No one will ever confuse the affluent and appointed traditional patrons of the Kennedy Center in Washington DC with the typical voter in any state – purple or otherwise, nor confuse penultimate Washington-Society-Insider Sally Quinn with regular Joe Q. Public, and yet the fallout from the Trump administration’s takeover of the Kennedy Center and what it means going forward is worth watching both for the pragmatic impact on a national treasure – the Center itself, but also whether it comes to symbolize the limit or results of purely political reach. American voters sent President Donald Trump back to the White House to fix rising prices and the border (According to nearly every poll), to the extent that the typical voter thought about “DEI” – the limits were likely already envisioned as those Disney allowed. No one asked Trump to fix things few saw as broken – performing arts in Washington being just one.
But if there is a true north in this administration it is that Trump wants to do things his way or no way, broken or not, and believes he has both the power and mandate. The Kennedy Center might be seen as a dizzy canary for our purposes in that the overreach is obvious, the pushback immediate, and the future unknown.
For whatever else we have been able to accomplish as a nation, we have been pretty good about keeping some matters apolitical, whether it’s one’s church, sports team, or entertainment. The Smithsonian is not red or blue, it’s wrapped in the flag of national pride. Free school lunches are not Republican or Democratic lunches – they’re American because that’s who we are. Somewhere just a tad under those ideals comes the Kennedy Center, the new upstart competing with opera houses and symphonies around the world, and doing it very well. From its inception in the 1970s to now, it has been a source of national pride without regard to the party in power – no one thought to bring that agenda. The ideal is that arts, like science, education, and faith – inform politics, not the other way around. But all of the ideals above can be put at risk if the consequences of political overkill are ignored.
Sally Quinn – wife of the late Washington Post Editor Ben Bradlee, has seen administrations come and go. The Guardian quotes Quinn as starkly setting out a new reality in Washington – politics as the only thing that matters, even when it comes at catastrophic costs with regard to venerable institutions like the Kennedy Center:
“They’re being very imaginative in their atrocities. They trashed the Kennedy Center and threw everybody out and put Laura Ingraham on the board. The Kennedy Center has been so much a part of the city for so long and suddenly it’s gone.
“They’ve lost in the first couple of weeks 50% of their ticket sales. They’re not getting the donations they used to get. All kinds of acts are cancelling and people I know say they won’t ever set foot in that place.”
Yes, yes. A lot of this can be seen as classic elitism crying about a toy taken away except in this her point goes to a political fix for something that hadn’t been political or needing to be fixed. If this is what happens to the Kennedy Center, what happens to the Smithsonian? Much more importantly, what about school lunch? It feels as though the administration extended its control over the Kennedy Center because “it could” and did so without regard to the fact that doing so might ruin the very thing it claimed. There is an old Sun Tzu quote there somewhere.
“It is a one industry town, and basically what they’re doing is destroying the government, which is what Trump said he would do. Even Trump supporters are stunned. I know from some of my friends on the Hill that Republican senators and congressmen are freaking out, too, because they’re hearing from their constituents.”
Yes, he promised to “destroy the government” – in a sense. There is the government we all see on television, Congress, the EPA, the FDA, etc. And then there is the government we don’t see until we need them, the person who picks up the phone at Social Security, the local school administrator that bills a federal fund for the cafeteria’s food, the VA hospital. No one asked anyone to touch that part of the government that everyone expected to simply “work.” Going even further, there’s still another level – government that few even consider government, the air traffic controllers, the park rangers – the Kennedy Center. Yet there it is – the Trump administration extending its control through every corner, not because it’s needed or wanted, apparently only because it can.
Will the country suffer if the Kennedy Center never again rises to its apolitical perch? A little but it won’t be noticed by many. Almost none of us have lunch with Sally Quinn. Will things get much worse if the lessons taken from the Kennedy Center aren’t learned and heeded? Now that’s something. Because, again – this wasn’t the assignment. Yes, one-quarter of the country will support anything and everything that Donald Trump does, thus it has become the assignment. That leaves 75% of the nation wondering what is going on and why even seemingly the most basic expectations – air traffic control and the Kennedy Center Awards, needed interruption all in the name of raw power.
