Sunday, February 08, 2009

How to Kill the Arts

Tonight on the Grammy's I heard one of the worst ideas ever: the proposal that Obama create a Secretary of the Arts. If your goal is for the federal government to do for the arts what it did for education by creating that cabinet position, then by all means, create it. Practically destroy the arts in the U.S. Turn the arts in the U.S. from one of the best overall to one of the worst. Great idea.

And let's assume the best (from the liberal perspective), that Obama appoints someone who will support the arts as they want it supported. Are they so short-sighted as to not understand that Republicans do on occasion win the WHite House, and that it will be a Republican, likely a social conservative, in there at some point in the future? Who wants Pat Buchanan Secretary of the Arts? Could happen, to have someone like him. This is aside from the fact that the Left will want to have someone in there who supports political correctness.

And when government supports something, private donations go down. And, again, imagine having an administration who doesn't think the arts are important at all. Funding goes out the window, and the private funds are no longer there.

Such a cabinet position could well destroy the arts in the U.S. And right when the arts seem poised to be the next big element of the economy (if the dominance of the arts in the press, including this Sunday's Dallas Morning News is any indication).

We need to start a letter writing campaign to nip this idea in the bud right now.

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