While posited as a unified ideology, Christian Nationalism (CN) actually contains two distinct vi... more While posited as a unified ideology, Christian Nationalism (CN) actually contains two distinct views of what it means to be a “Christian Nation”—one which envisions a Christian civil society separate from the profanities of politics, what we call “Religious Traditionalism.” The other envisions a Christian federal government where power is wielded exclusively by ethno‐religious insiders, or “Christian Statism.” Multiple waves of two national surveys confirm that current measures of CN contain these two factors, which have become increasingly divergent in the past 20 years. In addition, we find that Christian Statism predicts nativism, Islamophobia, anti‐Semitism, and racial distrust while Religious Traditionalism, in most instances, predicts the opposite. Historically, Religious Traditionalists have always sought to influence civil society and focused mainly on family/sexual issues. But a different brand of CN has emerged, wherein all federal and state authority should rightfully and...
Abstract: In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment popularized the mode of the senatorial election, mak... more Abstract: In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment popularized the mode of the senatorial election, making it so the people in the states, rather their respective state legislatures, should elect their Senators. This amendment changed both the federal/state balance in the 1800s and the senatorial quality of deliberation. Despite its significance, political scientists and legal scholars seldom discussed the difference between the Founders’ intention of the original mode of Senate election and the Seventeenth Amendment’s framers’ intention of the amendment. This thesis fills the void, providing a comprehensive explanation and comparison of both the Founders’ and the framers’ intentions. The analysis is based on a detailed textual analysis of a variety of resources: state constitutions before the Philadelphia Convention; works of Federalists and Anti-Federalists; records of debates in the Philadelphia Convention and state ratifying conventions; social and political factors that led to both the original mode of election and the amendment; a variety of changes and practices by both the national and state governments before the amendment; and records of Senatorial floor debates on the amendment. I find that the Founders, which includes the Framers of the Constitution, did not reach unanimity on the idea that the primary duty of the Senators was to protect the national good and state interests. This caused vagueness in the interpretation and practice of the Senatorial election before the Seventeenth Amendment. This ambiguity triggered a series of modifications of the senatorial election at both national and state levels. Associated with the rise of Progressivism, the framers of the amendment managed to achieve a nationwide democracy by popularizing the senatorial election. This thesis concludes that by democratizing the national Senate, the Seventeenth Amendment intended to utterly reform the Founders’ republic.
While posited as a unified ideology, Christian Nationalism (CN) actually contains two distinct vi... more While posited as a unified ideology, Christian Nationalism (CN) actually contains two distinct views of what it means to be a “Christian Nation”—one which envisions a Christian civil society separate from the profanities of politics, what we call “Religious Traditionalism.” The other envisions a Christian federal government where power is wielded exclusively by ethno‐religious insiders, or “Christian Statism.” Multiple waves of two national surveys confirm that current measures of CN contain these two factors, which have become increasingly divergent in the past 20 years. In addition, we find that Christian Statism predicts nativism, Islamophobia, anti‐Semitism, and racial distrust while Religious Traditionalism, in most instances, predicts the opposite. Historically, Religious Traditionalists have always sought to influence civil society and focused mainly on family/sexual issues. But a different brand of CN has emerged, wherein all federal and state authority should rightfully and...
Abstract: In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment popularized the mode of the senatorial election, mak... more Abstract: In 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment popularized the mode of the senatorial election, making it so the people in the states, rather their respective state legislatures, should elect their Senators. This amendment changed both the federal/state balance in the 1800s and the senatorial quality of deliberation. Despite its significance, political scientists and legal scholars seldom discussed the difference between the Founders’ intention of the original mode of Senate election and the Seventeenth Amendment’s framers’ intention of the amendment. This thesis fills the void, providing a comprehensive explanation and comparison of both the Founders’ and the framers’ intentions. The analysis is based on a detailed textual analysis of a variety of resources: state constitutions before the Philadelphia Convention; works of Federalists and Anti-Federalists; records of debates in the Philadelphia Convention and state ratifying conventions; social and political factors that led to both the original mode of election and the amendment; a variety of changes and practices by both the national and state governments before the amendment; and records of Senatorial floor debates on the amendment. I find that the Founders, which includes the Framers of the Constitution, did not reach unanimity on the idea that the primary duty of the Senators was to protect the national good and state interests. This caused vagueness in the interpretation and practice of the Senatorial election before the Seventeenth Amendment. This ambiguity triggered a series of modifications of the senatorial election at both national and state levels. Associated with the rise of Progressivism, the framers of the amendment managed to achieve a nationwide democracy by popularizing the senatorial election. This thesis concludes that by democratizing the national Senate, the Seventeenth Amendment intended to utterly reform the Founders’ republic.
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