American Politics Commons^™

The Trump Transition, Erica Wellman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

When studying presidencies and the success or failure of a presidential administration in the United States, it is essential to study the presidential transition. By studying this process, a better understanding of why certain events occurred or how exactly different accomplishments were achieved can be explained. Generally, outgoing administrations, regardless of party, are interested in aiding in the peaceful and professional transition of power onto their successor. This transfer of power is a vulnerable time for the United States government so it is of great interest of any political party to make sure that the incoming administration is ready for …

A Modern Perspective On Hamilton And Jefferson, Michael A. Walsh

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Broadway Musical Hamilton has created a newfound interest in the life of its title character, Alexander Hamilton. One notable trend has been that Hamilton has grown as an icon on the American left. Simultaneously, Thomas Jefferson, Hamilton’s main antagonist in history and the musical, has seen his position within the Democratic Party, and as such the American left-wing, diminish. Using a broad literature review of each man’s work, this paper seeks to analyze where Hamilton and Jefferson would actually fit within the modern political landscape, based on their own political views. My research finds that this effort is in …

Today's Challenges To Religious Liberty In Historical Perspective, Gerard V. Bradley

Journal Articles

From the Introduction

Many people say that religious liberty in our country is now under attack more than ever before. That's true as far as it goes, and in what follows I shall supply some reasons why I think so. But the chief aim of this Article is not to try to establish that religious liberty is in its most parlous state ever, as if some common threat-level metric is higher today than it was, say, a hundred or fifty years ago. As a matter of fact, Mormons and Native Americans in the late-nineteenth century faced government actions more hostile …

Anti-Hispanic Sentiment And U.S.-Mexican Relations, Jessica Dellaquila

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Even though U.S.-Mexican relations during the mid-nineteenth century make up a tiny sliver of American history, they point to deeply racist attitudes towards Mexicans (and Hispanic people in general) that are still salient in the United States today. These attitudes came as a result of racist assumptions and rhetoric in our early government institutions, remained because of the construction of racist language in laws and treaties, and worsened as lawmakers and law-enforcement carried out written policy in real-life, letting their own racist attitudes creep into the real-life application of the laws. Today, we are in danger of perpetuating this process. …

In God We Trust: Reconciling Religiosity In A Secular Nation, Tess Saperstein

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Since its founding, the United States has been composed of a diversity of religions, making religious tolerance and the separation of church and state necessary for the maintenance of a peaceful coexistence. It is inscribed in the First Amendment of the Constitution that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Nonetheless, despite a clear institutional differentiation between religious and nonreligious spheres of society, the United States has remained, on the whole, a devout nation. In 2016, 89 percent of Americans reported that they believe in God and 72 percent said they …

Hillary Rodham Clinton And Shifts In Gendered Rhetorical Style, Mackenzie Lombardi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Hillary Rodham Clinton is arguably the most visible and controversial female political figure of our time. As First Lady, the Senator from New York, the Secretary of State, and a two-time Presidential candidate, the rhetorical space around Clinton is saturated with cultural assumptions of gender, power, and politics. In many ways Clinton is emblematic of the infamous “double bind” that all women who seek to challenge normative gendered roles must inevitably face. Much academic and cultural focus has been centered on the ways in which Hillary Rodham Clinton is a subject of gendered rhetoric. This paper, instead, builds on the …

What If They're All Terrorists?: The Securitization Of Muslims In Post-9/11 Immigration Policy, Kian Vesteinsson

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis examines U.S. immigrant and refugee policy and policy discourse to understand the formation of Muslims as particular sites of risk as immigrants in the War on Terror. Theorists of international relations theorize securitization as a process in which state actors begin to use the language of security in considering the regulation and governance of a certain policy issue area. I argue that the securitization of various figures who are Muslim or are linked to Muslim-majority countries in post-9/11 immigrant and refugee policy and political discourse contributes to political conditions under which Islam is understood as the only trusted …

The Fcc And Quasi-Common Carriage: A Case Study Of Agency Survival, Brent Skorup, Joseph Kane

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

La Beauté Est Dans La Rue | Beauty Is In The Street, Risd Archives

Politics

Situationist International poster reprised from Spring 1968 Paris Student protest, advocated uprisings in the streets

Fear And Firearms, Darrell A. H. Miller

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Beyond Shelby County, Anthony Gonzalez

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

In the aftermath of the 2016 elections there is ample data to examine trends in voter turnout across the states. This election cycle also provided the first national election in fifty years without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Previously covered states and jurisdictions were no longer required to obtain preclearance in the enactment of voting legislation. This thesis will seek to answer which interest was being served by the new voting laws in several states and whether the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the U.S. Supreme Court had an impact on voter turnout. It …

Disillusionment And Disaggregation: Why Did Asian Americans Vote For Trump?, Catalina Huamei Huang

