As The Debate About The NEA Call Continues

...over at The American Scene, something occurred to me.

I largely agree with Conor. The introduction of politics into the phone call in even the slightest corrupts the process. It's not a matter of what they were asking artists to do, but that they were asking artists to do anything other than to submit grant proposals or pitches or whatever the process is for conducting the business of the NEA, which is funding art. Once you ask artists to do anything at all political, it further tarnishes an already problematic relationship. Unlike George Will, I don't think this was a result of "the Obama administration's incontinent lust to politicize everything."

The government staffers on that phone call were campaign staffers and political activists before they worked for the government. Campaigns, and especially the Obama campaign, always try to enlist artists to get their message out. For many of the lower level people working in the administration that got their jobs primarily because of their loyalty and work during the campaign, which would include these two, they probably didn't even realize what they were doing.

What I'm talking about here are the idealistic types who fill the special assistant to the deputy undersecretary of White House communication policy. These are true believer types. People who really believe that through politics they can make the world a tangibly better place. People who believe that their message should be broadcast as far and wide as possible. These relatively young adults have spent a good portion of their time mobilizing people and resources to get their message out and further their agenda. When they moved to government positions they kept performing the same job they had before -- campaigning and social activism.

This is a problem. I agree. Government employees have different responsibilities and roles than campaign staffers or social activists, but I don't think the people in this case probably ever considered that. They just do what they do. Trying to get the message out. That is what drives them. What gets them off. When they won the election, they just kept doing what they were doing without thinking much about what had changed.

So, yes. I think it was a conscious effort to use the NEA to further their political agenda. That's what these people do. But, and I think this is important, I don't think they knew they had crossed a line. I doubt they ever contemplated much how they should act differently while under Uncle Sam's employ. They just kept doing what they'd always done.

I guess my point here is that I don't believe that the Obama Administration has a explicit agenda to politicize everything, but that the type of people who were drawn to his campaign are the type that breathe politics. It's like asking a fish if he likes being in water. They don't even notice it.

Again, yes. There was a problem, but I can also understand how it was simultaneously intentional and unintentional and not a nefarious plot from the White House to politicize everything.