A culture war has been brewing at the Capitol for years. Now its at a boiling point

A culture war has been brewing at the Capitol for years. Now it's at a boiling point.

WASHINGTON – Guns. Masks. Conspiracy theories. Contentious issues brewing for months, and even years, between political parties and lawmakers now seem to be at a boiling point on Capitol Hill.

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Tensions in Congress have been high in the past, but the rhetoric of the last few months is not business as usual.

Julian Zelizer, a professor of political history at Princeton University, told USA TODAY the current climate is "definitely one of the bad moments in American history."

Compared to the periods before the Civil War, in the 19th century, and in the 1960s, Zelizer said, today is "at least like those, and in some ways it's worse." Though members may not be "literally attacking each other physically as they did in the 19th century, sometimes it feels like they're getting awfully close."

'This is our house, and we're gonna protect it': Lawmakers prepared to fight or be killed as Trump mob attacked US Capitol

Now, points of contention have seemed to reach a crescendo – and amplified by the Capitol riot.

Here are a few of the issues that have lawmakers more angry with one another now than in recent history:

QAnon and conspiracy theories
The 117th Congress brought in a new class of lawmakers, including some linked to right-wing fringe movements, including the QAnon conspiracy movement, which baselessly claims a "deep-state" cabal of pedophiles tried to bring down Trump, among others.

Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia are two of the freshman lawmakers most known for espousing QAnon beliefs.

Greene has been a particular cracking point on Capitol Hill over the tolerance of conspiracy theories and the rhetoric that often accompanies them.

More:Republicans remain mostly quiet on Marjorie Taylor Greene, whose remarks have put GOP in a bind

The Democratic-led House last month voted mostly along party lines to remove Greene from her two committees for a litany of incendiary, conspiratorial and menacing social media posts before she was elected, which included questioning whether the 9/11 terrorist attacks ever happened, stalking and taunting a teen survivor of the deadly Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, and suggesting that space lasers were causing deadly wildfires in California.

The floor debate over Greene, in a chamber already riven by division and mistrust, turned raw as House members took turns arguing not just about Greene's particular conduct but what it said about House members who demanded – or objected to – her punishment.

On top of QAnon and other right-wing extreme beliefs, 147 congressional Republicans pushed false claims that Trump won the presidential election and voted to not accept election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.

Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of 10 GOP lawmakers who voted to impeach Trump on an article of inciting the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, said his fellow Republicans need to take stock of their party.

"We've got to quit being a party of personality and get back to a party of principles first," Kinzinger said on CNN. It means "going back to the American people and to the Republican Party and reminding folks of where we came from, which we've lost."

Zelizer said the Republican Party has become "pretty radicalized," a distinction that poses a challenge to this Congress.

The "world of information that Congress inhabits now is so disconnected often from facts," he said.

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The current polarization began before 2016, in the Obama era, but Trump "aggravated everything," Zelizer said. "And he kind of played into these sources of dysfunction and elevated them."

Guns and the Capitol
The attack on the Capitol led to changes in security protocols and heightened tensions among lawmakers, especially those who objected to President Joe Biden's Electoral College win.

It was also later revealed some House members were armed during the Capitol attack, such as Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., who claimed he "was armed, so we would have been able to protect ourselves.”

More:Madison Cawthorn says he was armed in Capitol during mob's invasion

However, being armed in the chamber is not allowed — even if you are a member of Congress. Beyond that, the rules are murky: Members are exempt from a federal law banning firearms on the Capitol grounds, but weapons are still prohibited in legislative chambers.

After the riot, which left several people dead, including a Capitol police officer, House leadership put in additional security measures.

Capitol Police set up metal detectors outside of the House floor to screen all members and staffers. While magnetometers always scan all other entrants of the Capitol, including staff, visitors and media, at every external door of the Capitol complex, lawmakers bypass them.

Several GOP lawmakers objected. After they were installed, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., slammed the new metal detectors as "atrocities" while speaking on the House floor, and complained they "prevent members from exercising their constitutional rights."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is searched by U.S. Capitol Police on Jan. 12, 2021 after setting off the metal detector outside the doors to the House of Representatives Chamber, a new security measure put into place after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, in Washington.
Among the House Republicans who balked at the new requirement is Boebert, who has been vocal about her desire to carry her firearms around Washington, D.C., and on Capitol Hill.

Republican Reps. Markwayne Mullin and Steve Womack reportedly yelled at Capitol Police for being forced to go through the metal detectors.

“I was physically restrained!” Arkansas Rep. Womack shouted, while Mullin, who represents Oklahoma, said “it’s my constitutional right” and “they cannot stop me."