Capitol Building Research Articles

“The Aftermath of Historic Chaos”: Trumpism as a Totalist Worldview in the Testimonies of Participants in the January 6 Attacks

Abstract This article explores how the January 6th attack on the Capitol building is represented in the discourse of the participants in the insurrection. We analyze a self-compiled corpus of depositions and interviews with individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, assault, which we have named TruJan. The TruJan corpus was compiled from the GovInfo website. Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC-22) was used for the analysis to extract the most frequent topics discussed by the interviewees during the hearings, along with sentences that showcase the attitudes of the speakers regarding the most salient issues. The second part of the article offers a close reading of the depositions and interviews with movement leaders or founders: Ali Alexander (Stop the Steal), Henry “Enrique” Tarrio (Proud Boys), and Stewart Rhodes (Oath Keepers). We argue that Trumpism’s latent totalist potential was made manifest in the January 6 attacks due to the political setbacks Trump faced when losing the 2020 elections, which was perceived as a state of crisis.

Masonic Secrets in and Brown’s The Lost Symbol

This research delves into the Masonic secrets embedded within Dan Brown's novel "The Lost Symbol," particularly as they relate to Washington D.C.'s enigmatic history. The study centers on Freemasonry symbols depicted in the novel and seeks to uncover their deeper meanings by analyzing real-life counterparts. The primary aim is to disclose the second-order meanings of these symbols, thereby unraveling the myths associated with Freemasonry, especially the so-called "lost symbol." Employing Roland Barthes' semiology perspective, this research reveals how Masonic symbols, as described by Brown, are interwoven with Washington's iconic monuments. The analysis focuses on symbols such as the House of the Temple, the Apotheosis of Washington, the Pyramid, the Circumpunct, and various Masonic working tools. By interpreting these symbols through both their first-order (denotative) and second-order (connotative) meanings, the study aims to reveal the myth behind the lost symbol. The findings indicate that the Masonic secrets are indeed hidden within the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building, specifically in the House of the Temple, where Masonic rituals are conducted, and the Capitol Rotunda, which is rich with concealed Masonic lore. The ultimate Masonic secret, as portrayed in the novel, is the "Lost Word," symbolized by the phrase "Laus Deo" (Praise God), inscribed atop the Capitol. According to Masonic beliefs, this symbol holds the power to unlock profound secrets, guiding them towards their ultimate objective: the establishment of a New World Order. Through the lens of second-order meaning, the myth of the lost word is interpreted as a celestial symbol, representing the promise of new beginnings and the transition from night to morning, as envisioned by the Masonic forefathers who designed the U.S. Capitol.

Radicalized Trump Supporters: Construing, Identity Fusion, and Hypothetical and Actual Extremism

In May 2021, four months after the fatal insurrection of the “Save America” rally at Capitol Hill, 420 supporters of Donald Trump participated in an online study. Although it was not possible to recruit specifically for those involved, a subsample reported being present and active in the insurrection (n = 38), with several involved in the storming of the Capitol Building (n = 28). Individuals’ construing was examined through the repertory grid technique, combined with measures of fusion to the group and willingness to undertake hypothetical extreme pro-group actions. Relatively low cognitive complexity was observed in those actually or hypothetically willing to be involved in the most extreme actions, suggesting that they were the least able to adapt to the world around them. A more positive and meaningful view of the self was developed on becoming a Trump supporter, and fellow Trump supporters were construed more positively than anti-Trump activists. Repertory grid and fusion scores were associated with both actual and hypothetical extreme action. Findings assist in the advancement of understanding why some individuals undertake extreme acts on behalf of a political leader, whilst others do not. With political environments becoming increasingly polarized around the globe, such knowledge is vital.

