From now on, when people ask me "Bob, how come a guy like you who calls himself something close to a libertarian is so dismayed by the rise of the Tea Party and the not-unrelated return of Republicans to power in the U.S.Senate?"; THIS is my answer.
I anxiously await the explanation of how getting rid a video-piece from 1987 that's been hanging without incident in the National Gallery since October became a vital component of improving the economy, or stimulating jobs, or whatever it's being called this time...
Incidentally, I'm sure someone is champing at the bit to dress me down about how this is "about" wasteful government funding of the arts, NEA, NPR, etc. Please save your breath. Whether or not The State should be funding creative works is a cute little freshman year poly-sci debate topic, but here in the real world we know there will ALWAYS be some level of state-funded art/media. It's always existed, it always WILL exist, pretending otherwise is right up there with privatized-sidewalks in the realm of psuedo-Objectivist fantasies that will never come true. Deal with it.
This isn't about art-funding, it's about the mask dropping sooner than expected on the "New" American Right. For over a year now people have been proclaiming that the "new" conservative-uprising was about taxes, spending, government-size, etc. It's NOT about religious-idiocy this time. It's NOT about God Guns n' Gays this time. It's NOT about fetuses and family-values this time. It's NOT just the Angry White Men again. It's NOT just the same backward-looking superstitious anachronistic flat-earther creationist anti-intellectualists as before sneaking back in with a fresh coat of paint.
Yes it is.
Welcome back to the Bad Old Days. Can't wait to see what The Faithful will get up to next...
No comments:
Post a Comment