Jane Alexander announced last week that she would be resigning from the chairmanship of the National Endowment for the Arts, having successfully stared down congressional Republicans and other critics of the federal arts agency. The following day, Alexander vented her true feelings to the New York Times and revealed the astonishing damage wrought by the Republican campaign against the NEA.
"Ms. Alexander," the Times reported, "said that the persistent assault by conservatives had a chilling effect on the willingness of arts groups to apply for Federal aid. 'What has happened is that the applicants themselves are not sending in proposals for provocative work because they want to get funded,' she said.
"Ms. Alexander said artists were 'very astute' and so were now seeking support for controversial work elsewhere."
Ah, the depths of the liberal imagination. The "danger" of the anti-NEA campaign, one supposed, was that "provocative" art (or what passes for it) would not be created. Now we see the true horror: It might be created but without federal funding.
That is indeed intolerable.