Recasting Mary McLeod Bethune’s Legacy

From the 1930s until the time of her death in 1955, Mary McLeod Bethune was the most well-known African American woman in the United States. A race and gender leader commonly referred to as the “First Lady of the Struggle,” Bethune famously led the largest black women’s club, had regular meetings in the White House, and helped with the founding of the United Nations. Because of her achievements, Bethune’s name and likeness have been used on a U.S. postal stamp, numerous schools, and statues. This article examines two memorials to Bethune—showing how Bethune’s words and likeness have been used as a historical corrective, as well as an extension of the legacy that Bethune determined to leave before she died in 1955. First, I examine the National Council of Negro Women’s many frustrating years of fundraising for a Bethune memorial in Lincoln Park in Washington, D.C. That memorial, erected in 1974, became the first statue of a woman or an African American person dedicated on federal land in the U.S. capital. The second statue I examine is the 2022 statue of Bethune erected in the U.S. Capitol Building. There, the state of Florida decided to replace its long-standing statue of a white, male Confederate general in favor of a newly commissioned statue of Bethune, a black, female educator and civil rights leader as a way to rehabilitate and redefine the state’s image. Finally, the article shows how Bethune had hoped to be memorialized by her survivors, as evidenced in the form of an auto-eulogy, an essay that she wrote for future generations of readers.

Landscape significance and value of Ankara's first public green space: Millet Garden

Objective: Some of the parliament buildings have public open and green spaces nearby. For instance, United States’ Capitol Building has Capitol Grounds, Germany’s Reichstag Building has Platz der Republik Park and Spreebogen Park, The Palace of Westminster of United Kingdom has Victoria Tower Gardens. These spaces originated as green public spaces associated with state. The parliament buildings are often landmarks. Their green spaces enhance the spatial quality. Green spaces make parliament buildings more attractive places to visit and work. There is no landscape architecture research on Türkiye’s first parliament building’s green space so called Millet Garden. The objective of this study is to identify historic features and evaluate components. Material and Methods: The research is structured in qualitative research method and consists of four parts. The first part includes theoretical framework. The explanation of research design and the implementation of data collection method is the second part. The third part contains description of the site. The fourth part constitutes analyses the components of historic landscape in details. Results: This study reveals the importance of the Millet Garden by evaluating it in terms of landscape architecture. Conclusion: This study touches upon the importance and benefits of historic landscapes. Finally, the study revealed some directions for further studies.

Deconstructing the Blueprint for Infringement: Remedying Flawed Interpretations of the § 120(a) Exception to Architecture Copyrights

Deconstructing the Blueprint for Infringement: Remedying Flawed Interpretations of the § 120(a) Exception to Architecture Copyrights

Proud Boys on Telegram

Utilizing an original data set of public Telegram channels affiliated with a right-wing extremist group, the Proud Boys, we conduct an exploratory analysis of the structure and nature of the group’s presence on the platform. Our study considers the group’s growth, organizational structure, connectedness with other far-right and/or fringe factions, and the range of topics discussed on this alternative social media platform. The findings show that the Proud Boys have a notable presence on Telegram, with a discernable spike in activity coinciding with Facebook’s and Instagram’s 2018 deplatforming of associated pages and profiles with this and other extremist groups. Another sharp increase in activity is then precipitated by the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021. By February 2022, we identified 92 public Telegram channels explicitly affiliated with the Proud Boys, which constitute the core of a well-connected network with 131,953 subscribers. These channels, primarily from the United States, also include international presences in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the UK, and Germany. Our data reveals substantial interaction between the Proud Boys and other fringe and/or far-right communities on Telegram, including MAGA Trumpists, QAnon, COVID-19-related misinformation, and white-supremacist communities. Content analyses of this network highlights several prominent and recurring themes, including opposition to feminism and liberals, skepticism toward official information sources, and propagation of various conspiracy beliefs. This study offers the first systematic examination of the Proud Boys on Telegram, illuminating how a far-right extremist group leverages the latitude afforded by a relatively unregulated alternative social media platform.

Latrobe’s Site Plan for Capitol Hill (1803): Discovering Graphic Complexity in Landscape Design and its Representation

