American Politics Commons^™

Presidential Nomination Forecasting 2024: Classic Components In An Atypical Race, Sophia Coco

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The topic of American presidential elections has remained central to political discussions since the founding fathers drafted the Constitution. Article Two, Section One of the Constitution lays out the guidelines for presidential elections, yet Article Two neglects to mention the process of how to nominate candidates for the presidential race. Lacking Constitutional guidance, early presidential nomination conventions of the parties in the 19^th century and early 20^th century did not reflect ideals of democracy. The delegates that voted at the conventions were selected by party insiders and their votes reflected the sentiments of the party bosses, disregarding the …

Surveys: Who's Asking? Who's Answering? Is Anybody Listening?, Virginia C. Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

The author examines the historical impact of surveys and opinion polls on the U.S. Congress.

The Truth Of The American Immigration System: Family Separation, Tegwyn Hollenbach '24

Honor Scholar Theses

This paper will begin with the first chapter by detailing the foundation of policies the American government built up in order to create the immigration system. The policies centralized around being acts of exclusion in an attempt to keep those the government deemed good enough out. There will be details on the last major immigration reform law and explanations as to what factors and events have played into creating the American Immigration system today. The second chapter will delve deeper into more modern immigration policies by focusing on recent presidential administrations that have attempted and failed to make a productive …

Reaping What You Subsidize: A Comprehensive Review Of Outcomes From Crop Subsidies In The United States, Sawyer J. Knox

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

The motivation for researching this topic comes from an interest in public policy and public health. In this paper, we will examine the impact of farm subsidies on the health of citizens, look at who benefits financially and economically from these subsidies, and examine the environmental impact of these programs. The paper will be structured as follows: Section II, the wealth distribution results from farm subsidies; Section III, the disproportionate impacts on health from farm subsidies; Section IV, the impact on global economies from farm subsidies; Section V, the environmental impact from farm subsidies; and Section VI, conclusions and policy …

The Politics Of Gender Affirming Healthcare: A New Battleground For Morality Policy?, Reaves Robinson

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Morality policy as a discipline saw its peak during the transformative years at the turn of the 21^st century; however, there has been very little scholarship to follow new social policy issues that have arisen in the past two decades. Anti-transgender policy, specifically, can be considered under the morality policy scope following years of LGBTQ+ scholarship that fell under the morality policy umbrella. In 2023 alone, more than 200 pieces of anti-transgender legislation were introduced in state legislatures across the nation. A trend among the increasingly popular policy realm can be seen from gender affirming healthcare bans, where almost …

Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller And The Death Of Liberal Republicanism, Anthony Sterba

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller once stood as one of the most prominent figures in the Republican Party, standing as a champion of liberal Republicanism. But from the heights that he achieved with his ascension to the vice presidency, he fell from grace, not being re-nominated for the post alongside President Gerald Ford in 1976. This thesis seeks to explain why this occurred. In explaining this, Rockefeller's previous primary campaigns, vice presidential actions, and ideology are all explored to show the conservative opposition that rallied itself against him. In light of this, Ronald Reagan's challenge of Gerald Ford in 1976 for the …

Reaping What We Sow: The Implications And Outcomes Of Mississippi House Bill 1125, The “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (Reap)” Act, Kerigan Brewer

Honors Theses

Mississippi House Bill 1125 (MS HB1125), also known as the “Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures (REAP) Act,” was signed into law by Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves in early 2023 (REAP Act, 2023). It is one of multiple policies passed into law that limit the rights of transgender people. This thesis aims to clarify the history of the trans community, dispel myths around gender-affirming health care and the trans identity, and discuss the current state of anti-trans laws and transgender rights. Using a policy analysis framework by DiNitto (2011), MS HB1125 is analyzed on points like its social and economic costs, the …

The Contemporary Causes Of Americans' Fear Of Illegal Immigration, Amilie Cai

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Annually, the U.S. aspires to extend its liberality by opening its border to more than ten thousand refugees. In this paper, I examine how political party identification, census region, and internet usage influence U.S. adults' fear of illegal immigration. Relying on the 2023 Chapman Survey of American Fears, a representative national sample of U.S. adults, I find that political party has remained a consistent predictor for an American’s fear of illegal immigration, with people who align themselves with the Republican Party in 2022 being more afraid of illegal immigration compared to other political parties, such as the Democrat Party. In …

