Capitol Hill Research Articles

View from Washington: Big tech goes home

Technology has driven real growth for decades. Innovation has fuelled new products and services, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and boosting GDP. But even tech's titans are suffering, freezing or slowing hiring, or in some cases even laying off staff. Tech is concerned about anti-trust regulation. Yet Washington is looking to influence, even support Silicon Valley more actively. A long-gestating bill to provide billions of dollars to repatriate more semiconductor manufacturing and billions more in R&D funding is making its way through Capitol Hill. Silicon Valley might go back to its roots, the US military backed the original wave of electronics innovation.

QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars

QAnon, Women, and the American Culture Wars Mia Bloom (bio) and Sophia Moskalenko (bio) qanon, a baseless conspiracy theory, originated in the darkest recesses of the internet, including online message boards such as 4chan and 8chan. The QAnon conspiracy theory posits that former president Donald Trump is fighting a battle against a cabal of "deep state" Democratic saboteurs (that includes Hollywood elites) who worship Satan and traffic children for pedophilic torture with the goal of harvesting their blood, allegedly rich in adrenochrome, a substance with magical properties. QAnon's ideas are, on their face, absurd. It is easy for a reasonable person to dismiss those who believe in lizard people and a cabal of pedophiles that feed on children's blood, or that Joe Biden will be executed at Guantanamo Bay. However, these conspiracy theories tap into people's psychological need to be part of an in-group. QAnon allows people, particularly women (the self-identified "Pastel QAnon"), to feel they are saving children from powerful abusers, giving themselves a sense of empowerment. QAnon creates a shadowy, nefarious other from which "traditional Americans" need to be protected, and a rallying cry for women who subscribe to the QAnon conspiracy. Our ongoing research on conspiracy theories examines the narratives and images used by groups like QAnon and assesses the psychology of believers. As a social psychologist and a scholar of international relations who have spent decades studying radical political movements, we have used open-source data, representative national polls, peer-reviewed academic publications, and journalistic accounts [End Page 525] related to the QAnon phenomenon. We have approached the subject from a variety of angles and spent over two and a half years on semi-encrypted platforms, like Telegram, following dozens of QAnon influencers to understand the myths and motivations undergirding the conspiracy. In this essay we present some of our findings: first, that women played a significant role in amplifying, disseminating, and funding QAnon as a mass movement; and second, that the mass psychology that made QAnon popular among many Americans comprised a process of mass "unfreezing"—shattering of normative ideas about legal and moral authorities of government and religion, loss of trust in science, and rapidly shifting gender roles. In addition to collecting a treasure trove of data and other published materials, we surveyed the family members of QAnon believers, sometimes called QAnon casualties, as well as various populations in which there are differing degrees of conspiratorial belief. In this article we present the significance of the QAnon and its causes and correlates in the context of cultural values and democratic governance. While there were no messages left on the 8chan/8kun for almost two years, suddenly in the summer of 2022 QAnon made a brief return to comment on Cassidy Hutchison's testimony before the January 6 committee. Someone with access to Q's login credentials appeared to have posted on 8kun, the anarchic internet message board where Q had not posted since December 2020. The post asked: "Shall we play a game once more?" It was signed "Q." The [June 2022] message was written in the same clue-like format as thousands of earlier Q posts, dubbed "Q Drops" by their fans, that led to the creation of QAnon in late 2017. Q's followers believe the cryptic messages explain the world at it really is, controlled by Satan-worshipping, child-eating pedophiles in the Democratic Party, finance, and other institutions. (Sommer 2022) [End Page 526] Supporters of the conspiracy theory helped promote, fund, and organize the planning of the events of January 6, 2021. Since then, it has become clear that social media facilitated the failed attempt to overthrow the US government (Frenkel 2021). As it played out on live TV, we witnessed a pro-Trump mob at the Capitol Hill overwhelming Capitol police officers, injuring dozens. Brian Sicknick, a Washington, DC, police officer who bravely defended the Capitol, died of his wounds. In the storming crowd, a woman, Ashli Babbitt, "was fatally shot by police inside the Capitol, and three other people died of medical emergencies" (Harwell et al. 2021). The conspiracy theory has metastasized, evolving at lightning speed as it moved through social media platforms...