ABSTRACT: The Library of Congress’s collection of Benjamin Henry Latrobe’s drawings contains a graphically complex topographical site plan for the US Capitol. This watercolor sheet from 1803 depicts a completed Capitol positioned on the crest of Jenkins Hill (now Capitol Hill) with its principal façades oriented towards east and west. Upon close inspection, Latrobe’s site plan communicates two systems: the hill’s existing topography and Latrobe’s design to reshape it. As a palimpsest of faintly visible layers of information, the plan reveals the city’s major avenues converging at the Capitol, illuminating how Latrobe’s design is spatially continuous with L’Enfant’s 1791 Plan of the city of Washington. Latrobe’s drawing represents a formal arrangement and design for the reshaping of Capitol Hill relative to the Capitol building itself, which was in progress, and the visionary city yet to be built. This paper will explore the systems of landscape representation that ultimately led to Latrobe’s unique way of quantifying and compiling landscape information. In the decades immediately prior to the creation of the Capitol site plan, rapid advancements in the graphic representation of scientific data included the discovery and use of contour line topography and the emergence of data visualization, also known as information graphics. As industrial, scientific, economic, and architectural advancements occurred during the eighteenth century, new ways of visualizing and communicating data, specifications, and results quickly followed. Essentially, architectural drawings themselves, including site plans, are systems of data visualization. The field note will deconstruct Latrobe’s site plan drawing using analog and digital methods and develop new drawings based on computer landform models that reveal the two systems of representation concealed in the graphically complex original. In 1959, the Capitol extension project necessitated the use of ground-penetrating radar to discover the Capitol’s topography from 1810 based on undisturbed soils. The paper will compare the accuracy of Latrobe’s original survey and drawing with the scientific results achieved in 1959.

“Whose house? Our House!”

This article analyzes videos shared during the United States Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, where supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol Building in an attempt to disrupt the certification of Joseph Biden’s presidential victory. We analyzed videos distributed on Facebook, Twitter, Parler, Snapchat, DLive, Twitch, and Periscope to examine how participants structured a narrative of their actions as a form of political revolution. We assess how these videos draw on affective configurations to demonstrate the ways that cultivation of affect helps to drive far-right dissent, and we assess the role of media technologies in recording and sharing those affects across networked publics.

Illocutionary Acts of Donald Trump's Speech in The Capitol Building Washington DC

This article investigated and examined the illocutionary forms in Donald Trump's speech at the Washington DC Capitol building and explore the illocutionary functions of each of these utterances. This research was conducted with a qualitative descriptive design. Data for research, this is from Youtube about two months ago. about Donald Trump's inauguration speech. The research data is the explanation and intent of Donald Trump's speech at the inauguration via YouTube. The survey results show that: 1) There are five types of illocutionary in Donald Trump's inauguration speech on YouTube: representative, directive, commissive, expressive, and declarative. 2) Categories found in Donald Trump's speech: stating, demanding, concluding, suggesting, commanding, promising, ordering, liking, mourning, and declaring. It can be concluded that in this study there are many illocutions in Donald Trump's speech so that he is able to convey the same or different meaning in the speech.

Mary Kelly’s Gloria Patri and Negative Narcissism

This article revisits Mary Kelly’s 1992 installation Gloria Patri after the spectacle of masculine violence at the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Whilst Gloria Patri has received less art historical attention that the major works that immediately preceded it, I argue that Kelly’s sophisticated handling of the interactions between masculinity and military technologies in the televisual coverage of the First Gulf War resonates strongly with questions surrounding the digital mediation of gender in our present moment. Addressing a lacuna in Gloria Patri’s critical reception, I introduce the French psychoanalyst André Green’s work on narcissism to explore how his conceptual vocabulary is activated by Kelly’s installation. The article concludes by considering how Kelly’s work creates a historical, aesthetic, and theoretical context for the events of 6 January 2021 at the US Capitol building, which might enrich attempts to track the dynamic interrelations between masculinity, militarism and contemporary media.

Politicians, Pundits, and Platform Migration: A Comparison of Political Polarization on Parler and Twitter

Parler, a self-proclaimed free speech social media platform founded in 2018, attracted a large influx of new members in 2020 as the result of a highly visible platform migration campaign. Parler usage was linked to the planning of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol building, leading to a shutdown of the Parler platform. Parler, which is now back online, offers an important lens through which to examine the broader attempts at platform migration in response to changing content moderation and platform governance policies and their impact on political polarization. We begin by examining the network connections between US Congressional Representatives on both Twitter and Parler. We find that Parler has a homogenous population of users, consisting of a single isolated group, where polarization seems irrelevant, while Twitter demonstrates two clearly polarized groups. We compare how politicians and political pundits use Parler differently. Finally, we examine the evolution of Parler including comparing Parler’s own policies before and after the shutdown and reflecting on the future of platforms like Parler and similar platform migration experiments.

