The purpose of this paper is to A) show the important Defense Industry angle to Katie Hill’s district. The district she represented is a major player regarding the Military Complex and this district was recently held by an ardent Trump supporter. Katie winning that seat probably gave the Trump Administration (and, possibly even the neoliberal side of the DNC that supports war) and the Defense Lobby a person who wouldn’t simply vote for pro-military legislation for the sake of doing so, even though Katie Hill has voted for pro-military and veteran legislation. Katie Hill also voted against sending military arms to Saudi Arabia and the UAE which brings to light Jared Kushner, the supposed Peace Plan, Donald Trump, and even Jamal Khashoggi, and B) to show the socio-political climate of the Antelope Valley in her district which has a history of drugs, white nationalist gangs, and is very sensitive to Recessions, meaning there’s a higher risk of right-wing reactionary politics.
With Katie Hill out of office, Johnson (2019) of The Hill, stated, “California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) on Friday set the date for the special election to decide who will replace former Rep. Katie Hill (D), who announced her resignation last month amid allegations she had affairs with campaign and congressional staffers. The special election for the 25th Congressional District seat will take place March 3, and if no candidate wins the majority, then a run-off will be held on May 12, the governor’s office said.”
Regarding the upcoming election, Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks is running, well, possibly. According to Martin (2019), “The race to replace Katie Hill in California’s 25th District keeps getting wilder, Cenk Uygur, a former MSNBC personality and found of The Young Turks, a progressive activism website, has announced his intent to run for the seat.” Further, Martin (2019) states, “And while he’s clearly fired up, there might a couple of things standing in his way. For one, he doesn’t live in or have any apparent connection to the 25th. Uygur resides in West L.A. and, when asked about the issue, responded, “People are obsessed with geography over the issues.”” The article by Martin (2019) also discusses Cenk’s past comments regarding women, which will certainly hound him, either with the right-wing calling hypocrisy for the left being wishy-washy on the issue when its politically convenient, or, he’ll meet stiff resistance from women voters, or, it won’t be an issue because he said these comments so long ago and his platform has stood up for women and advocated for progressive causes.
Regardless, the 25th District is also important for the Military and Aerospace Industry with Lockheed Martin having a facility in Palmdale, AeroVironment in Simi Valley, etc. The overall Southern California area has Edwards AFB; Vandenberg AFB under the Space Command and thus NASA; the Jet Propulsion Laboratory ; March Air Force Base (defunct); Los Angeles Air Force Base which houses the Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile System Center; Fort MacArthur in the San Pedro district of LA which still falls under LA AFB; Camp Pendleton; the Pomona Colleges and Caltech as far as research is concerned; The Aerospace Corporation, and all the major defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrup Grumman, BAE Systems, ViaSat, Airbus, etc.
Katie had a hard job to balance. She had to actively support a vital economic engine for her region, despite the New Left constantly attacking the Military Complex, yet, she had to vote in a way that morally aligned that support for the military with progressive ideology. Essentially, you can be a leftist or liberal and support the military, despite the perception in the media that the left hates the military and the right-wing is military obsessed. There is a vast spectrum regarding this matter. There’s plenty of Democrats or Leftist in the United States military and I can attest to that because I served myself (honorable discharge), but I also grew up in the US Army during my father’s twenty-three-year Army career.
Further, you have to realize the “Military Complex” isn’t purely mega-corporations hated by the political-left but it’s a web or ecosystem comprising an array of federally recognized small businesses spanning categories such as Woman-Owned Small Businesses, Service Disabled Veteran Small businesses, Minority-owned etc. It involves politicians who want to help their districts get jobs, NAICS codes, General Service Administration schedules, federal research grants with universities, etc. Federal contracting is universe of its own. Besides the major prime-contractors such as Boeing, you have smaller suppliers provide everything from specialty parts, composite moldings, scientific testing, clothing, food services, cleaning services, IT help, and the furnishing of commercial-off-the-shelf items such as office supplies, computers, and construction services to facilities.
So, the military-complex employs more people than the general public understands and it’s not all some boogeyman evil Robocop corporation. A small mom and pop shop in Anaheim might win an award to deliver printers to some A.B.C.X.Y.G office in a government facility, or a furniture store in a predominately minority HUB zone (opportunity zone) might win an award to furnish a command posts’ briefing room or install lights at your local US Postal Office. Contracting, even that not relating to the military (all government agencies require contracting, i.e., people who spend money and issue service contracts), and the Military Complex essentially beefs up the American economy with direct suppliers in supply-chains or contract-by-contract awards to small-to-medium size businesses all over the country who are praying they get a phone call for a chance to submit proposals for a federal, state, or local project.
