Are Democrats Painted Into a Corner? Not Yet

[papau]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-chait19nov19.story
JONATHAN CHAIT
Are Democrats Painted Into a Corner? Not Yet
The National Endowment for the Arts is a perfect target in the culture wars.
Jonathan Chait

November 19, 2004

After discovering that 59 million Americans voted to reelect a demonstrably failed president largely because he related to their culture and values, Democrats spent about a week desperately casting about for some social issue to chuck overboard so they could get right with middle America. Alas, after running through the usual list, they decided that they weren't prepared to abandon abortion or gay rights and had all but given up on gun control anyway, so there wasn't much they could do.

Well, even though the search was called off early, I have a late entry: Abolish the National Endowment for the Arts.

The NEA is a major stick in the eye to the, um, culturally traditional. (I was going to write "guys named Jethro who own pickup trucks" but I'm trying not to inflame cultural sensitivities here.) In the past, the NEA has provoked enormous controversy by funding artists such as Andres Serrano, whose artworks include a photograph of a crucifix submerged in urine. Two years ago, the NEA helped support a group that put on "Broadway Bares XII," an AIDS fundraiser featuring nude performers. And even though the overwhelming majority of its projects aren't controversial, let's face it, the NEA is in large part a way of forcing the NASCAR set to subsidize the art house set.

None of that would matter if there was a strong, principled argument for the NEA. In fact, there isn't.

The basic rationale for the NEA is that art is good — advocates tend to use loftier terms, but they're all synonymous with "good" — and the NEA provides for more of it. But there are lots of good things that don't deserve government support.<snip>

[TaleWgnDg]

1. Nahhhh. There's lotsa comfortable-shoed old ladies in suburbia and

other environs that are old-time Republicans who LOVE the arts! No way will this congress cut-off their entertainment! Nope.

edited to strike-out one too many "olds" . . . heh.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. They won't.

[vpigrad]

3. Sigh

> all but given up on gun control anyway

And that lost the party a ton of votes! I know quite a few pro-safety people through local party meetings that didn't vote with the party this year, because they know there's almost no difference between the parties now when it comes to safety. If we're not safe just walking to the store or even just sitting in our house, why would we vote for those who won't help with the problem? Instead, the party has abandoned the platform of safety. Think about it. If you get shot, what do the other rights mean? Nothing! You have to start at the bottom and work your way up. Instead, our party has abandoned us to a future of gun violence. Almost 3% of the people in my small town have been murdered since the election. That's right, in less than a month guns have taken the lives 3 people in a town barely bigger than 100 people. The party hasn't done enough to protect us. Instead, people like you talk about damning us to a life like this rather than fighting for safety.

[xchrom]

4. lol -- that's funny