Politicians, Pundits, and Platform Migration: A Comparison of Political Polarization on Parler and Twitter

Parler, a self-proclaimed free speech social media platform founded in 2018, attracted a large influx of new members in 2020 as the result of a highly visible platform migration campaign. Parler usage was linked to the planning of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the United States Capitol building, leading to a shutdown of the Parler platform. Parler, which is now back online, offers an important lens through which to examine the broader attempts at platform migration in response to changing content moderation and platform governance policies and their impact on political polarization. We begin by examining the network connections between US Congressional Representatives on both Twitter and Parler. We find that Parler has a homogenous population of users, consisting of a single isolated group, where polarization seems irrelevant, while Twitter demonstrates two clearly polarized groups. We compare how politicians and political pundits use Parler differently. Finally, we examine the evolution of Parler including comparing Parler’s own policies before and after the shutdown and reflecting on the future of platforms like Parler and similar platform migration experiments.

Reactive Memories of 1776

ABSTRACT In this article, we situate the riot at the United States Capitol building on January 6, 2021, within the longer history of white-led race riots in the United States, as both state and vigilante actors have twisted the memory of that history toward maintaining an antidemocratic and racist status quo. Motivating such riotous eruptions is what we call reactive memory in reference to the formation of historical mythologies that valorize a “return” to a whitewashed past in response to perceived threats against socioracial domination in the present. We contribute to rhetoric and communication scholarship on memory and far-right nation-building by examining the mobilization of reactive memory in “1776” discourses and the rhetoric of extremist paramilitary groups. In doing so, we demonstrate how reactive memory is conjured to justify the right’s saturation in white supremacy and antidemocratic intervention, including and especially riotous violence – not because its adherents have no other rhetorical recourse in the political state of affairs, but because they situate political violence to be their historically sanctioned prerogative.

New territories for fan studies: The insurrection, QAnon, Donald Trump and fandom

The following roundtable is a recorded and edited discussion between four fan studies researchers that took place in March 2022. Having all worked with QAnon and the insurrection in the context of fan studies, our discussion took its departure from the US insurrection on January 6, 2021, as QAnon fans, Trump fans, and other right-wing groups stormed the US Capitol building while live-streaming their endeavor to social media. The discussion draws out some main perspectives that may guide our future thinking in the context of fandom, complicity, and politics and points toward new cultural and social territories for research into fandom and fan practices. Centrally, as fandom enters into the domain of politics and conspiracy theories, it seems increasingly unfruitful to distinguish between fan practices and participatory culture. Instead, participatory culture’s primary mode seems to be deeply driven by fan practices, that is, textual poaching and enunciative and textual productivity (Jenkins, 2013; Fiske, 1992). Instead, understanding this amalgamation of fan practices into other social domains can help us make sense of current phenomena in the seeming growth of conspiracy theory communities and right-wing movements alike. Participatory culture is a source of great creativity, playfulness, and mobilization of social and political movements, but, as Jenkins pointed out as early as 2006 “has benefited third parties, revolutionaries, reactionaries, and racists alike” (Jenkins, 2006, p. 221). In some instances, it seems that these online communities are driven by fan practices, in other instances fan communities are weaponized in order to serve a political agenda. While research into fandom and politics (see Hinck, 2019; Jenkins et al., 2020, Sandvoss, 2012, etc.) and toxic cultures (Proctor et. al., 2018) is certainly not new, it seems that the current transmedial landscapes drive participation and complicity in very specific ways that fan studies would do well to focus on in the coming years.

Josh Hawley meets Igor Stravinsky: A leadership symphony

In this essay I explore two leaders: the composer Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) and United States of America Senator Joshua Hawley (b. 1979). These two offer an opportunity to re-describe leadership as an acoustic art thereby enriching the field beyond its current ocular orientation. Through this discussion, then, I invite readers into the world of music. The year 2021 marked the 50th anniversary of Stravinsky’s death, and in that same year, Hawley came to international fame through the 6 January invasion of the United States Capitol building by people protesting the confirmation of Joe Biden as the 46th President. I offer a polyphonic analysis of Hawley and Stravinsky by operationalizing the music construct of tonal pairing which allows two tonalities to play together. I conclude the essay by noting the ubiquity of Manicheanism, a belief system that affords leaders an ability to characterize opponents as being evil. I mitigate this deleterious system by proposing that symphonic leadership calls for diversity and difference. Leadership as an acoustic art has implications for understanding the current war in Ukraine and China’s role on the international stage, including her relationship with the United States of America.