She unseated Steve Knight who is an 18 year LAPD veteran who oversaw a program called CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) which one could contrast to Katie’s participation in PATH (People Assisting the Homeless), served in the US Army, was born in Palmdale and attended Palmdale High School, and while in the House he served on the Committee on Armed Services (Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Lanced Forces and Subcommittee on Sea-power and Projection Forces); Committee on Science, Space, and Technology (Subcommittee on Energy as Vice Chair, Subcommittee on Space, and Subcommittee on Contracting and Workforce as Chair, and Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight, and Regulations).
According to infographic developed by Bycotte & Silver (2019) Knight voted for Trump’s policies 99% of the time and was the seventh most partisan Trump supporter in the House.
Katie Hill despite being on the opposite side of the political spectrum, did serve on the Committee on Armed Services (as well as the same subcommittees as Knight) and on the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. The difference is that Katie served on the Committee on Oversight and Reform as Vice Chair and served under its subcommittees of Economic and Consumer Policy and the United States House Oversight Subcommittee on Environment. The Oversight committee is the committee looking into Trump. As far as Caucus Membership she was on the LGBT Equality Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, and the New Democrat Coalition.
Knight sat on the House Aerospace Caucus, Climate Solutions Caucus, Alzheimer Disease Task Force, Republican Law Enforcement Task Force, Congressional Lupus Caucus, Congressional Military Family Caucus, NASA Caucus, Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, etc. Despite both Katie and Steve being in different parties, their Congressional committee and caucus memberships seem aligned in many ways with the district they represent, but then differ in certain ways based on their party affiliation.
Both Hill and Knight represent areas that value veterans, relies on the defense & aerospace industry or contracting for employment, but there’s an array of social issues from being tough on crime and California’s affordable housing crisis. The district is effectively a swing district with an arguably diverse population where voters seem issue-based despite standard-political affiliations. People will vote outside of party lines if a certain issue is relevant. Do you want to lose your job if federal money dries up or a recession happens? Or, do you want to lose your house if housing prices keep soaring? These are two major issues effecting Katie Hill’s area.
With the military-complex being important in this case and Knight losing to Hill…is it possible that the revenge porn leak was partially inspired to get her out of power and to help Knight comeback so the GOP could have a die-hard Pro-Trump voter to vote for defense spending bills? Not to mention, hedging the House which is responsible for drafting articles of impeachment. There’s no proof of that a foreign power hacked her husband or he was conned based on anger in leaking her photos, but Katie probably angered a lot of people by voting against arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It’s not even out of the question to think that the pro-Israel lobby could’ve thrown her under the bus, considering Jared Kushner and Israel are allies to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. So, with Katie Hill voting in favor to combat issues such as antisemitism, she could’ve been betrayed for going against a larger geopolitical game with Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc.
Let’s look at a few of Katie Hill’s votes regarding the military and security while in the House and I got her voting record from Vote Smart (2019) [Note: See Reference Section]:
She voted (Yes) to the National Defense Authorization Act on 7/12/2019
She voted (Yes) to Never Forget the Heroes: Permanent Authorization of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund Act on 7/12/2019
She voted (Yes) to the NATO Support Act of 01/22/2019
Yet, she may have angered certain lobbies by voting (Yes) to
S J Res 38 – A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed export to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland of certain defense articles and services on 7/17/2019, and, S J Res 37 – A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed export to the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Republic of France of certain defense articles and services on 7/17/2019.
So, think about that…she did her job in supporting US patriots and veterans but also supported NATO, yet, she went against Saudi Arabia and the UAE. These countries are very close to Donald Trump and Jared Kushner. So, Katie unseated Knight and she voted against two of Donald Trump’s key allies as the chaotic unfolding situation in the Middle East gets worst. Remember the controversy with Trump and the murder to Jamal Khashoggi and Saudi Arabia? Or, Erik Prince of Blackwater being called out for having a meeting in the Seychelles with representatives from the UAE on behalf of Trump? Remember Jared Kushner’s supposed Middle East Peace Plan. If this is the case, there’s a higher level of political intrigue, but also betrayal, considering Katie also voted from pro-Israel, Anti-Defamation League, and AIPAC backed legislation denouncing Antisemitism.