Make America(N Cinema) Great Again: The Rhetoric Of Nostalgia In Trump Era Cinematic Multiplicities, Courtney J. Dreyer

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This dissertation investigates the rhetoric of nostalgia in politics and popular Hollywood cinema during the Trump era. I argue that MAGA Cinema, the contemporary trend of reboots, remakes, and sequels related to properties from the late 1970s to early 1990s, both respond to and strengthen attachments to an imagined version of the 1980s. However, this illusory golden age more closely reflects the world as depicted in the cinema of the 1980s rather than the reality of American in the years of Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Through a close analysis of David Gordon Green’s Halloween Reboot series, Top Gun: Maverick, and …

Are The Good Times Really Over For Good? American Political Nostalgia's Relationship With Rurality, Authoritarianism, And Victimhood., Chancellor R. Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are many discussions about why rural and urban Americans exhibit different attitudes about politics, partisan loyalties, and ideologies. Some of these differences can be explained by psychological processes and traits. People act differently and influence (or are influenced by) political processes differently based on their perceptions of and emotions regarding the past, present, and future states of the world. The same is true with rural and urban Americans. This research will investigate the effects of one potent emotion on political attitudes: nostalgia. Prior research has indicated that political nostalgia can be harnessed as a strong political tool. This thesis …

Applying Exploratory Learning Methods To Sociopolitical Beliefs And Cognition., Sarah French

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Americans are polarized along party lines across a variety of sociopolitical issues, including climate change and sustainability issues. Sociopolitical messaging often triggers biased processing that results in defensive rejection or biased elaboration (i.e., counterarguing) of belief-incongruent information. The current research examined whether exploratory learning activities, primarily applied in STEM-education research, can foster belief updating about polarized sustainability issues. Exploratory learning encourages people to engage with learning materials and arrive at their own conclusions before receiving direct instruction/messaging. In two experiments, participants reported their beliefs about carbon taxes and electric vehicle incentives (among other issues) before and after receiving counter-attitudinal persuasive …

Charge The Cockpit Or Die: An Anatomy Of Fear-Driven Political Rhetoric In American Conservatism, Daniel Hostetter

Senior Honors Theses

Subthreshold negative emotions have superseded conscious reason as the initial and strongest motivators of political behavior. Political neuroscience uses the concepts of negativity bias and terror management theory to explore why fear-driven rhetoric plays such an outsized role in determining human political actions. These mechanisms of human anthropology are explored by competing explanations from biblical and evolutionary scholars who attempt to understand their contribution to human vulnerabilities to fear. When these mechanisms are observed in fear-driven political rhetoric, three common characteristics emerge: exaggerated threat, tribal combat, and religious apocalypse, which provide a new framework for explaining how modern populist leaders …

Is No News Good News?: Exploring The Impact Of Social Media Use On Misinformation Beliefs, Corbin Poyer

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Does diminishing access to print news have an impact on people’s propensity to believe misinformation? What if this misinformation emanates from an online source as opposed to a print source? The focus of recent research on misinformation has been narrow: (1) recognizing its existence and acknowledging its potential impact, and (2) generating and categorizing potential analytical types of misinformation. However, the ramifications of vanishing print media have so far been overlooked. This paper asserts a connection between news sources and misinformation beliefs, further positing that the decline in the quality and availability of quality print journalism predicates an individual’s belief …

Electing Generational Immigrants: Campaign Messaging Strategies Of Asian American Candidates In Virginia, Jane Michael

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

Asian Americans are one of the fastest growing minority groups in the U.S. due to immigration – so why don’t we hear more of their stories in electoral politics? Ninety percent of Asian Americans are immigrants or children of immigrants, which is an identity that can and often does influence political participation and motivation for both voters and candidates. Recent theories look directly at linked fate, which posits that individuals who share a group identity, usually a racial or ethnic minority identity, also share a sense that anything that affects another member of the group, impacts them all. This research …

A Trump-Shaped Shadow: Demonstrating Competing Republican Identities To Gain Party Support, Amede Karina-Plun