ARCHIVING THE INSURRECTION: THE CASE OF R/DATAHOARDER

On January 6th, 2021, right-wing demonstrators forcibly entered the United States Capitol building in an effort to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. Rioters documented their efforts on social media and live-streaming platforms, creating a digital footprint of their actions. In response, members of the r/DataHoarder subreddit initiated an ad-hoc archival project to collect, deduplicate, and preserve incriminating evidence from the Capitol insurrection. This research examines the r/DataHoarder insurrection archive through the lens of a collective and spontaneous archival project. I examine the methodology undertaken by the Redditors as well as their underlying values and motivations informing their data hoarding in response to the national event. I apply thematic coding as well as quantitative analysis to a dataset of 2,700 Reddit comments documenting the archival effort. I find that users were drawn to the archive project out of a desire to contribute to law enforcement efforts, enact punitive justice upon the rioters, engage in public discourse, and preserve information for posterity. Redditors who engaged with the project repeatedly tended to focus on technical and coordination tasks while single-time participants offered encouragement and identified sources for archiving. Calls to reveal personal information about rioters or to target their places of employment were often ignored and typically proposed by Redditors who did not engage with the project otherwise.

Liberation through Jurisgenesis: On Constitutionalism

ABSTRACT This article begins with a consideration of whether the January 6, 2021, attack on the United State’s Capitol building can be considered a form of “legitimate political discourse” and compares the insurrectionists to the Black Lives Matter protest movement. Both movements, as different and antithetical as they are, raised meta-questions about how it is that we establish by means of law the forms to express dissent. It is proposed that “constitutionalism,” namely, the doctrine that the primary means to create and sustain free institutions are constitutions, which were and are result of historical events, i.e., revolutions such as the French, the American, and Haitian, that nonetheless unleashed normative powers and aspirations. After an analysis of constitutionalism through the lens of the US Constitution, the text turns to an analysis of what here are called “constitutional deconstructions.” Six such deconstructions are discussed: of the written constitution itself, of the law, of rights, of the people, of the state, and finally, of the Supreme Court as the protector and ultimate reader of the constitition. In this last section, the 2021 Report of the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States is considered.

Leading from within the Shadow of Doubt: A Servant-Leader's Approach to Conceptualization and Foresight

The fifty-four mile march from Selma to Montgomery through rural Alabama holds sacred space both geographically as well as on the list of the most iconic moments of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. Thanks to the ongoing public service of Rep. John Lewis, who as a young man aided in organizing that march, the route is now a National Historic Trail offering interpretive centers and recreation areas for those seeking to learn from the trail blazing leaders of this country’s struggle for equity (National Park Service, 2020). Two marches bookend the trail’s history. The first, better known as "Bloody Sunday," took place on March 7, 1965, when over six-hundred people marched from Selma seeking equitable voting rights for all people, including African-Americans (National Park Service, 2020, para. 5). The group was blocked by state troopers on the Edmond Pettus Bridge and met with tear gas and smoke bombs as well asa posse on horseback armed with bullwhips, ropes, rubber tubing wrapped with barbed wire, and billy clubs that led to seventeen marchers hospitalized and sixty-seven others injured (Wagy, 1979). At the other end of the trail’s history is a completed march punctuated by a rousing Martin Luther King Jr. speech near the capitol building in Montgomery on March 25, 1965 (National Park Service, 2020). Between these two, and overshadowed by them, sits a paradigmatic moment for leaders, a day known as “Turnaround Tuesday” (Lawson, 1987). Tuesday, March 9, 1965 began with Martin Luther King Jr. proclaiming from the steps of Brown Chapel to 2,500 marchers who had gathered from across the country in “Bloody Sunday’s” wake: “I have no alternative but to lead a march from this spot to carry our grievances to the seat of government. I have made my choice. I have got to march” (Wagy, 1979, p. 403). Yet after an intensifying return to the site of that previous Sunday’s tragedy and facing a similar standoff, King turned the protestors around and called off the march. The events of “Turnaround Tuesday” have their own monumental importance as they illuminate the complexities of leading from within the shadow of doubt.

Review: Air-Conditioning in Modern American Architecture, 1890–1970

Review: <i>Air-Conditioning in Modern American Architecture, 1890–1970</i>