Further, keeping this voting record in mind, considering she voted against an arms-sales to Trump and Kushner allies, Saudi Arabia and UAE, she was also on the “Trump Watchdog” committee, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In a paper from her hometown of Santa Clarita, Painter (2019), stated, “Hill sits on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which, according to the representative, has launched multiple investigations into the president’s administration on issues that were not fully examined in the Mueller report, including White House security clearance policies, family separations at the southern border and alleged sharing of nuclear information with Saudi Arabia.”
“There’s so many issues that we’ve got to continue our investigations on and it’s just not related to the Mueller report,” she said (Painter, 2019).
Katie Hill even on her Twitter account on February 19, 2019 at 9:13 AM and mentioned the previous of possible national security by the Trump Administration with Saudi Arabia.
Let’s get to the point.
I don’t really want to focus on her personal relationship with her husband because it’s not my business. I really don’t know what to make of it or say about her personal life. My focus in this paper is A) The Military Complex Angle and B) An understanding of her mysterious “tattoo”, which doesn’t necessarily implicate Kate Hill with white supremacy, since I’ve heard or read no explanation from her, but the possibility that her tattoo is an Iron Cross, sheds light on the economic and racial situation of the Antelope Valley.
On a positive note, in a brilliant campaign, Katie was able to modify the sense of patriotism people in her district expect and which she believes in, but with progressive ideology more in alignment with what we see in an Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She won.
Katie Hill represented the 25th District of California which encompasses the cities/towns/Census-Designed places of Santa Clarita, Simi Valley, Palmdale, Lancaster, and the northern part of the San Fernando Valley. The median income is $76,866 according to a basic Google Search, which looks good on paper, but for California standards that probably puts you in the dead-middle middle-class, so I am assuming this area is mostly exurban, not suburban in the traditional sense, of working commuter families. She was a part of the Blue Wave, predominately female revolution of newly elected politicians in the wake of events such as Donald Trump’s election, the MeToo movement, Stormy Daniel’s circus events, and the controversial Ford vs. Kavanaugh SCOTUS hearings.
But let’s get this next question out of the way before is Katie Hill a Nazi?
I would say… No. Why? She voted for House Resolution 489 – Condemning President Trump’s Racist Comments Directed at Members of Congress on 7/16/2019. She voted for House Resolution 312 – Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act. She voted H.R 1585 – Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019 on 4/4/2019. She voted for House Resolution 183 – Condemning Antisemitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values and aspirations that define the people of the United States and condemning anti-Muslim discrimination and bigotry against minorities as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contrary to the values and aspirations of the United States on 03/07/2019. She voted for H.Res.124 – Expressing opposition to banning service in the Armed Forces by openly transgender individuals.
And…She voted (Yes) to House Resolution 41 – Rejecting White Nationalism and White Supremacy – National Key Vote on 1/15/2019.
After her nude photos were leaked in what has been called revenge porn, which I do believe, it was revealed she had an Iron Cross tattoo. To my knowledge Katie Hill hasn’t explained the tattoo. From my view it could be some sort of Nazi symbol, which will be discussed down below, or it could be something akin to “Hot Topic, angry Avril Lavigne teenage girl” tattoo of Independent Trucks company. Yet, her current voting record refutes any claim that she is a Nazi.
Katie grew up in Santa Clarita, which was ranked by Money Magazine in 2006 as the 18th best place to live on their list out of 100 cities/towns. The area also voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite traditionally being Republican, and in 2016, 6.14% voted for Third Party candidates, which reflects a historical trend, since in 1992, 29.18% voted Third Party and in 1993, 13.24% voted Third Party. So the area is very prone to swings it seems, though traditionally its conservative, and I would assume the third-party vote comes a sense of populist ideology such as that of Ross Perot in 1992, or libertarian based politics considering the areas rancher and rural heritage. Santa Clarita is an agglomeration of four former rural towns, with Saugus being one of them, and this is where Katie went to high school. She also comes from an education family, where here grandfather was a Political Science professor at UCLA, her grandmother was educated as an Anthropologist, and her father was a police-lieutenant with a degree from Katie’s alma mater of Cal-State Northridge with Organizational System Management (Herstein, 2018).
