When it comes to government funding of the arts, I support the Spanish Court option. Which is to say, I believe the federal government should lavishly fund the arts, but should also be able to determine content. The Congress could budget $ 10 million for a statue, but it would have to be Newt Gingrich on horseback; $ 2 million could go for a symphony, so long as it was a homage to the flat tax. The Rubens series on Marie de’ Medici in the Louvre captures the tone of abject sycophancy I’m looking for.
So I was happy to go to a lunch sponsored by the American Assembly to conspire against my fellow conservatives who seek to cut federal support for the arts. The American Assembly was founded by Dwight Eisenhower and Averell Harriman, and it remains a holdover from when the East Coast Establishment really was the establishment. Even today, trustees are drawn from the Great and the Good, mostly moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats: David Gergen, former congressman Bill Green, Jimmy Carter’s second U. N. rep., Donald McHenry. I knew this lunch was to be conducted by those deeply dedicated to public service because it was scheduled to run from noon until 4: 30.
We met at the Century Club, which is the most beautiful club in New York and probably the one with the worst food. The 25 of us were to serve as an advisory panel to determine whether the American Assembly should launch a project to examine “Future Support and Infra-structurefor the Arts.” I won’t keep you in suspense: The group decided it should.
In the middle of lunch my neighbor, former congressman John Brademas, handed me his six-page resume (Was it rude that I didn’t have one to hand him?), and I was reminded that there is an extensive network of organizations designed to bring eminent people together to offer sober reflections on the issues of the day. Brademas sits on the board of the Aspen Institute, the American Ditchley Foundation, the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, the Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, the National Endowment for Democracy, and the Rockefeller Foundation, among many others. He has been active with the Carnegie Endowment, the Trilateral Commission, the Spanish Institute, the U. S.-Japan Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and so on. Brademas leads the emeritus life.
But these organizations are more than just Rotary Clubs for people who used to run the world. They bring together important people, and the idea is that through their discussions some product will be produced that will have real influence. Oliver Stone and Pat Buchanan think they have clout. But do they?
Averell Harriman lived in an age of deference, when a tone of hortatory banality and a list of distinguished signatories were more likely to attract attention than repel it. Ours is a more populist time, and dominated by broadcast media. The Rev. Al Sharpton may have as much influence as a basketful of commission reports. For better or worse.
The other thing that has changed is the elite’s self-confidence. The American Assembly brought together an impressive group: the heads of many big museums and foundations and bright players from government agencies. But the discussion was laced with introspection and self-doubt, such as beset a religious denomination losing membership:
The arts audience is aging, individual giving is stagnant, foundation funding is increasingly constrained, the hordes in Congress want to cut off federal funding, and even Clinton’s budget reduces aid to the arts by a quarter.
Instead of marching off into battle, sure of their goals, many in the arts community seem to be perpetually retying their boots, making sure the lace arrangements pay proper deference to their various constituency groups. ” We’ve been out-lobbied and out-argued. We’ve been everything but out- philosophized,” one participant said. And the discussion itself was hopelessly elevated.
I was an affirmative action baby at the lunch, the conservative, and like many affirmative action babies, I didn’t deserve to be there. But maybe I should have raised my voice more to inform the group about the nature of their opposition. They’re so introspective, they seemed uninformed about conservatives and traffcked in stereotypes. Some saw conservatives as 50 million ayatollahs in a massive conspiracy organized by Paul Weyrich. Others thought they could win Republican support simply by getting a few rich businessmen in their corner — the David Rockefeller option.
Maybe as establishments decline they preserve their good manners but lose their arrogance and ruthlessness. If Marie de’ Medici had been at the Century Club, she would have figured out which among her Republican opponents could be bought off and which could be crushed. And she would have demanded a larger portion of chicken for lunch.
David Brooks
