Source: Cato Institute
by Ryan Bourne
“Last week in the New York Times, Emory professor Mark Bauerlein made a surprising pitch to President Trump: don’t kill the National Endowments for Humanities and the Arts — hijack them. Bauerlein argues that, rather than axing these bureaucracies that advance left-wing cultural activity, conservatives should seize their grantmaking abilities to instead champion MAGA‑friendly canon. Bauerlein admits the agencies’ budgets tilt progressive, but thinks eliminating them would miss an opportunity for conservatives to advance in the culture war. … This impulse is a prime example of how public funding for art inevitably ends up politicizing it.” (04/18/25)