Cracking apart, cracking open

A periodic “what the hell is going on?” update on the federal government and the arts

Greek Tragedy mask, 4th cent. B.C., Archaeological Museum of Piraeus.Photo George E. Koronaios

The last nine months has seen a swift, shrill, sloppy autocratic bricking over of American democracy. That speed and sloppiness make for shoddy work driven by hubris, panic, delusion, or all three. We all know from Greek tragedies what hubris does – it brings about the downfall of the mighty.

This week: The Justice Department indicted the president’s perceived enemy, former FBI director James Comey. The president threatened to fire federal workers in response to the Congressional budget showdown (Russell Vought, the head of the Office of Management and Budget, was quoted last year saying he wanted to put career civil servants “in trauma”). ICE continues to target immigrants with no criminal records, tearing families apart. And Saturday, the president said he’d send troops to “War ravaged Portland.” The horrors fly so fast and furious, it’s impossible to keep up.

The arts, the exemplar of freedom of expression, are a prominent target. First the federal government yanked federal grants. Then the White House launched a review of the Smithsonian Institution’s collection and programming. Now it has leveled a full-on assault on the First Amendment.

Photo Ed Uthman. Courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Nevertheless, artists persist, and the fight continues in court and on the street. On Sept. 19, the Trump administration’s executive order banning “gender ideology” in the NEA’s grant review process was struck down in court. Last Sunday, anonymous artists installed “The Secret Handshake,” a bronze, life-sized statue of Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein frolicking hand in hand, on the National Mall. They secured a legal permit to do it. By Wednesday morning it was gone–apparently torn down and destroyed by the National Park Service.

But the authoritarian brick wall is being slapped up mostly by builders who don’t know what they’re doing. Everyone who takes a stand puts a chink in it. Angry Jimmy Kimmel fans, for instance. In response to fierce public pushback, Disney reinstated Kimmel on ABC Tuesday night after pulling him off the air in response to threats from FCC commissioner Brendan Carr. More than 400 entertainment artists signed a petition organized by the ACLU in support of Kimmel. Consumers pulled the plug on Disney+ and Hulu. On social media, Disney ex-CEO Michael Eisner called his old employer on the carpet.

“Disney was evidently completely unprepared for the backlash caused by its decision to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air, a backlash so costly that the company reversed course after just five days,” economist Paul Krugman wrote on Substack last week.

And: “[T]he fact is that Trump has not yet locked in his autocracy. Timid institutions are failing to understand not only how unpopular Trump is, but also how severe a backlash they are likely to face for surrendering without a fight.”

Artists and consumers give Disney what for. An image from Steamboat Willie (1928). Walt Disney, public domain, via Wikimedia Commonstion

Carr, the querulous FCC head, said he will continue to assail media outlets he perceives as having a liberal bias. But as the ugliness gets uglier, as the President grows ever more defiant, ludicrous, and rambling – is Krugman right?