A Missouri Republican wants to rename the once-iconic Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after Donald Trump, and lest anyone think that there’s any sense of judgment or taste inevitably coming in to stop this movement, recall that Trump has managed to wrestle control of the center in practically appointing himself as Chairman of the Board of Trustees, thrusting out many of the non-political appointees that made the center one of the envies of the world. Now, having gone through just so much awful political back and forth, one almost wants to say “Whatever, the place has basically been destroyed already… ” Sadly, it may be true. Still, that doesn’t mean that Congress should just roll over and allow the current president, who specializes in putting his name on everything, to replace another former president in renaming the Center.
We have a report from The Hill:
A House Republican’s bill would strip former President Kennedy’s name from the Washington institution created in the 35th commander in chief’s honor and instead have it known as the “Trump Center for the Performing Arts.”
Dubbing the bill the Make Entertainment Great Again (MEGA) Act, Rep. Bob Onder said, “I cannot think of a more ubiquitous symbol of American exceptionalism in the arts, entertainment, and popular culture at large than President Trump.”
House Republicans on the Appropriations Committee approved an amendment earlier this month that would rename a space inside the Kennedy Center — the prominent Washington arts hub’s famed opera house — the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.”
Just how is it that Donald Trump has made a single contribution to the American arts? Is it through being “ubiquitous” to begin with? Why not rename “Reagan National” after Donald Trump? Why not name the Mall after Trump? What about the Capitol itself? What is keeping them from doing it? A normal president would run from any attempt to put his or her name on such an iconic scene, not this one – nothing is too gaudy, bawdy, ugly, nothing.
The Kennedy Center opened its doors to the public in 1971. It describes its namesake Kennedy on its website as a “lifelong supporter and advocate of the arts” who “frequently steered the public discourse toward what he called ‘our contribution to the human spirit.’” According to the institution, two months after Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, “Congress passed and President Johnson signed into law legislation renaming the National Cultural Center… as a ‘living memorial’ to Kennedy.”
Nowhere in the Act is there a place that says that the living memorial should be overtaken by a narcissistic political opportunist like Trump. Indeed, the whole reason we have living memorials is that people die or fall away, but their spirit or soul is encapsulated in the monument itself – like the Kennedy Center.
But Trump does know what will happen if they rename the Center after him – a naked political grab as ugly as they come. Trump understands that it would “break” the Center itself, at least as an institution that stood apart from politics – it belonged to the country. And that’s precisely why he will go forward with this, just as he has in the past, despite himself, breaking this “thing” that belongs to the people whose acceptance he craves, the Manhattanites, the liberals, the Obamas, the Kennedy Center patrons, the “establishment” that he dearly wishes loved him, and – when rejected, as he is now, he will simply break it so that no one can have it. Do not think for a minute that he won’t happily sign on the bottom line of “the Trump Center,” knowing full well that he just destroyed whatever “elan” the center might have had. Better that no one has it, he thinks.
That’s what Trump does. He offers himself up to everyone as dear leader and bestows all kinds of gifts on those who pledge undying loyalty, then he goes about breaking everything and everyone that doesn’t accept him, whether it is Democrats, the Capitol, the Kennedy Center, or the nation. If he can’t have it, neither can you.
That’s how this will go down. And a big part of you wants to just toss it all off as inevitable, no longer caring. But we should fight anyway, the fight is worthwhile, even if doomed. The fight itself lives on even after we die. Oppose this with the same level of opposition you hold for concentration camps. In the end, it is the same exact fight.
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how about We The People Performing Arts Center
Phuck it…we all know, Kennedy deserved the honor, while this fake pissant deserves prison. What the hell…let him go ahead and change every goddamn thing to his evil phucking name. Instead of the United States of America…let’s go with the Temple of Trump! Someday, as we’ve been shrink wrapped, strapped to a table, like Dexter’s victims, maybe we’ll finally start getting our priorities straight, and start honoring the truth, and not tolerate liars, much less giving them the keys to our mutual destruction. One can choose to believe in miracles.
I often have found myself on my knees with no other place to go. Abraham Lincoln…me too President Lincoln. me too.
If successful, watch him try and get royalties for using his stupid name.