However, the issue is that the nearby Antelope Valley and areas like Lancaster were known for having Neo-Nazi elements going back way before the 2000s but was increased after 2000 during the Financial Crisis where many California cities faced bankruptcy while the State Government was in economic disarray. The desert towns outside of Los Angeles that were predominately working-class white based on California’s often unspoken history of racist laws and segregation, where blue collar white communities despite being die-hard Republicans and unrepentant followers of the LAPD (such as during the Rodney King Trials and acquittal of white officers) had biker gangs, Neo Nazis, meth labs, etc.
Finnegan (1997) of The New Yorker, published an article titled: The Unwanted: In a Los Angeles suburb where schools and parents faltered, the American Dream was replaced by drugs, neo-Nazism, and despair. The Hardest hit were Mindy Turner and her friends. The piece details the life of Mindy Turner of the Antelope Valley, who lived in a working-class blue-collar home in Lancaster, but by the ninth grade was a Nazi, meth addicted, sexually active (with much older men), and became a “skin bitch” (per the article) of the Nazi Low Rider gang of Lancaster. Eventually, with the help of her mother she was able to breakaway, but the Nazi group wasn’t letting her go. “The N.L.R.s were into tattoos: swastikas, skulls, Iron Crosses, lighting bolts – through lightening bolts were permitted to be worn only by those who had killed a black person” (Finnegan, 1997, para. 16)
“In 1980, the combined population of Lancaster and Palmdale, the Valley’s two main cities, was sixty thousand. By 1994, their combined population was two hundred and twenty-two thousand, and today estimates of the Valley’s total population range as high as four hundred thousand. This hyper-expansion was first sparked by housing prices in Los Angeles and its nearer suburbs, which soared during the nineteen-eighties, and by white flight from an increasingly Latino and Asian city. The Antelope Valley had been considered too remote for commuters, but the completion of the Antelope Freeway, snaking over the San Gabriel Mountains, helped change that.” (para. 2). Finnegan (1997), also stated, “Then, in the 1990s, the Southern California economy, staggered by cutbacks in the aerospace and defense industries, fell into a deep recession” (para. 3); “In the Antelope Valley, abandoned housing tracts began to dot the subdivided desert. Boarded-up shopping centers and bankrupt school districts followed, along with a wave of personal financial disasters so severe that USA Today dubbed Palmdale “the foreclosure capital of California”” (para. 3); “For anyone who has spent time there lately, this is a scary thought – if only because growing up these days in the Antelope Valley seems to be, for many kids, a pretty harrowing, dispiriting affairs” (para. 5); “…the Valley’s supersonic growth has led to overcrowded, often chaotic schools; according to the high-school district’s superintendent, nearly forty-five percent of the entering students do not finish their class”; “The teen pregnancy rate is alarmingly high” (para. 5), and “A sheriff’s-department spokesman in Lancaster estimated that fully half the Valley’s children are unsupervised after school. He also said that there are now, not coincidentally, more than two hundred youth gangs represented in the Valley” (para. 5).
“There was a street war raging in Lancaster between white-supremacist skinhead gang known as the Nazi Low Riders and a rival gang of antiracist skinheads who called themselves the Sharps” (Finnegan, 1997, para. 6).
These economic factors compounded by the nativism mixed with demographic changes from immigration, and the general racist backlash against President Obama in right-wing circles, made working class areas prime targets for increases in hate groups. Many African Americans for example facing gentrification found themselves migrating to more affordable areas such as the Inland Empire and Antelope Valley, just to find themselves targeted by hate crimes in the 1980s and 1990s.
Maybe, Katie before she became her current progressive self, was hanging out with the wrong crowd (or, the wrong boyfriend), or maybe the tattoo is ironic, or as I said previously, something more aligned to extreme sports like skateboarding with companies like Independent Trucks. Yet, let’s say that Kate was hanging out with the wrong crowds being a rebellious young woman getting tattoos, etc.
If a former Nazi past is true, maybe this a type of American History X situation? A person who was born into a privileged-class of people, despite the reality that many are not privileged within this class, and as she grew into herself, she refuted any association with her former beliefs/friends and became an advocate for the LGBTQ community, minorities, veterans, Indigenous First Peoples – Native Americans, and immigrants. Maybe, I don’t know.
When dealing with politics you’re not sure where the daggers are coming from and despite Katie being young, she held a quite powerful and important district.
Katie Hill is from my generation. We’re the same age, 32, who grew up in the Bart Simpson, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, TGIF, MTV (when they played music videos), summer Hollywood blockbuster nineteen-nineties, but came of age during the War on Terrorism where Myspace was actually popular, had rap music blasting, saw hyper-sexualized pop stars and pornography, listened to death growl screamo or emo or metalcore or hardcore, the list goes on.