Advocating on Capitol Hill for Mathematics Funding

Advocating on Capitol Hill for Mathematics Funding

From Aeneas to the Shaman: My Kinsman, Major Molineux and the Descent into the Underworld of the American Dream

The article focuses on Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story My Kinsman, Major Molineux (1832) and aims at demonstrating how the journey undertaken by his young character Robin constitutes a re-elaboration of the classic theme of the catabasis within the mid-nineteenth century American cultural context. Robin, the protagonist of a tale on the foundation of the United States, is engaged in an epic quest which drives him into the underworld of a society where the values of freedom, equality, and happiness are inter-mingled with corruption, violence and wicked patriotism. At the end of his adventure, Hawthorne’s hero joins a violent masquerade that seems to anticipate the ‘patriots’ attack on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.

Home/Work: The Rhetoricity of Commemorative Labor at the Belmont-Paul House

Tucked away on Capitol Hill, the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument honors suffrage pioneers Alva Belmont and Alice Paul. I argue that the Belmont-Paul House tells a metanarrative on the curation of women’s history, which scholars can read through investigating the commemorative labor visible in this memory place. Belmont-Paul reflexively calls attention to its own creation, making visible the labor of preserving the house, gathering artifacts, and weaving a narrative of the story of the struggle for suffrage. In seeking clues to the gendered work that goes into public memorializing, critics can access valuable metanarratives about history and the rhetorical choices that are opened or foreclosed in a place.

Secondhand Conspiracy Theories: The Social, Emotional and Political Tolls on Loved Ones of QAnon Followers

ABSTRACT QAnon is a set of conspiracy theories that originated online in 2017 and achieved a sizable following in the U.S. and around the world. QAnon’s viral disinformation contributed to violent crimes committed by QAnon followers based on their conspiratorial beliefs, as well as to participation of some QAnon followers in the January 6th attack on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and to widespread COVID vaccine hesitancy and rejection among believers. This paper presents a to-date unexplored additional cost of conspiracy beliefs: the emotional, social and political toll a relationship with QAnon followers can have on their loved ones. In an Internet survey of 288 U.S.-based participants, a majority (80%) reported having a QAnon-following family member or friend. These relationships have suffered as a result of the loved one’s conspiratorial beliefs, leading to self-reported emotional distress and reevaluation of participants’ views of the government and society. Participants with a QAnon loved one reported higher anxiety and PTSD than those without such connection. On average, participants viewed QAnon as significantly more radical (willing to engage in illegal or violent acts) than themselves. Perceived QAnon radicalization was predicted by own anxiety and by relationship deterioration with QAnon loved one. The discussion focuses on the importance of tracking these secondhand effects of conspiracy theories as drivers of political polarization.

The Paradox of Invisibility

Teaching architectural history with a commitment to social justice presents an epistemological challenge for two key reasons. First, the spatialization of social justice is irredeemably political, raising the question as to how to discuss politics in the classroom. Second, how does an educator articulate an ethical framework within which to situate histories of injustice and exclusion in the realm of knowledge production? By analyzing diverse public reactions to the controversial Emancipation Memorial (also known as the Freedman’s Memorial) in Lincoln Park on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC during the social justice movements of 2020, this paper examines the politics of social justice through an exploration of the notion of “invisibility,” a paradoxical condition that, as African American novelist Ralph Ellison suggests, can imply both a fantasy of empowerment and a tragedy of powerlessness. The Freedman’s Memorial was erected in 1876 to commemorate United States President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, which many American textbooks credit with “freeing the slaves.” Set on a high pedestal, the monument depicts Lincoln as a towering savior and the unshackled man kneeling in front of him. Though sculptor Thomas Ball modeled the kneeling man after the formerly enslaved man Archer Alexander, the monument denies Alexander’s personal history and his traumatic escape to freedom. It is Lincoln’s heroism, and not that of formerly enslaved people like Alexander, that is disseminated through an entrenched web of hegemonic cultural consent. How does an educator discuss Alexander’s invisibility in the context of this memorial to deepen the understanding of racial ideologies undergirding the institution of slavery in America? The paper argues that microhistory can serve as a powerful historiographic antidote to the dehumanizing effects of invisibility.