There are some countries around the world in which fewer than one quarter rule for their own purposes but they’re not very good countries, never mind not the United States. And no one will ever confuse Sally Quinn and her set as “most of us.” But she is pointing to something more tangible, more immediate, while also more visceral. Unlike the latest DOGE move that is the subject of a judicial restraining order, this one doesn’t feel so easily reversed, as though once it is touched as a political play it’s tough to get the original feel back. Tough to tell.
It is a lesson, though – one with near-immediate consequences going into the future. Someone in the administration might want to tuck it away as such to pull out again to re-examine later on during the term, perhaps some time in the next 90 days?
God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] and on twitter-X at @JasonMiciak, and follow now on Bluesky.
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I agree this out of the pale, but consistent with anything else he does. I suspect it’s a control thing with him. He cannot tolerate any dissenting voices or even non-conforming ones. This, like everything else, might be permanently changed. It will be a defining moment, whether the majority of this country stand up for their democracy or not.
They’re rapidly going to run out of golden egg laying geese to kill.
For what?
A brief banquet, and no more gold.
Spot on: Trumpler cannot tolerate dissent, his ego’s too huge and too fragile for that kind of abuse. And I suspect there’s another lurking motivation with the Kennedy Centre hatchet job; the elite who make up its clientel and its management despise Trump and he knows it. So what better lark for him than to take it over and infest it with the scum he so adores? Of course he’ll ruin it, that’s exactly the plan.
While in the Marines I got stationed in the DC area and wound up staying almost twenty years before dropping out of the beltway rat-race. I was just another average person living and working (at least trying to do it in that order) and when it came to the Kennedy Center I sure wished I could afford to go far more often than I did. Yet like countless “regular folks” I did attend some events and shows there that were quite affordable. One would be surprised at the value so trust me when I say it wasn’t a place only for elites. Yes, tickets for major symphony concerts or an opera were tough to get and expensive so that was a “few and far between” thing for me. However in addition to growing up as a jock I also grew up taking part in the performing arts and minored in music in college. Even was part of the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theater. Yes, like a dream vacation (say to Hawaii) for regular folks like us, whether living in DC or visiting attending one of the “ritzy” events like opera or symphony was a once in a blue moon thing even regular folks were part of the mix.
It saddens me to see the reputation degraded, and how tack the place will become as Team Trump redecorates it to suit MAGA goobers. Perhaps one day Trump and his folks will be purged and the Kennedy Center can be restored but I fear it may not be. If one is part of the patron class, I’d think they’d be careful about shelling out big money to fix the place back up, and offer the kind of money that would bring back the level of artists that once graced the stages and exhibit areas. Not if every four years another Trump could come in and trash the place again.
They need to make places off-limits for Presidents to interfere with as President. None of them should take it over just because; they should strengthen or change every law Trump has broken. He doesn’t care he wants to tear down everything in the US b4 he leaves one way or another..
Who exactly are “THEY”??? That’s the big issue here that, IMHO, is moving as slow as molasses, even though such a huge percentage of our country wants whatever heinous acts he is committing stopped RIGHT. NOW. I also think that this issue is one that terrifies as much as what’s actually happening quick as a freight train: where are THEY and why aren’t THEY doing anything to stop this insane train wreck 😳🤦♀️🤷♀️
It will rise again. If I could choose someone to reopen it, it would be Springsteen. He may hate Donnie even more thann we do.
There was something I saw in a forum sometime between now and 2016 that stuck with me and I’ve used it from time to time, this feels like one of those times. “Republicans ruin everything they touch.” In the age of DJT, this has become a maxim.
Pretty much lost me in the first paragraph with the incorrect usage of “penultimate”. Probably want to look up the big words before you use them.
And your point?
Was I wrong?
jason
“Free school lunches are not Republican or Democratic lunches – ”
Actually they are Democratic lunches, because it’s republicans who keep taking the food out of hungry children’s mouths every chance they get.
The question is who will be the first concert act booked at the direction of Kennedy Center Chairman Trump, Kid Rock or Ted Nugent?