All of this before the election of Barack Obama, yet after his election we then experienced our free twenties as underemployed college-graduates in the service-sector in a county which A) felt like we were making progress as far as rights and culture was very engaging and experimental, but B) we saw the birth of a type of “postmodern”, super-intense, conspiracy-based conservatism under the likes of people such as Alex Jones, whom in another light, sounds like the voice from Hotel Rwanda urging Hutus to pick up machetes.
Like Katie, myself and people of our generation sort of grew up on the lightspeed trajectory of post-MLK racial harmony, unfettered globalist capitalism, mega media conglomerates creating culture, but also experienced growing pains in a nation still organized around what is effectively our post-colonial racial-caste system, which still annoyingly dictates the masses for politics, marketing, sales, advertising, box-office ticket sales, etc.
We’re a generation of postmodern kids where cultures merged into new aesthetics. We’re baby Gen X who are now adults entering managerial and leadership positions, tired and hyperaware of the latent defects within the psychology of the United States despite being the target of “Millennial Studies” in click-bait online articles for Baby Boomers who don’t retire since they have no pensions and fear losing all their money in their 401ks if the economy tanks.
Katie is white. I am black. Who cares? Yet, like many minorities who climbed up the economic ladder from the 1970s to now, and found ourselves in suburbia, my racial engagement with different races was A) not a problem at all 95% of the time – I considered my white friends as family, but B) I still witnessed the sociological vestiges of white supremacy such as a caricature view to minorities with minorities being the boogeyman on the late night news, feeling in between a rock and a hard place as I juggled whether to ace the SAT or to emulate black celebrities on TV or in rap videos, and witnessing the eye-balls follow people who were in interracial relationships where women were not only slut-shamed but also the target of passive racism.
However, being in my thirties, I actually see the younger generations as way more progressive, open-minded, and post-racial while still being sensitive to racial issues and conversations (more willing to listen than to deflect claims of racism or sexism), more so, than mine and Katie’s generation. When I look at younger generations, I’m shocked how much more “woke” they are compared to mine and we’re not that far away from each other in age.
However, with the rise of Donald Trump and the Alt-Right ecosystem of outlets such as YouTube or BitChute (though it’s painful, we must support free speech), it seems that there might be a regression in progress, with young, curious, and existential minds going down the rabbit hole to find purpose but then find themselves in the far-right, first with Jordan B. Petersen maybe via the Joe Rogan Podcast which features members of the Intellectual Dark Web such as Sam Harris brining back notions of racial IQ levels, then Stefan Molyneaux or Lauren Southern, then they’re gone.
So, a part of me, being the black kid in school, had a sense of possible understanding to who Katie is and where she comes from. Instead of judging at first glance, I try to visualize a young, insecure, confused girl in a toxic environment such as public school who may have projected hate as a form of defense, but she was really…scared. All teens are a little scared. People can change and when you’re young and stupid, you’re insecure and afraid. She may be the casualty of an unspoken racially segregated high school inflicted with juvenile tribalism, where white teenagers who are educated to feel responsible for the past, get fed up, and violently reject it. They may actually accept the fact that white supremacy exists, but then they may have bad encounters with people of different races who effectively bully them. For all I know, Katie could be a suburban white girl, from a racially segregated education system with plenty of socio-economic problems, who grew up conservative, and by proxy gravitated towards white cliques who felt they needed to group up like we’re living in a prison system, and was exposed to Nazi-like ideas. Maybe they came to her and that was all she had being a young, scared, body conscious female in an American public school which can at times resemble a Corrections Facility.
It is not uncommon to see a type of “white rights” response by white people who see minorities getting rights and some minorities might target white people or whites might be “clowned on”. It’s complicated. I’ve witnessed it myself as a black man, while I’ve also experienced racism myself. We live in a country where racism is real in both overt and covert ways, yet, white people carry the target of being the symbol of hate, so anyone not white might agree on one thing…white people are the racist. This is probably frustrating for many white youths and the decent into racism isn’t simply from home or friends, but from a sense of frustration of not being judged on actions but being judged on their race. The truth about America is that anyone can be the victim of racism, so to get over racism we must acknowledge that and defend people. If black kids are bullying a white kid, then its up to black kids to stand up for that white kid. If white kids are saying racist things to a black kid, then it is up to white kids to stand up for that black kid. You can insert any race you want, since racism isn’t restricted to the standard notions of black and white.
