Do conservatives in fact care about art?
I don’t really like talking about the arts in these terms. To me the arts are apolitical. I don’t think that someone with conservative eyes would see art any differently than anyone else. The arts deserve to be depoliticized. That’s the wonderful thing about the arts that so many people are trying to rob them of. The arts really do float above those kinds of debates. Your history of the NEA is especially fascinating. I was surprised to learn that it was under Richard Nixon that its budget expanded dramatically. That’s right. The agency essentially started in 1967. In 1969 the budget was $8.5 million. By 1974 it was more than $64 million. I take it that the agency hasn’t grown more efficient over time in its use of its money. In 1967, they were giving away $16 in grant money for every administrative dollar they spent. By 1996, they were giving away $4 in grants for every administrative dollar. You plant a bureaucracy, you water it, it’s well fed and it blooms. But it doesn’t bloom in a
Related Questions
- Why do conservatives say they favor virtue and community but in fact favor laissez-faire capitalism? Doesn laissez-faire capitalism promote the opposite?
- Could it end up being, in fact, a sort of state of the art meat processing plant, or…?
- Is it a fact that art expo india mumbai is going to be held on 25th sept 2009?
