Okay, so like, two weeks ago, got a call from my buddy who’s in the trenches at the National Endowment for the Humanities (yeah, I know, fancy schmancy), and they start talking about some hit squad, like government efficiency dudes, poking into their business. Fast forward a bit, and boom — the axe drops. Folks at N.E.H. told, “Hey, sorry, but like 80% of y’all gotta pack up.” What a mess.
But here’s the kicker. Seems like a boneheaded move, and not ’cause some big-shot organizations like the American Historical Association are wailing about it. They’re all, “Omg, endangering education and history and blah blah.” But yo, that ship’s already been sinking. A lot because some academics with their brainy ideas are just running wild with N.E.H. cash, cooking up social justice comic book curriculum or whatever. Like, why the heck does San Diego need over $130k for superhero lessons, and California State Fullerton – more than 300 grand for some L.G.B.T.Q. traveler database? I mean, come on, get real.
Anyway, Trump’s shouting from the rooftops about making America all glorious again. But like, if you wanna overhaul stuff, don’t just swipe left on stuff you don’t like — also gotta hit that invite button for what you dig. He did this speech where he ragged on “left-wing cultural revolution” (cue dramatic music), saying, “Hey, remember the epic Walt Whitman poems and Mark Twain vibes and Ella Fitzgerald’s jazzy tunes?”
So, like, the deal is, Trump needs this NEH thing to be a megaphone blasting our cultural greatness. Shut it down, and it’s like throwing away tools of cultural combat — and aren’t we now in a culture battle or what? And there’s this conservative nugget I heard that says politics is like the little sibling trailing behind culture. Arts find their way, blend into society like coffee into a morning routine. Who knows if big decisions about rights and whatnot woulda happened without 90s queer theory brainwaves?
And hey, pop culture’s Trump’s hangout spot. MAGA crew partied with Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock is chatting up at White House cookouts, and Joe Rogan is like the wise dude in a brawny man universe. But when trying to mingle with “high culture” it’s a total laugh. Like Trump name-dropping Elvis and still thinking about the musical “Cats”… Can’t even.
So this is where NEH and NEA should shine, like, not only to swat away the “woke squad” but to refine MAGA’s boisterous street party into something, I dunno, more intellectual? Get some history buffs and art nerds to be selective, you know?
Remember when the gameplan was kinda smooth with Bush and his clever folks running NEA and NEH? Dana Gioia and Bruce Cole had it figured out. They rolled out stuff honoring Western civilization, like sending Shakespeare into school lunchrooms, or dishing out art and document kits to schools. That’s schooling kids with some solid American backbone right there.
So Trump’s gotta like take notes. The current watchdogs just focus on dollars and policy. Sure, rooting out overlap and wastage is cool, but dude, let’s brainstorm and build too. Like Trump did in Jan with that federal architecture memo trying to jazz up public spaces with some old-school charm.
At the end of the day, Trump’s gotta think big. Channeling Bush’s strategy is OK, but why not dream bigger, like the New Deal-era with their grand projects—giving jobless writers gigs, funding jack-of-all-trades artists to sparkle up public scenes?
Sure, conservative tightwads might grouse and moan, but c’mon, they’ve gifted us legendary stuff, like Walker Evans snaps, Dorothea Lange’s haunting pics, Lincoln Memorial awesomeness. Oh, and “A Confederacy of Dunces” — props to NEA for that.
If the right wants to cramp these so-called progressive marches with their artistic banners, it’s time to pony up and play ball in the arts and humanities sandbox, not just with law books and line graphs.