O32 Wa-Shokuiku-Learn. Cook. Eat Japanese! - Innovative Food Education Program

<h3>Objective</h3> The Wa-Shokuiku–Learn. Cook. Eat Japanese! - food education program aims to: expand participants' palates by teaching how to prepare tasty and healthy dishes using Japanese cuisine techniques, spark discussion about manners, respect towards food and its producers, and discuss major food-related issues such as obesity and food waste and daily actions they can take on the issues. <h3>Use of Theory or Research</h3> Food education serves an important role in establishing healthy eating and lifestyle habits to avoid diet-related diseases. US students receive less than 8 hours of nutrition education each year, far below 40-50 hours that are needed to behavior change according to the survey in 2014. Wa-Shokuiku fills this gap. <h3>Target Audience</h3> K-12 public school students in the U.S in multiple States such as Washington DC, Virginia and California. <h3>Program Description</h3> Wa-Shokuiku is a unique educational program that combines the concepts of Washoku (Japanese cuisine) with Shokuiku (food education). Class models include in-person, online-live and hybrid where students are present together in the classroom and the instructor is streamed live. Japanese food is known as one of the healthiest diets. And Japan is the only country to implement the "Basic Law of Shokuiku" and have comprehensive food education as a mandatory curriculum. We adopted the philosophy of Japanese food education and adjusted the contents and recipes for American students. <h3>Evaluation Methods</h3> Students completed pre and post-class surveys from 2019 to 2021 to indicate skill attainment and behavior change. Pre and post survey results were compared to see the change. <h3>Results</h3> K-12 students who have completed the program improved their ability to identify the components of a healthy meal from 57% to 94% and that a meal should end before overeating from 57% to 76%. Over 96% indicated an intention to continue practicing the skills at home. <h3>Conclusions</h3> The implementation of Wa-Shokuiku programs using various formats such as online-live, hybrid has improved the students' knowledge and behavior on healthy eating. <h3>Funding</h3> Capitol Hill Community Foundation; Itochu International Foundation; SMBC Global Foundation.

Riot Platforms: Protest, Police, Planet

AbstractA wave of urban uprisings swept the planet from 2018 to 2021, throwing protesters into violent collisions with police, confrontations fought out both in the streets and on digital platforms. This paper proposes successive cycles of digitally‐mediated social unrest are passing into a phase marked by protesters’ assemblage of “riot platforms”. It examines the development of such platforms by movements in France, Hong Kong, Chile, Lebanon, Ecuador and elsewhere, and the responses of a police power which is itself increasingly digitalised, examines how these contending dynamics played out in 2020 Black Lives Matter rising, discusses the alt‐right’s Capitol Hill seizure as a digitally‐organised reactionary counter‐riot, and concludes by situating “riot platforms” in planet‐wide processes of political recomposition.

No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill. By Michael D. Minta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 176p. $95.00 cloth, $30.00 paper.

No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill. By Michael D. Minta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 176p. $95.00 cloth, $30.00 paper.

Top Policy Issues: A Powerful, Passionate Journey

Top Policy Issues: A Powerful, Passionate Journey

“The Big Lie”: How Fact Checking Influences Support for Insurrection

This experimental investigation explores the influence of election fraud fact-checking and cognitive processing styles on participants’ confidence in the 2020 U.S. presidential election’s legitimacy and characterizations of the January Sixth Capitol Hill Attack. The results indicate fact-checking, accuracy motivated reasoning, and systematic processing exerted positive effects on participants’ legitimacy levels, especially among Republicans. We also found that participants’ systematic processing, affiliation with the Democratic Party, and negative attitudes toward Donald Trump were associated with their characterizations of the January Sixth Capitol Hill Attack as violent and extreme. Overall, these results support both motivated reasoning and dual process models, but partisan motivated reasoning exerted the greatest effects. Further, these findings suggest Republican and pro-Trump participants who rely on heuristic processing may find violent, extra-political actions acceptable means of attempting to achieve their goals.

Assemblages of Pandemic Populism

Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed the channelling of affective intensities into demonstrations, sieges, and violent outbursts underpinned by far right-wing populism, including the siege of Capitol Hill, counter-BLM protests and so-called “anti-hygienic protests” against lockdowns and public health measures. These outbursts, as sensational manifestations of the more general turn to populism, attest to the urgency of understanding the structures of feelings underlying populist logic and the affective tactics used to spread them. The intensification of these affects by the pandemic and consequent lockdowns requires urgent attention as the associated socio-economic crisis and moral-panic are contributing to far-right populist resentments, the long-term effects of which remain to be seen. I look here how digital media contributes to what has been termed “pandemic populism” in an assemblage consisting of right-wing populist logic, digital and particularly social media, the COVID19 virus and associated public health measures. Far-right populist media and activists have taken advantage of the confusion around public health measures during the pandemic to blur boundaries between fact and fiction to fit the effects of the pandemic into their own narratives. Accordingly, I include in my analysis consideration of hyper-partisan media and the power of conspiracy theories, mis- and dis-information and how these forms of mediation engage populations in ways that challenge rational models of communication. I adopt a version of affect theory developed by Lisa Blackman in conjunction with Rebecca Coleman’s concept of (infra)structures of feeling to make sense of the affective dimensions underpinning right-wing populism, which exert pressure on and mediate actions and experiences and which have been exacerbated by the dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews

The Paradox of Sonship: Christology in the Epistle to the Hebrews

No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill By Michael D. Minta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 192 pp., $95.00 Cloth.