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

How do Republican candidates demonstrate their conservative identity to appeal to Republican primary voters? Recent scholarship finds that ascendant groups within the Republican Party have changed the party’s platform, moved to the extreme right, and redefined the American conservative identity. This paper hypothesizes that former President Donald Trump is advantaged in the 2024 Republican primary as the party’s standard bearer. Additionally, I hypothesize that former Governor Nikki Haley and Governor Ron DeSantis try to gain support from Republican voters by redefining what it means to be a Republican, and they use their appeal to Republican voters as alternatives to Trump …

The True Cost Of Education, William J. Norris Iii

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Education, rightfully, has been seen as the best way to train the next generation of citizens. The Founding Fathers held that it was essential for the nation’s growth to teach children citizenship and virtue. With the recent expansion of school choice options across the country, this is a good time to refocus on that goal, and examine the true cost of public education in America. This study will examine data, particularly information published by the Department of Education and the U.S. Census Bureau, to form a picture of the true cost of public education. Even though a large percentage of …

Obligation And Authority: Samuel West And The Christian Tradition Of Resistance Theology, Darren Patrick Guerra

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

Is there a Christian obligation to resist tyranny? This has been a controversial question in Christian politics and theology for generations. In the prelude to the American War for Independence, some influential colonial clergy, like Samuel West, argued in 1775 that Christians not only had a right to resist tyrannical rulers, but they had an obligation to do so. This is consistent with a long but controversial strain of thought within the Christian political thought. West’s argument hinges on his commitment to the natural law as a foundation for social and moral order as well as his rejection of theological …

The American Project And The American Soul, Darren Patrick Guerra

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

What is the role of virtue in the American political project in the American soul? This is a burning, if not, defining question in American politics today. This paper will briefly examine various contemporary accounts of the role of virtue in the American project and its impact on the future of American politics, and finally in turn the American soul. This paper will examine the works of Patrick Deneen, Robert Reilly, Dyer & Cooper, among others. It will argue that virtue, properly conceived, plays a vital role in American Politics and it must be connected to an objective moral order, …

City On A Hill: A Reflection On Christian Ethic And Human Morality, Mayce Combs

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

In John Winthrop’s sermon A Model of Christian Charity (1630), he spoke to his congregation of the mission God had called them to. With the creation of a new blended nation, the only way to be exceptional was to reflect the gospel in policy, action, and foremost thought. Philosophers from ancient times to today acknowledge that an individual is made up of the soul and their body. From the soul, comes thought, reason, empathy, and a connection to a divine being who deciphers what is morally unjust. The body is a sinful, self-seeking vessel that does not have the ability …

Demographics Impact On Feelings Towards The Democratic And Republican Parties, Quinn Layden

Honors Projects

The purpose of this paper is to determine how the demographics of gender, race, religion, age, income, education, and political party affect feelings toward the Democratic and Republican parties in the United States. The American National Elections Study (ANES) data was used to create a multivariate linear regression for each of the Democratic and Republican parties that modeled how the demographics felt towards the parties. The ANES feeling thermometer was used to represent the group’s feelings towards each party. The model showed that there was a slightly strong correlation between demographics and feelings towards the Democratic and Republican parties. With …

Trump's 2016 Election Win: Why He Owes It To Jesus, Margaret Jones

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

The election of Donald J. Trump in 2016 was a shock that rippled across America. It came out of the blue and was pushed forward by the most religious sect of the US population. This left many questioning the power that Trump held to sway these voters and convince them of his religious fervor. What many people did not pay attention to was the unique religious background that Trump had. He was raised in the church of Norman Vincent Peale, famed prosperity gospel minister and creator of the “Power of Positive Thinking.” Peale’s teachings revolved around the effect of confidence …

Proposed Charlotte To Atlanta High-Speed Passenger Rail Line: An Economic, Infrastructural, And Developmental Analysis In The Upstate Of South Carolina, Ian C. Macurda, Kimberly Whitehead

SC Upstate Research Symposium

This research paper is an in-depth analysis of the high-speed passenger rail line proposed between Charlotte, NC and Atlanta, GA and its impact on the economy, infrastructure, and future development of the Upstate of South Carolina. Currently, passenger rail service between Charlotte and Atlanta is offered on Amtrak at late hours throughout the night on its long-distance passenger rail line The Crescent from New York City, NY to New Orleans, LA. The train is often delayed and is operating at a deficit for Amtrak, like most of their long-distance routes. Traffic on Interstate 85 through the Upstate is another issue …