CMC Senior Theses

In one of the most controversial and interesting election cycles in American history, Republican nominee, Donald Trump prevailed over his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. To many, his victory was shocking, if not completely unexpected, yet the circumstances that catalyzed such a defeat lie in the characteristics of his supporters, made up of several classes, races, and identities. Among them are the multifaceted Asian American population – diverse ethnically and politically. This thesis aims to unravel the reasons for which many Asian Americans gave their vote to Trump on November 8, 2016 through distinctions between their ethnic groups and demographics. It …

Render Unto Caesar: How Misunderstanding A Century Of Free Exercise Jurisprudence Forged And Then Fractured The Rfra Coalition, John S. Blattner

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis provides a comprehensive history of Supreme Court Free Exercise Clause jurisprudence from 1879 until the present day. It describes how a jurisdictional approach to free exercise dominated the Court’s rulings from its first Free Exercise Clause case in 1879 until Sherbert v. Verner in 1963, and how Sherbert introduced an accommodationist precedent which was ineffectively, incompletely, and inconsistently defined by the Court. This thesis shows how proponents of accommodationism furthered a false narrative overstating the scope and consistency of Sherbert’s precedent following the Court’s repudiation of accommodationism and return to full jurisdictionalism with Employment Division v. Smith …

The Us-Uk Nuclear Relationship: Not Just A Measure For The Cold War, David Kahan

CMC Senior Theses

In 1958 the United States and United Kingdom signed the Mutual Defense Agreement which allowed the two countries to share information and technology concerning nuclear weapons. This paper examines the history of this agreement and the Polaris and Trident Sales agreements which followed. The main focus of the paper is the motivating interests of both countries to maintain these agreements today.

Speech On College Campuses: Methods, Motives, And Movements, Sam Minter

CMC Senior Theses

Are campus movements concerning free speech—from Berkeley in the 1960s to the campaign against political correctness today—really about speech? Are movements really concerned with civil liberties on campus or are their calls for free speech excited by partisan motives? While free speech movements are never purely driven by civil libertarian concerns, they should not be considered simply partisan either. Campus speech movements have frequently united activists across the ideological spectrum, which suggests that these movements aren’t only sectarian in nature. It also confirms that these movements are in fact about speech, because those advocating for it have a wide range …

Savannah's Ethnic Irish Neighborhoods In The Nineteenth Century: A Historical Multimethod Examination, Sarah A. Ryniker

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to identify residency patterns and neighborhoods for Savannah-Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. Using a multimethod approach, this thesis explores historical, social, and economic factors that influenced settlement patterns and cultivated the conditions for an Irish-American identity, particularly in two neighborhoods, Old Fort and Yamacraw. Guided by Yancey et al.’s (1976) emergent ethnicity theory, this study uses archival materials, as well as chi-square tests for association, and the 1860 Federal Census of Chatham County, Georgia, to geolocate Irish immigrants. With an emphasis on County Wexford, Ireland, the results suggest residency was associated with Irish …

Trump’S Electoral Speeches And His Appeal To The American White Working Class, Michele Lamont, Bo Yun Park, Elena Ayala-Hurtado

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This paper contributes to the study of social change by considering boundary work as a dimension of cultural change. Drawing on the computer-assisted qualitative analysis of 73 formal speeches made by Donald Trump during the 2016 electoral campaign, we argue that his political rhetoric, which led to his presidential victory, addressed the white working class’s concern with their declining position in the national pecking order. He addressed this group’s concern by raising their moral status, that is, by (1) emphatically describing them as hard-working Americans who are victims of globalization; (2) voicing their concerns about ‘people above’ (professionals, the rich, …

"A Babe In The Woods?": Billy Graham, Anticommunism, And Vietnam, Daniel Alexander Hays

Masters Theses

This thesis focuses on famous evangelist Billy Graham's role in the Vietnam War, both as a public supporter and private advisor. It argues that, contrary to his self-depiction, he was no "babe in the woods," no mere neophyte or bystander. Rather, America's most famous preacher was an active participant in promoting and even planning the war. Graham's evangelical theology, with his premillennialist beliefs, led to his intensely anticommunist worldview, where communism was the Antichrist. His public support buttressed the presidents prior to and during the Vietnam War and, sometimes, Graham even delved into policy recommendations for the war.

Graham's role …

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, Colleen Arthur

Undergraduate Research Posters

The aim of this paper is to look into the human rights violations committed by the United States against the black men during the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as well as touch on the broader concept of racial medicine. In addition, my goal is to dismantle the pretense society may hold about the United States and the moral high ground it claims to stand on. In order to accomplish this goal, I will make parallels about atrocities committed by the United States on the African-American population to those committed by the Nazis on the Jewish population in Germany. I will first …

The Tea Party Versus Planning: A Study Of Tea Party Activism And Its Impact On Local Government Planning, Spencer A. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

The Tea Party movement’s effect on local and regional planning in Virginia has received little study. This work identifies how conservative political activism has impacted planning in the Commonwealth and how planners have responded. The study relies on a qualitative approach involving 22 semi-structured interviews with activists, planners, and citizens, as well as textual analyses of planning documents, local and regional news reports, and Tea Party social media. The resultant findings show that Tea Party activism is rooted in deep seated ideals about private property rights and individualism. It also reveals that planning processes that increased the amount of public …