This is a country where even people of color are being encouraged to enter racial-safe spaces, to perceive most of their reality with race at the center, and to essentially be paranoid while they constantly scan for microaggressions. To relate this to Katie being caught with a bong, this racial climate on college campuses reminds me of the class-scene from the film How High with Redman and Method Man, where a white professor eggs on his students of color to attack him, while the professor belittles the black students who simply…go to class. However, we live in a nation where we have a President who dog-whistles to actual racists. To me, both sides are in complete LaLa land.
Even for an older Millennial like myself this intersectional racial climate was confusing, not because I don’t see value in this framework, but rather it often denies all the positive racial harmony that many Americans grew up with. It seems very clinical and intellectual over humanist and connecting. A lazy solution. Race relations in the United States went slightly in reverse because of the traditional political-right with its covert John Birch Society antics posited on denialism and willful ignorance, but also the political-left which has employed a coalition-revolt campaign which tends to treat groups as militaristic battalions, commanded by unelected political pundits – tip toe, stay in line, everyone in your unit act the same…
However, identity-politics and intersectionality from the standpoint of analysis is a powerful and important tool but the issue is the scope of how much we use it. The collateral damage that can happen. It could be said that if we were to objectively stand back and analyze both sides, is that we’d probably see we’re living in a perverted rigged system of color-based dialectics. A confusing sociological experiment bent on tension under the auspices of conservatism or liberalism. Yet, there is a true, harsh, reality to these issues, so we must acknowledge them, but we probably should rethink about how we’re combating racism so it’s inclusive to those who feel historically linked to its reason for existing. The Democrats have an election to win in 2020, don’t they?
Katie Hill’s mysterious “Iron Cross” tattoo insinuates a world which has lost context, forgiveness if guilty, and understanding. Wasn’t Malcom X nothing more than a petty criminal before he became the activist we remember today? I’m sure many gangbangers and Aryan Brotherhood followers have left the corrections system and refuted their former lives, despite having scars such as tattoos, which painfully reminds them of who they were, and in certain cases, I would assume people have these tattoos as a reminder of who they aren’t anymore (considering tattoo laser removal surgery is expensive). There’s not a fixed rubric or lexicon when it comes to context. It’s a delicate process of fact-finding, gauging recent behaviors, etc. Further, peoples’ reactions to Katie Hill represents a type of subconscious vengeance where people are happy Katie got canned because it kicked down the “high horse” morality of feminism (as far as perception goes) and the political left. Because of these social factors, the actual context and hard facts of the Hill case have been buried under perception, political vengeance, etc.
Yet, Katie is a progressive, leftist, pro-feminist, pro-LGBTQ(IA) female, who lived with a woman of color while in Congress (Lauren Underwood), actively supported Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez and The Squad, stood up for immigrants, voted against White Nationalism and Antisemitism, and became a vocal anti-Trump advocate. What we can learn from all of this, if let’s say the Nazi accusations are true, is that people…can change.
References
Bycoffe, A., & Silver, N. (2019, November 21). Tracking Congress In The Age Of Trump. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/house/
Finnegan, W. (2019, February 28). THE UNWANTED: In a Los Angeles suburb where schools and parents faltered, the American Dream was replaced by drugs, neo-Nazism, and despair. The hardest hit were Mindy Turner and her friends. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/12/01/the-unwanted.
Johnson, M. (2019, November 15). California governor sets special election to replace Katie Hill. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/470693-california-governor-sets-special-election-to-replace-katie-hill.
Herstein, O. (2018, December 14). Ms. Hill Goes to Washington. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://csunshinetoday.csun.edu/politics-and-society/ms-hill-goes-to-washington/.
Martin, B. (2019, November 19). Cenk Uygur Is Out for Katie Hill’s Seat. When it Comes to Republicans, He’s Ready to ‘Rip Their Face Off’. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/cenk-uygur-congress-campaign/.
Painter, R. (2019, March 26). Rep. Katie Hill: House Oversight has “highly suspicious” information not covered in Mueller report. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://proclaimerscv.com/2019/03/26/rep-katie-hill-house-oversight-has-highly-suspicious-information-not-covered-in-mueller-report/.
Vote Smart. (n.d.). The Voter’s Self Defense System. Retrieved November 24, 2019, from https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/key-votes/179354/katie-hill/?p=2.
Mitchell Research Group 