Evaluating Macro-Policy Attitudes About Abortion In The United States, Christopher Olds, Miriam Guadalupe Benavides-Ortega, Madison May Albers, Rocio Figueroa-Castro

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

Prior research on public opinion demonstrates attitudes about major issues often shift/move together. In other words, public support for government involvement in domestic affairs across multiple policy areas can be indicative of the general policy sentiment or public mood at any given point in time. In exploring specific issue areas in isolation, researchers can assess whether change in opinion on an issue area is significantly linked to fluctuations in views about macroeconomic conditions. The current research project will contrast quarterly public support for government involvement in the issue area of abortion through vector autoregression time series techniques examining whether prior …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: Big Red By Ai, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period March 3 - April 8, 2024.

• Big Red, Is That You?
• Anderson, Alexandria. Letter from the Editor - Artificial Intelligence
• Phelps, Maggie. What is AI? - Artificial Intelligence
• AI’s Impact on Higher Education
• Reed, Bailey. Students Share Opinions on AI
• Abney, Shayla. WKU Faculty Discuss AI in Courses
• Hawkins, Kaylee. AI’s Impact on Blackboard Ultra
• Randolph, Eli. AI Recreates a WKU Tour
• Shaw, Cameron. WKU Department of Political Science Hosts Dead President’s Tour

Impact Of Snap On Food Insecurity: A Michigan And Indiana Case Study, Cecelia Chapleau

Honors Theses

Food insecurity is one of the most pervasive and concerning problems in the United States. Approximately 1 in every 13 households within the United States was food insecure at some point during 2022 (Rabbitt et al., 2023) Food insecurity occurs when households have a limited ability to access nutritious foods, there is a limited supply of safe, healthy foods, or they are unable to obtain food in socially acceptable ways (Anderson, 1990). Low food security is associated with adverse health outcomes like type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and poor mental health, which contributes to the severity of the problem (Thomas …

Navigating Murky Waters: State-Level Strategies For Wetland Preservation And Tile Drainage Regulation After Sackett V. Epa, Caleb M. Swanson

Honors Thesis

Wetlands are some of the world’s most valuable ecosystems, serving as provisioners of species habitat, carbon sequestration, flood mitigation, water quality purification, and other ecosystem services. Human development has resulted in substantial wetland loss the world over. In the 1970s, the United States Congress passed the Clean Water Act, giving the EPA broad authority over wetland protection. However, in the summer of 2023, the United States Supreme Court decided Sackett v. EPA, limiting the EPA’s jurisdiction over wetlands to those indistinguishably connected to generally recognized “Waters of the United States” and removing federal protection for millions of acres of wetlands, …

U.S. Government Agency Podcasts, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Presents podcasts from U.S. Government agencies which can be discovered through the U.S. Government Publishing Office's Catalog of Government Publications. Agencies whose podcasts are presented include the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Peace Corps, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Government Accountability Office (GAO), National Park Service, Department of Justice, Federal Reserve System, and U.S. Naval War College.

Uncharted Territory: Researching The Effect Of Implicit Bias On The Political Attitudes Of Black Participants, Briona Young

Scholars Week

Extant research suggests that implicit bias can predict behavior such as voting, policy preferences, and assessment of government performance (Pérez 2010). Yet, research on implicit bias has largely excluded people of color, leaving a wide gap in our understanding of implicit bias and its effects on society (Orey, 2013). In this study, we research implicit bias within the black community and test its effects on political attitudes. We administer Harvard’s Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a survey to measure levels of implicit bias and subsequently policy preferences and trust in government. We expect to find that the black participants with …

Teaching College In The High School: Unique Features And Challenges Of Site-Based Dual Enrollment, Paul Williams

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

After a sharp decline associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, 2023 marked two consecutive years of increase in the number of freshman and high-school dual enrollees, with under-18-year-olds driving a disproportionate share of this growth. The rising importance of this latter student group presents new opportunities for colleges as well as underappreciated challenges rooted precisely in the high-school locale of concurrent Dual Enrollment courses. While some known stumbling blocks to effective college-level instruction for high school students are inherent in the age and lower maturity levels of the dominant age cohort, others stem from matters beyond the control of students and …

Writ To Work: Habeas Corpus Challenges By Laborers And Socialists In Washington State, 1915-1919, Luke Mcdermott

Digital Legal Research Lab

No abstract provided.