. Operation Lone Star is an example of …

The Dehumanizing Gaze: Race In The Context Of Academic Tourism, Leona Derango

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

No abstract provided.

The Commons: Volume 3, Issue 1, Kris Bohnenstiehl, Leona Derango, Ethan Stern-Ellis

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

Table of Contents

• Letter From the Editors
  LILA BERNARDIN AND HANNAH WILLIAMS
• Who Sent the Devil Down to Georgia?
  KRIS BOHNENSTIEHL
• The Dehumanizing Gaze: Race in the Context of Academic Tourism
  LEONA DERANGO
• Balancing Populations of Electoral Districts
  ETHAN STERN-ELLIS

Mitchell's "American Awakening: Identity Politics And Other Afflictions Of Our Time" (Book Review), Jaclyn Lee Parrott

The Christian Librarian

No abstract provided.

Church, Country, Culture: How Three Aspects Of Authoritarianism Predict Support For Donald Trump, Trenton Leslie

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the American bipartisan system, ideologies and beliefs create political views that sort voters between two groups. Political sorting increases polarization based on cultural preferences for an in-group that become ethnocentric views, which develop into ethnocentric cultural politics. I present an augmented concept of authoritarianism in America that encompasses sorting based on aspects of political belief, encapsulating sources of polarization and cultural attachments to political associations.

I develop the argument that authoritarianism is the result of political attachment to identities that feed off one another as individuals identify with an in-group, such as a party platform. My central theory is …

The Marianna Boycott: Healthcare, Political Organization, And Federal Intervention In The Arkansas Delta, Stephen James Franklin Iii

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Marianna Boycott was a thirteen month long civil rights boycott that took place in the Arkansas Delta town of Marianna from 1971 to 1972. The event shut down over twenty-five business, inflicted millions of dollars in economic damage, and forced people living in Lee County to address racial tensions that had been building for decades. This paper examines the Marianna Boycott as an expression of post-Civil Rights Movement conflict over what the various legislative victories of the 1960s meant for Black people in the rural south. This paper posits that while the Civil Rights laws of the era were …

Review Of Undoing The Knots: Five Generations Of American Catholic Anti-Blackness, Peter R. Gathje

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Toward Freedom: The Case Against Race Reductionism, Charles Whitmer Wright

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of How To Be An Antiracist (An African’S View), Joseph L. Mbele

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Of Backsliding: Democratic Regress In The Contemporary World And Crises Of Democracy., Pedro A.G. Dos Santos

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Remembering Drew Christiansen, S.J., Distinguished Advisor On Peacebuilding For The U.S. Catholic Bishops, Gerard Powers

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Review Essay: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen: A Still And Quiet Conscience, William L. Portier

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Oscar Romero And Juan Gerardi: Truth, Memory, And Hope, Scott Wright

The Journal of Social Encounters

Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero and Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi were prominent defenders of human rights during the civil wars that characterized their two countries during the 1980s and 1990s. By their public proclamations and prophetic witness, they laid the foundation for the United Nations Truth Commission in El Salvador, the United Nations Commission for Historical Clarification in Guatemala, and the Recovery of the Historic Memory (REMHI) project in Guatemala. Inspired by the need to dignify the victims of state-sponsored violence by refusing to forget, and accompanying the survivors in their struggle for justice, Romero and Gerardi were instrumental in uncovering …

Myth, Fiction And Politics In The Age Of Antiheroes: A Case Study Of Donald Trump, Igor Prusa, Matthew Brummer

Heroism Science

In this article, we demonstrate that the antihero archetype informs our understanding of Trump in important ways, including his rise to and fall from power. We introduce an analytical framework for analyzing Trump’s antiheroic traits based on his social positioning, individual motivation, and personal charisma. We argue that Trump is fascinating because he is powerful, amoral, and charismatic, and suggest that the American public was primed for Trumpism through a zeitgeist hospitable to antihero worship. That is, Trump’s dogged popularity with nearly half of the American public was foretold by decades of pop-cultural obsession with, and adulation for, the antihero.

Oklahoma V. Castro-Huerta, United States Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh

US Government Documents related to Indigenous Nations

This United States (US) Supreme Court decision, argued April 27, 2022 and decided June 29, 2022 expanded the reach of state jurisdiction to allow for prosecution of crimes that occur on Indigenous land, regardless of whether or not a state is named as having such jurisdiction under US Public Law 280. In 2020, the US Supreme Court's decision on McGirt v. Oklahoma established that much of the eastern part of the state of Oklahoma is Indigenous land and therefore falls under either tribal jurisdiction or Federal jurisdiction. In 2015 Victor Manuel Castro-Huerta was charged and convicted of child neglect by …

Anger And Hope In Rural American Liturgy, Benjamin Durheim

Theology Faculty Publications

Sociologists and political scientists have published a number of studies recently dealing with the tumultuous and often angry ethos of rural and small-town America. However, while a number of scholars have recognized that the anger and resentment present in much of the atmosphere of rural and small-town America is multifaceted and deeper than a simple desire for policy change, very little scholarly work has focused specifically on the role of ritual in exacerbating or alleviating social anger in these contexts. This article argues that the liturgical cultivation of hope is a powerful antidote to the vitriol of the political atmosphere …

The Politics Of The Self: Psychedelic Assemblages, Psilocybin, And Subjectivity In The Anthropocene, Joshua Falcon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how psychedelic substances become drawn into particular sociohistorical and political arrangements, and how psychedelic experiences with psilocybin ‘magic mushrooms’ are used as tools of subjectivation. Guided by literatures in philosophy, critical theory, and the social sciences that focus on subjectivity, assemblage theory, and critical posthumanism, I argue that psychedelics are drawn into variegated assemblages, each of which conceptualizes the nature of psychedelics in highly specific ways that reflect implicit conceptions of the world and the self. In developing the concept of psychedelic assemblages, this research provides a window onto the politics of the self in the Anthropocene. …

Clark Memorandum: Spring 2022, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Byu Law School Alumni Association, J. Reuben Clark Law Society

The Clark Memorandum

• General Joseph Smith and His Candidacy for the Presidency of the United States
• Leadership Lessons from the Life of Dallin H. Oaks
• Flunking the Founding
• Seven Lessons from the Life of Rex Lee

Overlooked Diplomacy: A Look Into Missed Diplomatic Efforts In The Pacific Theater Of World War Ii, Maxwell Melanson

Honors Theses

This thesis examines possible diplomatic solutions that may have ceased United States-Japanese conflict throughout the late 1930s and 40s. The first chapter analyzes the declaration of the policy of unconditional surrender, and what this policy entailed. Despite Roosevelt claiming that the idea just came to him, it was a carefully developed policy, and was chosen to be enacted for a multitude of reasons. After the Casablanca conference in January 1943, unconditional surrender became a unifying policy and a politically smart policy in Roosevelt's favor. The second chapter then analyzes the tensions rising between Japan and the United States through the …