Art Vs. Politics Like Herod Presenting The Head Of John The Baptist, The Republicans In Congress Plan To Chop The Arts, Christopher Knight Says, As A Gift To The Religious Right.
The Republican plan to demolish the National Endowment for the Arts goes like this: Slash next year’s budget by 40 percent, slash another 40 percent the following year and zero out the agency the year after that.
The numbers might change, but the intent is plain.
Last week, NEA Chairman Jane Alexander held several days of meetings with arts constituents in Los Angeles. The discussion of the NEA crisis had a familiar focus.
We heard, for the umpteenth time, about the importance of the federal arts agency in educating our children, bringing diverse communities together, expanding the American economy, sending a message of cultural sophistication to the international community.
We heard how the NEA touches lives in ways most Americans are wholly unaware of. We heard how an amount equivalent to the NEA’s annual $167 million budget is spent by the Pentagon every five hours.
Whatever one thinks of the merits of this litany, it is in fact beside the point. Let’s be clear about what’s actually going on.
The decimation of the NEA is a political bone that is being thrown to religious conservatives by the Republican majority in the 104th Congress. Period.
Serious debates over the wisdom or efficacy of cultural funding miss the mark. It’s political pay-back time for the November election. No more, no less.
Let’s put it in biblical terms. The NEA is the head of John the Baptist, which will be served on a golden platter to that seductive Salome, Pat Robertson and his Christian Coalition, whose Nov. 8 snake-dance so charmed Republican Herods in Congress that they are lining up to grant the ruinous wish.
Polls show that a clear majority of Americans want the NEA. But, religious conservatives are about to prevail.
Here’s one telltale sign that politics, not principle, is what’s at issue: Despite repeated requests from Alexander, Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has flatly refused to meet with her to discuss the agency’s fate.
The speaker of the House is snubbing the federal government’s chief liaison to a $3 billion industry - the non-profit arts industry - which generates $5.4 billion in taxes back to federal, state and local governments. Imagine that rebuff happening to another American industry of comparable size.
Whether or not the Christian Coalition can claim that kind of productivity, what Robertson and company provide is valuable in more telling ways. They produce religious conservatives in the voting booth, where last fall they helped put Republicans in the congressional driver’s seat for the first time in 40 years.
Some things are far more precious to politicians than securing the economic health of 1.3 million American workers, the number who toil in the non-profit arts field. Keeping power is one of them.
Getting still more power is another. The 1996 presidential race is now under way, and Republicans want the White House. Eager candidates for the nomination pretty much agree that the party’s extreme right wing will be necessary to its delivery. So they’re ready to deal, in order to keep the extremists happy.
Religious conservatives want a number of concessions from the 104th Congress, but certain of those will not be easy to grant. An end to a woman’s constitutionally protected right to choose abortion, for example, is presently beyond reach.
But the NEA? Piece o’ cake. That the cultural life of the nation can be casually consigned to the ash heap for reasons of political selfinterest says a lot about the values held by the new Republican majority.
If the dilemma the NEA now faces is purely political, why isn’t Chairman Alexander mounting a sophisticated political offensive as she travels the country? Why doesn’t she articulate what’s actually going on?
Simple. She can’t. The head of a federal agency is constrained by law from that sort of political call to arms. Alexander can only make a case for the significance of the NEA and the efficacy of its programs.
The public, of course, has no such constraints. (Not yet, at least.) So, repeat after me: The NEA is a political bone that is being thrown to religious conservatives by the Republican majority in the 104th Congress. Period.
xxxx For opposing view see Art vs. Politics byline Leonard Koscianski Por-Con Leonard Koscianski says the demise of the NEA would be the best thing for both the artists and the nation. But Christopher Knight says those seeking to kill the agency are only looking for a political payback for the November elections. Christopher Knight is the Los Angeles Times art critic.