No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill By Michael D. Minta. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 192 pp., $95.00 Cloth.

Independence: an introduction to the #AoIR2021 special issue

ABSTRACT This paper introduces the ‘Independence’ themed special issue which includes research presented at the 22nd annual Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) conference (2021). ‘Independence’ as a special issue theme could hardly be timelier, both in geopolitical and internet research terms. The call for the 2021 AoIR annual conference asked us to reflect on the ambivalence of the term, to look back on historical struggles for independence, the long waves of history, and prompted us to ask who benefits from independence (and who does not). Hosted online for a second year, this time by universities in Philadelphia (USA), the conference was bounded by the Black Lives Matter movement, the insurrectionist storming of Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill, and global struggles to control the COVID-19 pandemic. This special issue includes nine papers that showcase new research exploring the affordances offered by digital media platforms to people, users, and workers, while also identifying tendencies towards new forms of control and surveillance facilitated by platforms. Topics include geopolitical and biopolitical digital sovereignty, facial recognition technologies, data divides, new methods approaches and innovative data sourcing, mobile and social media, examinations of embodied local knowledge as well as patriarchal, racist, and gendered social structures, and a broad range of field sites from Asia, Africa, and South America.

Interpersonal Relationships and Legislative Collaboration in Congress

Do interpersonal relationships among and between representatives and senators affect legislative collaboration in the contemporary Congress? The extant literature on Congress suggests interpersonal dimensions of life on Capitol Hill should play a minimal role in the legislative process. However, research in other fields, including psychology, finds that relationships are crucially important within organizations. In addition, many contemporary accounts of congressional deal‐making highlight the role of personal relationships. Drawing on interviews with high‐level congressional staff, and data on CODEL trips taken by members of Congress, we show that interpersonal relationships help promote collaboration across the aisle. These findings have implications for how we understand the contours of conflict and cooperation on Capitol Hill.

Information-communication Chaos: Trump's Communication Models as a Matrix of Action of Balkan Politicians

Donald Trump's term as President of the United States was marked by, among others: nationalism, populism, rejection of democracy, political arbitrariness, exclusivity towards racial and national minorities, xenophobia expressed towards immigrants, but also close (Mexicans) and distant peoples (Chinese), forcing divisions in American society, misogyny, spreading misinformation in all spheres and especially during the pandemic, belittling the attitude towards intellectuals, and especially constantlycalling out and insulting journalists. Injustice towards media houses and journalists did not stop during the entire term of Donald Trump, who called them 'fake news media' and 'enemy of the people, thus turning the public against them and creating big problems for them, which resulted in open violence during police protests. the assassination of African-American George Floyd, but also in the attack on Capitol Hill. All of these terms, along with some other features of his rule in domestic and foreign policy, are encompassed by a common denominator called ‘trumpism’. Although he was defeated in 2020 presidential election, his legacy remained significantly present in American society, but also outside it - on the American and Asian continents, but also in Europe, and especially in the Balkans. Using qualitative content analysis and comparative analysis of Donald Trump's communication model, especially in his relationship with political opponents, media houses and journalists, and the communication model of Balkan politicians, this paper deals with information and communication matrices that have been very successfully accepted and perfected by some politicians. Balkans through a special review of the spread of 'information disorder' in its three manifestations - misinformation, misinformation, and misinformation.

The Advantages of Applying the Advocacy Coalition Framework to the Studies On Ethnic Interest Groups

AbstractStudies on ethnic interest groups are contributing to better understand the US foreign policy. By reviewing this literature, we noticed that establishing causal claims in this field has proved challenging due to methodological issues. Many authors draw conclusions focusing exclusively on ethnic groups without taking into account the full complexity of political processes. This work consists in the application of the advocacy coalition framework (ACF) to this subject, aiming to overcome previous limitations by analyzing the links between ethnic groups and other agents. To that end, we undertook the case study here reported of the role played by Indian–Americans to advance the 2008 nuclear agreement between the United States and India through Capitol Hill. Employing deductive process tracing based on the ACF's structure, we demonstrate the relevance of the links between Indian–Americans and other groups to better understand how this agreement came to be approved.

How a Public Health Crisis Created an Impetus for Change: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems: Expert Roundtable.

How a Public Health Crisis Created an Impetus for Change: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's National Commission to Transform Public Health Data Systems: Expert Roundtable.